Gateway - Gate 1 aligned to the new frameworkThe Gate 1: Concept and Feasibility Assessment (formerly titled Strategic Assessment) booklet will provide guidance on conducting Gate 1. It is proposed that the Gate 1 booklet will be updated so that it more fully aligns with the Preliminary Business Case and Strategic Assessment requirements.
Gate 1 provides confirmation to the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) whether the project team has done sufficient work on the Preliminary Business Case or Strategic Assessment submission that would allow Government to make a well-informed judgement as to whether the investment should proceed with the preparation of a Full Business Case. To achieve this, the submission documentation at this stage should demonstrate:
- strong policy merit (has a well-defined problem and clear benefits);
- adequate exploration of strategic options that could address the problem and realise the benefits; and
- an identified way forward (indicative program or project solution).
Gate 1 explores the proposal outside the dimensions of the Preliminary Business Case, which is only one element of the review documentation. Specifically, the Gate 1 assessment will conduct a health check on the organisation preparing the submission to inform the SRO whether the agency has the capacity and capability to deliver a robust Preliminary Business Case/ Strategic Assessment submission and transition to the Full Business Case stage.
The revised Gate 1 booklet will guide review teams by describing the appraisal questions and sources of further information, including better practice. It will provide review teams with key questions to explore and suggested evidence to support those questions.
As part of the update, we are also considering aspects of the quality assurance process including:
a) providing more guidance to reviewers to improve consistency with HVHR expectations, and
b) revewing Gates, for example whether to replace Gate 4 (Tender Decision) with a new project assurance Gate. This would address gaps in the current process where a lot of reviews are conducted up until the project is contracted, but there is then a big gap until the asset is delivered.
New Governance Technical Guidance
Governance related issues are one of the top three most frequently issued recommendations in Gateway Reviews, accounting for 8.7% of all recommendations. Gateway recommendations group the major causes of project governance issues in major capital infrastructure projects into two categories:
- Governance structure; and
- unclear or poorly defined roles and responsibilities.
Project governance sets a firm foundation to guide project success, improve transparency and support decision making. It requires clarity of roles and responsibilities and should reflect stakeholder complexity.
We are developing a Governance Guideline to help you explore the structures and elements of project governance and management, identifying skills and processes to be considered. Some mini-case studies are included to illustrate where governance can go wrong. It will include examples of structures, checklists for governance frameworks and steering committees and provide an outline of a project management plan.
