Byte sized

The PWC report on the BBC's failed Digital Media Initiative reveals nearly eight years of executives looking the other way, as a misguided technology project floundered its way through £100m and more.

Some important revelations - nearly every senior manager knew it was late and in trouble, because the project was supposed to deliver savings to their departments, and didn't. Other very big BBC projects, like the move to Salford and the Delivering Quality First strands in Vision formally reported that delays in DMI were putting their projects and savings at risk - and BBC executives failed to read across. The Business Case was not subjected to regular periodic reviews; and if reporting had been "transparent", DMI might have drawn up short as early as July 2011. It was the first financial quarter of 2011 when the project moved from amber to amber/red.

Here's part of a chart that shows, apparently, five years of developing DMI before the executive approved a business case. How does that work ?

In close to 60 pages, PWC offer no assessment of individual performance, and aportion no blame. There are, however, top quality project management-speak recommendations. Here's my favourite.

An integrated assurance plan should be a mandatory deliverable as part of the initial set-up of a programme and should be monitored periodically to ensure it remains valid as the programme moves through its lifecycle. The plan should outline the key entry and exit criteria for each programme stage, the key assurance activities aligned to the programme plan and the roles and responsibilities of various bodies in providing assurance to the programme.