When property and infrastructure projects and programs run late, overshoot the budget, fall short of the brief, or fail to deliver the desired intent or result, there’s usually a great deal of energy spent trying to identify where things went wrong.
Was the problem with the project manager, the consultant, the procedures, the tools? Perhaps… but it’s possible that the wheels fell off long before any of those elements were in place, usually right back at the planning stage and before the project went to market and got underway.
Although it is possible to wrestle a wayward project, program or portfolio back onto the right track, it is far easier to set it up to succeed from the very start.
Focus on the front end
Capital performance is heavily impacted by the front-end process of any project or program of works.
Start by assessing strategic fit and make sure that your projects align with your business goals before committing capital. Ask yourself whether your projects or programs are the right ones to be delivered. Why are you embarking on them? What is the benefit you’re hoping to gain from completion? Are they the most important to prioritise right now? Do they meet your broader strategic aspirations, and will they add the most value?
To get this right, you need to consider who is best placed in your organisation/team to confirm the above and define the requirements in the business case or project brief. This task is frequently handed down to the project team, yet they are often better placed to deliver projects successfully than to define end-user requirements and strategic scope considerations. Centralising and carefully planning the front end of an initiative with the right people before it becomes a formal project delivers a clear commercial benefit by avoiding premature management and delivery costs.
This kind of big-picture thinking is crucial for planning and prioritising your capital plan. It gives you a strong foundation that will shape all the other important project decisions along the way. It will also greatly enhance the potential for successful projects and satisfactory levels of capital performance year on year.
Once you have prioritised the right investments to support your organisational objectives, you can move on to defining the appropriate management frameworks, resources, capabilities and tools to enable projects to be delivered in alignment with your capital plan.
Work towards capability, consistency and clarity
To get where you want to be, you need to understand where you’re starting from. Take a good look at your current state. Can you identify opportunities for performance improvement in how you manage your portfolio, programs, or projects?
To realise your strategic objectives, you will need to establish the right approaches to risk management and commercial management, and the necessary roles, capabilities and culture to deliver your projects successfully. This can be overwhelming, so focus on opportunities where your efforts will have maximum impact on your current capital priorities.
Ultimately, it’s essential to establish who is accountable for what and to trust that every person and process is primed for success, supported by effective controls and accurate, timely data in the right format to enable informed decision-making.
Processes, systems and tools
Digital systems and tools won’t magically solve all your project and portfolio challenges, but leveraging an appropriate digital solution tailored to your priorities can have a significant impact on your success.
Your suite of digital systems and tools should be appropriately tailored and integrated to elevate your typical portfolio, program and project management functions and support your capital performance. Ensure that the technology supports decision-making rather than adding complexity. Your focus should be less on keeping up with the latest shiny bells and whistles, and more about enabling your teams to spend less time on perfunctory reporting and more time on delivering meaningful, forward-looking, data-driven insights that actually improve outcomes.
This includes performance reporting, risk management, commercial and capital plan reporting, resource and capital forecasting, and integrated scheduling.
Your business is unique, but you’re not alone
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to optimise capital performance and results – because every organisation, portfolio, program and project is different. The right approach for your business and projects won’t be found in a manual or on a shelf. But success rarely happens by chance. Next time you embark on a project, or roll out another project management system or tool, go beyond crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.
Start at the beginning, with a focus on getting your strategy and priorities clear, your frameworks and processes consistent, and your capabilities and capacity ready for the challenges ahead. Calling in a trusted set of fresh eyes could give you a whole new perspective on the road to success.
As your business evolves to meet the changing demands of customers, stakeholders and the market, so will the types of projects that you deliver. The way your organisation delivers these capital projects needs to stay relevant and keep delivering value. While project management, cost management and traditional consultancy services remain largely unchanged, you can positively influence project outcomes by ensuring the assurance approach remains fit for purpose.
About the author
Adam Robinson is the Head of WT Australia’s Portfolio & Program Advisory practice. With nearly 20 years of hands-on experience, he has led capital programs and performance improvement transformations across Asia, the US, Africa, and Oceania. His deep expertise in Portfolio Management allows him to provide practical, real-world advice on managing complex capital programs with confidence and precision.
