Why do large government projects always seem to overrun? Surely the law of averages should mean that some of them will deliver on time? The only logical explanation is systemic failure in the way such projects are planned and executed...

The Scottish Parliament Building; The CSA's new computer system and (lest you think I'm just out to bash the public sector this week) the new Wembley Stadium. All recent examples of much talked-about expensive late deliveries. When high profile projects of this nature are conceived - surely the very best project managers are sought, people with the skills both to plan and deliver such complex programmes of work? If this is the case - what can explain the unusually high rate of poor achievement whenever the project is in the public eye.

I believe that the crux of the matter is the motivation of the people running the show. And the first and foremost priority is, of course: don't do anything, or take any decision for which you may one day be blamed. This manifests itself in a number of ways:

Firstly it means that the chosen contractors are always the "safe" option. Note that "safe" in this context does not mean "has a good track record of on time delivery". Rather it means big. This is the mentality that held sway in the 1970s when it was commonly said that nobody got fired for buying IBM computers. Secondly, if your key concern is CYA, then there is no incentive to manage the programme proactively. The current flavour-of-the-month is to oursource risk. What this means effectively is to write a single contract with a huge contractor and to blame them if it all goes wrong.

Inevitably, because no-one can think of everything up front, these projects hit the wall - often because the specification was too high-level at the time it became locked-down. Now the change control process kicks in; and each seemingly reasonable request to the prime contractor draws the same response - "more time, and more money".

We specialise in providing independent programme and project management to just such ventures. By ensuring that the work is planned thouroughly at the outset and then by holding those responsible for delivery to account each step of the way... we ensure that complex programmes actually delivery on time.

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