Assurance of Major Projects - What is Assurance and why do we need it?

We have held many seminars over the years to try to understand why major projects fail.. Whilst, failure can be subjective, few could argue that recent projects like Crossrail, Rail Timetable Introduction and Universal Credit have not had their problems. Supporters of the role of Assurance claim that it has a vital role to play in avoiding these problems.; but what constitutes ‘project assurance’ is not always clear. For some, it is about being sure that they are going to get what they expect; for others it is about risks being effectively managed. The Association for Project Management defines assurance as “the process of providing confidence to stakeholders that projects, programmes and portfolios will achieve their scope, time, cost and quality objectives, and realise their benefits”. The IPA uses the assurance process at critical points in a project's life cycle to ensure progress is kept on track, help identify and mitigate risks. Assurance providers have many demands on them. Project sponsors want to be confident that their projects will be delivered to time, cost and quality. Project managers want confidence that suppliers will meet their contractual obligations. Boards want confidence that strategic objectives will be met. The aim of this half-day seminar is to consider how these various demands for confidence can be met efficiently and effectively. Through the eyes of different project stakeholders, we will explore how to set up an assurance regime that satisfies this diversity of need; what ‘good assurance’ looks like; why assurance sometimes fails; and how assurance needs change through the life of a project. We will also look at what the terms ‘Integrated Assurance’ and ‘Progressive Assurance’ mean.