Executive Directors Memorandum 07/06/02 Project Control Guidelines

Status: Report submitted for the Council Meeting of 7 June 2002

To : InternetNZ Council

From : Executive Director

1 Business Cases for Areas of Activity

2 Project Control Guidelines

This memorandum seeks Council acceptance and endorsement two documents

1. the business cases for areas of activity reviewed in recent business planning, and
2. a "Project Control Guidelines"document and associated standard document templates.

Background:

This work follows on from recent planning activity. The documents have been prepared with the assistance of the NAVIGATE consultant who facilitated the Society' s activity prioritisation workshop.

While the business cases do embrace new systematically-developed strategic initiatives, for the most part they comprise activities which are :

• "business as usual"

• responses to organisational re-structuring

• quality or performance improvement initiatives

• responses to externally-generated demands or opportunities.

The Business Cases contain all these elements, and should therefore be viewed by Council members as baseline documents which :

• capture the scope and task detail of our major activities as we enter the 2003 financial year, and

• provide the information needed for informed discussion of
  • organisational,

  • operational performance,

  • resource and

  • budgetary issues.

The project control guidelines have been prepared to meet the Society' s need to

• comply with good practices for the audit, control and communication of projects - initiatives and activities which are not "business as usual", and

• conduct project scoping, approval and execution efficiently.

Document 1 Business Cases

Business cases have been prepared for each of the activities reviewed in the recent planning workshop. The business cases describe -
• the deliverables and benefits to members, the stakeholder community and the Society' s operations

• the direct expenditure and the required budgetary commitment, and

• the indirect expenditure - the commitment required from the Society' s Council, Committees and permanent staff resources expressed as a notional cost.

The business cases have been constructed using a template from the Project Control Guidelines (see below). Each business case starts with a brief Executive Summary, setting out what is being delivered, the key benefits and the direct and indirect expenditure. This is followed by a more detailed review of strategic and operational issues, addressing alignment with the Society' s Aims and Objectives, resourcing plans and risks.

The resourcing plans capture the time commitment of the Society' s Council, Committees and permanent staff resources.

By providing a notional cost for these commitments we can better dimension the true scale of our overall involvement, and make worthwhile comparisons between the activities that make up our portfolio of work.

Document 2 Project Control Guidelines

Recognising the need to provide a common approach to the control and communication aspects of projects sponsored or undertaken by the Society, draft project control guidelines have been prepared.

These guidelines set out in a simple, easy-to-follow form our approach to project control and what project owners and managers need to do to ensure that the Society meets its obligation to comply with good practices for audit, control and communication.

Endorsement of these guidelines would mean –

• Society members or staff acting as project owners and managers would be expected to comply with the guidelines.

• Compliance with these guidelines would be included in the terms of the contracts of contractors and consultants brought in to work on specific projects.

• The guidelines would be incorporated in any project audit.

Adopting these as standards will contribute to the efficiency with which the Society' s committees and Council assess and monitor projects.

Sue Leader
Executive Director