Ensure that a programme's scope clearly aligns with its strategic objectives
12 HM Treasury guidance requires departments to establish a strategic case for a programme at each key decision point. The strategic case should justify the investment in a programme, setting out its strategic rationale, objectives - and how the programme will meet them. However, despite setting out a strategic case, we often see bodies struggle from the start to maintain a clear focus on a programme's objectives and how a programme's scope aligns with them. Government major programmes are likely to have multiple objectives, sometimes involving more than one department, and we see cases where objectives are neither necessarily coherent when taken together, nor clearly prioritised when tensions emerge between them.
13 Having a clear scope that aligns with objectives is critical for the future success of a programme. In the early stages, it enables the government to make good decisions about what is the right programme to deliver the intended impact, and then how to focus its resources and plan it.
Figure 3 Infrastructure and Projects Authority representation of the lifecycle of major projects and programmes, from concept to operation | |
HM Treasury business cases (set out in the Green Book) |
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Gates/decision points | |
Project stages
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Example activities |
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Source: Infrastructure and Projects Authority |
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14 Being clear about how a programme's scope meets its objectives is also vital for decision-making throughout a programme. The long-term nature of government programmes, and additional requirements emerging as a programme develops - as a result of the external environment or emerging technologies - mean that changes to a programme's scope are highly likely. We see cases where there are shifts in a programme's objectives or scope, but bodies do not take a planned approach to assessing how such changes affect value for money or the original aim of the programme. It is therefore difficult for bodies to prioritise potential trade-offs. For example, the Government is currently considering which objectives to prioritise for the roll-out of gigabit-capable broadband. In our recent report, Improving broadband we found that prioritising the speed of programme delivery over other objectives posed a risk to value for money.3
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3 Comptroller and Auditor General, Improving broadband, National Audit Office, HC 863, Session 2019–2021, October 2020.