In his address to the D+I Conference this week Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Government was expanding the use of the Gate Review process for mature projects to ensure that the desired operational capability is being delivered.
‘Gate Reviews commenced in 2009 for selected high value and highly complex projects and have proven very effective in the early identification and resolution of problems. We have also announced enhanced and more rigorous reporting to Government on such high priority projects.
‘Quarterly accountability reports to the Minister for Defence, the Minister for Defence Materiel, the Secretary of the Department of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Force will be provided for designated key projects.
To ensure accountability, the reports are to be formally signed off by the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Executive Officer of the Defence Materiel Organisation, the Chief of the Capability Development Group and the relevant capability manager, generally the relevant Service Chief.
‘This will improve accountability and alert senior Defence officials and Government to problems in projects so that an appropriate remediation plan can be developed early and acted on.
‘These reforms have a single central focus – prevention not post mortems.
It is most important to get projects right at the outset and early on.
Early intervention is always better than an exhaustive assessment well after the seeds of project difficulty have been sown.
We need to prevent problems before they emerge and solve them as they emerge – prevention not post mortems’.
Early Warning and Indicators
Defence Minister Smith said that the Government was also implementing an Early Warning and Indicator system to prevent problems early in the life of a project.
‘Defence assesses that 80 per cent of problems with Defence capability
projects occur in the first 20 per cent of the project’s life.
‘Therefore we need early warning in order to be able to take effective preventative action.
‘A set of triggers has been established to give early warning of projects
which are or are at risk of running late, being over budget or not delivering the required capability.
‘The Minister for Defence, the Minister for Defence Materiel, the Secretary of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Force are advised when these triggers are activated.
‘When a trigger is activated Defence will conduct an internal review of the project and recommend whether a full diagnostic examination, known as a Gate Review, should be conducted.