Stephen Fitzgerald: making a success of capital projects

Large scale capital projects are now essential to the future finances of local authorities. Stephen Fitzgerald discusses the critical elements needed to turn them into a success.

Local authorities have shown considerable resilience and sustainability in recent years by effectively managing the removal of significant resources by central government and continuing to improve the service offer to the public.

Now, the landscape is changing with the delivery of major infrastructure development coming to the fore.  The aspiration of local government is that it will strengthen local economies through major capital development that will support economic growth at the local level.

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Inaugural FD’s Summit on housing and infrastructure development finance
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This has merit on its own basis but is now critical to the financial future of local authorities going forward.

Infrastructure abilities

After years of lobbying by the Local Government Association, central government is returning 100% of all business rate income to local government.

The implication of this is that regeneration and the ability to deliver and enable major infrastructure projects is key to achieving long term financial health.

This means that project management ability is becoming critically important in helping to deliver on major infrastructure developments that local authorities need to build their tax base.

An understanding of the major tools of project management is important in this.  Prince 2, project management software, critical path analysis and financial appraisal techniques are all key tools that will help a team deliver on major projects.

However, in themselves these techniques can only support the delivery process.  I recall working with team on a major project and one member was adamantly convinced that if a particular piece of software was not used the project was destined to be a disaster.

Project success

This individual could not be moved from their position.  However, the project was successful using a different software solution than they had supported.  The individual concerned had missed the point.  Project management tools are important but process only is not definitive in project success.  There are three further factors that are, for me, critical to major project success:

1. Teamwork. Building dynamics among the project team is important.  In the delivery of complex projects there will inevitably be challenges and, occasionally setbacks.  Team members must play positive roles that go beyond the comfort of their professional disciplines and the dynamic of how each team member interacts with each other is critical to project success.
2. Customer Focus. An appreciation and understanding of the aspirations of the customer are critical in delivering on a major project.  It is important that developers build infrastructure that is designed to meet the aspirations of the community rather than what they consider they should have.  This may seem obvious, however, the history of major projects is littered with developments that ultimately do not meet the needs of their communities.  Listening is one of the hardest things to do and attempting to do it effectively on a wide scale can be quite a challenge to achieve the right outcome.  All of those involved in regeneration have to focus on this to achieve the best results.
3. Vision. In mediaeval times when the great cathedrals of Europe were built the architects who planned them, were invariably dead by the time their successors completed them.  But those successors shared the vision of how the final building would look and were able to deliver on the initial plan.  Fortunately, with more advanced construction techniques we can hope to live to see the results of our efforts.  But like our mediaeval predecessors we must create a shared vision of outcomes in our project teams and have a clear understanding of what a positive project completion endgame looks like.  Out of that vision a process for delivery will naturally evolve and the corporate understanding of the mission will deliver a positive final result.

The fusion of vision, customer focus and teamwork is at the core of any successful capital project.  So, by all means reach for the grant chart and the spreadsheet when delivering your project but not before having addressed these three key areas in the planning process.

Stephen Fitzgerald is a management and financial consultant.

@SHJFitzgerald

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