Issue - meetings

With reference to presentation slides included within the Committee’s agenda, the Strategy and Communications Manager provide an update on changes to the Council’s governance of its project and programme management (PPM).  He began by summarising the PPM governance issues identified prior to the changes: including, the absence of mandates, stage gates, robust business cases, and an audit trail of decision-making, a want of standardised methodologies; and a lack of strategic context, direction, and consensus.  The Strategy and Communications Manager advised the Committee of the new processes and products introduced to improve PPM at the Council and the benefits desired.  In addition, the Committee was advised of the next steps to improve PPM, such as the mapping of capacity and resources towards the Council’s priorities, and the development and implementation of more transparent reporting arrangements.

The Strategy and Communications Manager concluded his presentation by offering to provide further and more detailed explanations of the PPM products to Councillors in small workshops.

In reply to a question from the Chair, the meeting was advised that the Lead Councillor responsible for the PPM changes was the Leader of the Councillor and Lead Councillor for Customer Service and that he had been unable to attend the meeting.

A member of the Committee noted the merit in a simplified system to manage large numbers of projects and the importance of timely information, before requesting a briefing for Councillors on the details of the PPM changes. 

A member of the Committee welcomed the PPM changes and suggested that the improvements presented to the meeting appeared to be standard PPM.  She asked for information about the reporting tool the Council would be using and was advised that an evaluation of the various options had been undertaken.  The Strategy and Communications Manager suggested the value in a demonstration to Councillors of the chosen reporting system.  In response to a further question, the Strategy and Communications Manager indicated that the Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) system was being trialled in Corporate Programmes until March 2022 before it was applied to other programmes across the Council.  In reply to a Committee member, the Strategy and Communications Manager agreed the merit in organising drop-ins for Councillors to find out more about the EPM tools. 

A member of the Committee indicated the importance of project closure and post-project evaluation stages.  She alluded to the disadvantages of a person self-assessing their own project work and the need for the lessons learned report and the post-project evaluation to be written by someone unconnected to the project. 

RESOLVED:  (I)  That the Executive be requested to ensure that in relation to the closure and evaluation stages of Council projects the author of both the lessons learned report and the post-project evaluation be someone unconnected to the project.

(II)  That further training and information on the Council’s project and programme management be organised for Councillors.