BBC 'has learnt' from failure of the Digital Media Initiative, says NAO

NAO: BBC must make clear who is accountable for projects and define anticipated benefits at the start

The BBC has learnt from the failure of its Digital Media Initiative (DMI), and taken a number of steps to strengthen its oversight of critical projects, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NAO, along with the Public Accounts Committee and PwC, all released separate reports that showed how the BBC's lack of oversight led to the "complete failure" of the £100m DMI project.

In a report on the management of the BBC's critical projects, the NAO said that while progress had been made, further action was needed. The NAO called for the BBC to better define what the anticipated benefits of a project ought to be from the outset, as without this it would be hard to gain confidence that projects would achieve value for money.

It said that the board needed a greater top-down focus on how the projects as a portfolio are performing against delivering the BBC's vision. In particular, it called for members of the executive board, including non-executives, to take a more active role in deciding which projects are included in the portfolio.

Among the NAO's recommendations are that the BBC should make it clear who is accountable overall for projects, possibly as a result of the BBC losing a case brought against the organisation by its former CTO John Linwood. Linwood was sacked by the BBC, but the judge found that he was not responsible for the failure of the DMI.

One of the BBC's ongoing critical projects is to procure and integrate IT services across the organisation. The project, dubbed Aurora, is intended to move the BBC from a single-supplier to a multi-supplier model for IT services, co-ordinated by an in-house service integration and management function. The programme is intended to replace the broadcaster's existing 10-year, £2bn deal with Atos.

Last month, the BBC released a tender for enterprise ICT and hosting services in a £560m contract as part of this new project. In February, the BBC rated the delivery of the Aurora project as "feasible". This meant that significant issues already existed which required management attention, but these were resolvable if addressed promptly.

For the Aurora project, the BBC expects to deliver increased benefits as a result of changing its delivery approach, which includes moving the completion date back.

The NAO said that in only one case - the BBC's Smart project, which aimed to replace and integrate systems used for finance, procurement, HR and training - did costs increase significantly, from £39m to £55.7m, as a result of delays during the implementation phase.