A Big City Council

About This Project

A large city council runs an extensive annual ICT improvement program and requires external advisors to provide ongoing assurance over key projects.

The Situation

A Big City Council runs an extensive capital program each year, with a significant component of that being its ICT capital program. They also run an extensive gated assurance and risk review program over that capital program and utilise external advisors to provide independent and expert assistance.

The objective is to increase the council’s ability to achieve value for money in its ICT investment program and effectively manage the project delivery risk associated with the investments, providing trusted advice to project sponsors and managers.

The Approach

Information Professionals Group have generated over two dozen reviews over Council projects and are called upon regularly to provide assurance and risk reviews over critical Council ICT investments. Many of our team are accredited Gateway reviewers and are accredited reviewers with Brisbane City Council.

The projects under review with the City Council have included a wide range of technology, technology infrastructure, applications, data, call centre and associated investments.  They can cover work streams including technology, applications, testing, change management, business process design, training and other areas.  They can also include a range of internal and external sourcing arrangements and be at multiple stages of the project lifecycle from Business Case through to pre-go-live and post-go-live.

Reviews follow the City Council’s Assurance standards, which is aligned to the Gateway approach and to the Queensland Government’s assurance standard for ICT projects.  However expert judgement from our experienced team is crucial to the delivery of quality outcomes that place attention on those areas of most importance and are explained in a way that create acceptance by Program and Project Sponsors and Managers and support the project improvements being achieved.

The Impact

We continue to do extensive work for the Council.  We have excellent feedback from Project Sponsors, very strong acceptance of recommendations, and action taken from recommendations.  This results in excellent learning opportunities for internal team members, from Sponsors through to managers and analysts, and ultimately more successful project outcomes.

We also have a very strong reputation with Council’s City Project‘s Office, who oversee project delivery across Council and continue to invite us to perform reviews over their critical ICT programs and projects.