What to expect during the review:
- The review team will read the project documents and hold discussions with the nominated stakeholders. These discussions are confidential and non-attributable, meaning you can speak your mind with confidence, providing frank and fearless advice to the review team, and in line with the values of the VPS.
- Discussions are usually held online, however the review team allows for situations such as site visits or face to face discussions, which may be particularly pertinent at the readiness for service stage.
- The review team will interview the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) at the beginning of the review and meet with them briefly at the end of each day to provide a summary of its findings.
- At the end of the review, the review team will present the SRO with its findings and recommendations in the form of a draft report, including Red/ Amber/ Green (RAG) status assessment. The SRO then has the opportunity to review the draft report for errors of fact or other minor inaccuracies.
- The Online Reporting Platform (ORP) is DTF's key tool for assurance administration and reporting, and review-related activities are conducted via the ORP.
The review team
The selection of appropriately skilled and experienced review team members is critical to the success and effectiveness of a Gateway Review.
Gateway Review teams are selected according to each project's needs and the approaching key decision point to provide a mix of skills, knowledge and experience. The review team should possess:
- skills and experience relevant to the project and its current phase in the project life cycle
- knowledge and understanding of the project's industry sector
- knowledge of government and government processes
- knowledge and understanding of the Gateway Review process.
The independence of the review team from the project and the independence of the review team from the department, is the key to delivering objective, high quality reviews and reports.
Review teams generally consist of three to four people and may include a mix of private and public sector reviewers.
The Gateway Unit uses a communicative approach when appointing review teams and will liaise with the department to ensure the right mix of skills are assembled and no conflicts of interest are apparent.
Allocating RAG status
At the conclusion of each Gateway Review, the review team rate each of the individual recommendations and the overall project or program according to a 'traffic light' Red/ Amber/ Green rating system. All critical (Red or Amber) recommendations must be included in the Recommendation Action Plan.
Individual recommendations
Individual recommendations are classified as either, Red, Amber, or Green. Green recommendations are effectively ‘suggestions’ but must also be included within the recommendation table of the report. The definitions are defined below:
- Red: Critical and urgent, to achieve success the project or program should take action on recommendations immediately.
- Amber: Critical but not urgent, the project or program should proceed, with action on recommendations to be addressed before further key decisions are taken.
- Green: The project or program is on target to succeed but may benefit from the uptake of recommendations.
Overall assessment (delivery confidence)
An overall assessment (delivery confidence) is also required for each review based on the definitions in the table below.
When determining the overall assessment, the review team should refer to the areas probed assessment and their own judgement/expertise to determine the most suitable delivery confidence rating.
- Green - Overall assessment: Successful delivery of the project to time, cost and quality appears highly likely. There are no major outstanding issues that at this stage appear to threaten delivery significantly.
- Amber - Overall assessment: Successful delivery appears feasible but significant issues already exist, requiring timely management attention. These issues appear resolvable at this stage and if addressed promptly, should not impact on cost, time or quality.
- Red - Overall assessment: Successful delivery of the project to cost, time and/or quality does not appear achievable. The project may need re-baselining and/or the overall viability assessed.
Final report
At the conclusion of the Gateway Review, a draft report is issued to the SRO via the ORP. The SRO then has seven days to comment on any errors of fact prior to the report being issued as final. Generally, final reports can be issued sooner where SROs are able to return comments on error of fact prior to the seven day period. SROs may elect to circulate the draft report with the project team for fact checking or comment during this period, however the report is confidential to the SRO at this stage.
The Gateway Unit, along with the relevant High Value High Risk (HVHR) portfolio analysts within DTF, are issued a copy of all final reports through the ORP for the purposes of reporting under the requirements of the HVHR Framework.
The Gateway Unit keeps a record of recommendations and identification of instances of good practice, which are anonymised and collated as 'lessons learnt'. These lessons learnt are used by the DTF Infrastructure Division in the development of best practice guidance materials, and in the provision of advice to departments and agencies to help ensure that good practices are identified and mistakes of the past are not repeated in similar initiatives.
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