Programme and project management review for elected members

The project issues
The Council had recently brought its ICT function in-house, developed a Project Management Framework and established an ICT Scrutiny Panel to review ICT performance. The Scrutiny Panel wanted to ensure that the Council’s ICT programme and project management processes were comparable to local authority best practice. Socitm Consulting was asked to review the management of selected projects and make recommendations for improvement.

The Socitm Consulting solution
The review focused on four projects: e-Planning, e-Care, CRM implementation and Insourcing. We reviewed the documentation, including the overarching Project Management Framework and individual project plans, budgets, minutes, agendas and reports submitted to the Project Board. We also interviewed Project Managers and senior users.

We then produced five separate reports, one for each project and a summary of generic findings across all the projects reviewed. We concluded that the Council’s Project Management Framework was comprehensive and systematically utilised and we placed the Council’s Project Management methodology and performance within the top ten percent of local authorities. We recommended that the Council include post-implementation reviews 12 months after project closure as part of their review process to identify benefits realisation as well as formalising the budget monitoring process.

The report was formally presented to the ICT Scrutiny Panel and the recommendations were accepted for implementation.

The benefits to the client
By providing an independent evaluation of the Council’s ICT project management processes, we were able to reassure elected Members that the Council’s project management methodology and project delivery are of the highest quality. The Committee Members were enthusiastic about our recommendation to include benefits realisation as part of their project review process, enabling further improvements in the ICT function and delivery of customer services.

Project identification
Client organisation: London Borough of Haringey
Client contact: Tim Dauncey, Interim Director of Corporate Resources, 0208 489 2683, tim.dauncey@haringey.gov.uk 
Lead consultant: martin.green@socitmconsulting.co.uk
Project no: 6099