The money’s running out
I’m just finishing a piece of research for the Cabinet Office looking at the case for portfolio management. One theme I noted was that implementation of portfolio management usually seems to be driven by an external stimulus – the failure to re-appoint the Director-General on the programme I worked on; the legal requirement of the Clinger-Cohen Act in the US government; or the bombing of Manchester by the IRA which led to a significant increase in project activity that needed to be managed. What was largely missing (with a few notable exceptions) were cases where adoption of Portfolio Management was driven by a belief that it’s the right thing to do. It now looks like our moving into more fiscally constrained times may be about to provide a more wide-ranging stimulus to the adoption of portfolio management. I’ve just finished reading a report that examines government department’s capability across a range of performance areas and noted that one of the biggest challenges for departments was stated to be: “Prioritisation. When asked what would make the most difference to enabling change to happen, the most common factor identified by the SCS[1] was ‘clear objectives’ – ‘real prioritization: deciding what the key changes are and really following them through’ and ‘clear communication…about goals and mechanisms for getting there, and being very clear about individual roles.’ Factors hindering change included ‘too many competing priorities’ and ‘lack of common objectives and prioritization.’ There is a widespread perception within departments that leaders are not setting priorities effectively enough, and this links back to the challenge of developing strategies that are both deliverable and delivered.” The money is running out – and if that provides a stimulus to a more active and widespread approach to ensuring we ‘do the right’ projects as well as ‘doing them right’, then I am one tax payer who is delighted. Steve Jenner is a Director with the UK Ministry of Justice. He is currently on secondment to the Cabinet Office to help develop and promote portfolio management pan-government.
[1] The Senior Civil Service