UK-Governance · Making transformation deliverable
Project Development & Management Authority
The proposed Project Development & Management Authority—PDMA—would provide the permanent engineering, commercial and project-management capability needed to turn approved national objectives into completed transformation projects.
Why a new approach is needed
Government departments must keep essential services operating every day. At the same time, they are expected to develop and manage complex projects extending across departments, technologies, suppliers and successive governments. These are different functions requiring different organisations, skills and disciplines.
Major projects too often begin before the objectives, alternatives, risks, whole-life costs and delivery arrangements have been established adequately. Ministers and senior officials move posts; knowledge is dispersed; responsibilities become unclear; and expenditure continues even when the original case has changed.
The PDMA would separate the specialist task of developing and delivering transformation from the routine operation of government. Departments would remain responsible for their services and would define the outcomes required. The PDMA would provide the disciplined means of testing proposals and delivering those approved.
The PDMA’s role
Develop the evidence
Define the problem, establish the baseline and identify the outcomes against which success will be measured.
Examine alternatives
Compare credible options using engineering analysis and multi-criteria decision-making, including cost, risk, feasibility and public benefit.
Act as the intelligent client
Maintain sufficient technical and commercial expertise to challenge suppliers, protect the public interest and avoid surrendering control of projects to contractors.
Prepare deliverable projects
Set scope, interfaces, procurement strategy, whole-life cost, funding requirements, responsibilities and realistic milestones before commitment.
Manage approved delivery
Appoint accountable project leadership, retain essential knowledge and manage work across departmental boundaries and political terms.
Report performance openly
Publish progress against cost, time, outcomes and risk, together with changes to the approved case and the reasons for them.
From proposal to completed project
Need
Establish the problem, evidence and required national outcome.
Options
Develop alternatives and expose assumptions, dependencies and risks.
Decision
Compare the options, confirm affordability and obtain the required authority.
Delivery
Procure and manage the work through named, accountable leadership.
Benefits
Verify completion and measure whether the promised outcomes were achieved.
Clear responsibility
| Participant | Principal responsibility |
|---|---|
| Public and Parliament | Provide democratic authority for major national commitments and scrutinise performance. |
| Government and ministers | Set policy, propose priorities and remain answerable for the decisions taken. |
| Departments | Operate services, identify needs, specify required outcomes and accept completed capabilities. |
| PDMA | Develop options, test deliverability, act as intelligent client and manage approved transformation projects. |
| HM Treasury | Test affordability and provide funding consistent with Mission-Focused Budgeting. |
| Independent scrutiny | Audit evidence, expenditure, delivery performance and claimed benefits. |
Authority with safeguards
The PDMA must not become another layer of administration or an authority able to select its own national policy. Its powers would be confined to developing and delivering projects that have received the required political, financial and—where appropriate—public approval.
Its charter would require published decision records, named responsibility, independent technical and financial review, management of conflicts of interest, control of changes to scope and transparent reporting when a project is failing. Projects should be stopped, redesigned or reauthorised when their evidence or circumstances change materially.
How the PDMA would be established
A detailed institutional design has still to be completed. The first engineering study will compare the available models, including strengthening and restructuring existing government project functions or creating a new statutory authority. It will define governance, powers, staffing, cost, transition arrangements and its relationship with departments, Parliament and the proposed Minister for Transformation.