Civil service reform plan aims to sharpen IT project accountability

The government has promised a sharpening of accountability for major projects, including those related to IT, in a planned shake-up of the civil service. The civil service reform plan promises earlier scrutiny of high risk projects with the Major Projects Authority (MPA) meeting departments' secretary of state, permanent secretary and lead non executive director, regularly to discuss progress. There is an expectation that big, high risk projects will face challenges from departmental boards early in the project process to review plans and offer risk management advice. Government departments that currently report quarterly to the MPA on project progress on 'critical indicators' will now find that analysis of the reports and recommendations will be shared with departmental boards that will take ownership of critical issues. The reform plan suggests that the government is considering how to drive better progress in project delivery through more transparent reporting on the progress and state of major projects and programmes. An initial annual report on the first full year's operation of the MPA will be published by the end of July. The Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) is also being lined up to train senior leaders responsible for major projects with only those who have successfully completed an 'intensive development programme' being able to lead a major government project. The reform plans says the MPLA will "drive a better understanding of the role of leadership, technical delivery skills and commercial capability in delivery of major projects, building the project management community across government". Another important development is an intention to significantly reduce the turnover of senior responsible owners of projects who too often leave halfway through, frequently causing delay and instability and disrupting effective implementation. Throughout the remainder of 2012, the MPA plans to work with departments to ensure that there is better 'systematic' planning and clarity of roles, linking the post to milestones or key deliverables and retaining key staff during critical phases on project delivery. From an IT perspective, the reform plans foresees the upgrading of IT systems across government departments to ensure they support more flexible and efficient working. New IT equipment, with good enough IT security, will also enable civil service staff to be able to work from home in future. The move has been spurred by the impact of the London 2012 Olympic Games which has proved to be a catalyst in driving the introduction of more flexible ways of working to provide a "lasting change in the working culture of the civil service". One of the other plans being considered is a pilot of a very simple IT device to allow more people to work from home without the need to invest in expesnive security enabled laptops. The government says it hopes this will "empower" a mobile and diverse workforce. Commenting on the plans, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, said: "Most civil servants are dedicated and hard working, but like all organisations the civil service needs to address long-standing weaknesses and build on existing strengths. Taken together, and properly implemented, these actions will deliver real change and are the first stage in a programme of practical actions for reform. "To succeed in the future we need a civil service that is faster, more flexible and more innovative - better able to deliver this government's ambitious programmes of reforms to the public services on which we all rely." This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Guardian Government Computing network here .