Taking the strain

Peter Salmon has just published a range of BBC documents which, heavily edited, represent "the risks" of moving to MediaCityUK, and what was being done to mitigate them. They come in response to an FOI inquiry on WhatDoTheyKnow. The extracts offer a marvellous amalgam of Birt-speak and Project B*ll*cks. For real fans of this genre, get the full pdf, rich in colour-coding and blame avoidance.

Here's a couple of my instant favourites - this from 2009.

Prioritising major projects
In response to the increasing organisational strain, a small team within the BBC initiated the evaluation of projects and made recommendations about the ranking and priorities. This was based on objective criteria, including (a) The BBC’s public commitment (b) the strategic importance
to delivery of purposes and efficiency targets (c) total Investment and value/cost over LF period and, (d) organisational strain caused by the project.


As an outcome of this exercise projects were grouped in four categories:


a. Must Do projects;
b. Projects in delivery;
c. Middle League projects;
d. Bottom League projects.


These groupings and priorities were reviewed and agreed by the BDG. The projects within the “Must Do” category are as follows:


 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 BBC North
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 xxxxxxxxxxx
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 xxxxxxx


The aim of agreeing which are the “Must-Do” projects is to ensure they are the priorities for all Divisions, thus focussing resource, time and attention on making these projects safe, and providing clear leadership and accountability.


A Head of pan-BBC Programme Management Office is now being recruited, charged specifically with supporting the “Must Do" projects, providing visibility of the whole portfolio to the Executive, and sharing best practice, and, potentially, resources across the projects. We also believe a judicious additional investment in change and project management capability is likely to be required to deliver the Must-Do projects ahead of time so that the chances of failure on multiple projects are minimised.

In 2010 another document makes this oblique reference, presumably to some PSYOPS practices in HR.

‘Carrot and stick’ [departmental] approaches to increase redeployment signed off by BDG in June 2010. 


Enjoy.