Tangible, stringent, oversight, etc

Some of my favourite things have been considered by the National Audit Office, and though the papers seem to have the press release summarising the NAO report on the BBC's Critical Projects, the full thing doesn't yet seem to be online.

Regular readers will be familiar with the ups and downs of Projects Smart and Aurora, myBBC and E20 - the Eastenders set. The last named biggie is End-To-End Digital, which rose from the ashes of the Digital Media Initiative - and apparently, the NAO found it less than clear who was accountable for what there. Which is a shame, because End-to-End was claimed to be all about learning the lessons from the DMI debacle. Here's Dominic Coles announcing it in 2013...

A new ‘End to End Digital’ project will fully reflect the lessons of DMI. For example, the digital production challenge will be split up into separate, independent "bite size" steps, each of which will have benefits in their own right and will not be part of a single, "all or nothing" integrated technology solution - albeit with programme oversight ensuring consistency and compatibility across all areas of activity. This project, although only at the planning stage is, like all our others, subject to a new stringent project management control, including the setting of clear objectives that are directly linked to tangible business need.

Dominic moved on six months later. Who owns End-to-End now ?

Meanwhile, for your diaries, the BBC faces the Public Accounts Committee over the report on May 25, which should see a rare outing for BBC Trustee Nick Prettejohn alongside Anne Bulford.