Civil servants who assume responsibility for public
sector IT-enabled projects see their role as a poisoned chalice,
says the Office of Government Commerce in a report published
today.
The bulletin
"Lessons Learned - The SRO Role in Major Government Programmes
" focuses on the role of the senior responsible owner. The
senior responsible owner (SRO) is usually the project's business
owner and the person held accountable if a project fails.
MPs on the Public Accounts Committee have been highly critical
in the past of SROs of troubled projects. In May the committee
criticised the appointment of the SRO of the troubled
£513m C-Nomis project to install new IT in prisons. The SRO had
not run an IT project before.
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which runs the
gateway
review scheme, says the role of SRO can be solitary and the
difficulties of the task may not be appreciated by the SRO's
sponsoring group which, on the largest projects, is usually the
organisation's management board.
The OGC says: "This lack of appreciation and engagement by the
SRO's corporate management can contribute to a feeling among some
SROs that the role is something of a poisoned chalice. SROs can
easily fail, to the potential detriment of their careers, whereas
success is not widely recognised."
The OGC says departments should incorporate performance in the
SRO role in individual performance targets. The SRO should have the
appropriate skill set, says the OGC.
One of the difficulties faced by some SROs is that ministers set
policy, which often cannot be changed afterwards.The OGC says some
SROs are unable to affect the original policy development they are
required to deliver.
Lack of time and experience
More than half of SROs are in their first SRO role and nearly
half spend less than 20% of their time on such duties. "Lack of
relevant experience, combined with a regular turnover of
post-holders, adds unnecessary risk to the management of IT-enabled
change," says the OGC.
One example of a large project which has a part-time overall SRO
is the NHS's £12.7bn National Programme for IT.
The lead NPfIT SRO is David Nicholson (pictured), who is also
chief executive of the NHS.
The OGC says that some SROs allocate only a small percentage of
their time to the programme, relying more directly on a full-time
programme director.
High turnover
One of the major concerns of the Public Accounts Committee, the
National Audit Office and the OGC is that SROs on big projects
change regularly. They stay in a post for about 18 months but most
projects last at least two years. The NPfIT, which dates back to
2002, has had several SROs.
"There is a clear correlation between between continuity of SRO
and high delivery confidence of projects, so high turnover
represents a serious threat to the success of projects," says the
OGC.
Read more about the role of SROs:
Senior Responsible Owner - a good idea subverted - IT Projects
blog >>
OGC report - Lessons Learned - The SRO Role in Major Government
Programmes >>