4.9 The SRO has overall accountability to Parliament for ensuring a programme meets its objectives and delivers projected benefits. SROs oversee governance of the programme and are responsible for steering it through the various key decision points, assisted by a delivery team, led by the programme director (PD) and programme manager (PM). Day-to-day management of the supplier rests with the delivery agents, most commonly DE&S, which commits to deliver to the SRO the elements of the programme for which they are responsible as set out in the business case, such as physical or digital assets.
4.10 Our analysis of 19 of the 20 programmes we examined showed that, as at March 2021, the median time in post for an SRO was 22 months and SROs were typically expected to spend 25% of their time on the programme.30 PDs had, on average, been in post for 15 months and spent 60% of their time on the role. The median PM had been in post for 13 months, and most are full-time. Separately, project managers within DE&S had been in post for 24 months. The tenures of the key officials contrast with the median running time of 77 months for the programmes we examined. This rate of turnover reflects the career path requirements of the armed forces, of which most postholders are members. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) commented during a 2018 review that many programmes had suffered through the career development of individuals being put before success of a major programme.
4.11 In 2020, the Department's Project Delivery Centre of Excellence carried out a survey of 66 defence SROs as part of a review of the challenges SROs face. Of those who responded, 72% said they do not feel empowered to make decisions about their programme's funding, and 46% do not feel empowered to make decisions about scope. Some were uncertain about the relative responsibilities of the delivery team, delivery agents and other stakeholders. Moreover, SROs reported that they felt least confident in areas important to supplier management such as conflict resolution, collaboration and influencing. These are areas which are important in building and maintaining effective relationships with suppliers and other stakeholders. The review also identified that there had been a high turnover of SROs in some major programmes, and that time devoted to each defence programme was on average lower than in other government departments. Further work identified a lack of career management for SROs within the military appointments process. Despite the IPA's expectation that departments should support professional capability training, some SROs had difficulty accessing the Major Projects Leadership Academy courses underpinning preparation for the role.
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30 The Department ceased reporting on the Warrior vehicle upgrade programme following its cancellation (see Figure 8). This programme was therefore not included in this analysis.