Project management and the private finance initiative

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5.4 Barriers, critical success factors and key skills in PFI Bridging the gap between PFI-active and non-PFI-active Faculty members must overcome hurdles which include a resistance to becoming involved in PFI work, or a lack of awareness of project management opportunities. For many, as the online survey showed, their companies do not participate in the PFI market or their individual specialisations do not relate well to PFI. For these respondents, the latter reason rules out PFI work for many. Fewer still feel that they cannot get appropriate skills in their current working environment (about 17% of non-active respondents), supported by the result that nearly half of the non-active respondents do not think they will become involved in PFI in the next two years. Figure 5.1 shows that, although important, ‘skills limitations’ alone do not appear to be the only barrier to enabling non-PFI-active members to become involved in PFI work. For nearly one third (32%) the inability to acquire PFI-related skills in their current job is not an issue at all. However, for at least 24% it is an issue. Indeed, the limited findings from the follow-up survey (see Section 4) suggest that very few Figure 5.1 Barriers, critical success factors and key skills for PFI Non PFI Active Barriers to PFI involvement: • Company not involved in PFI • Employees not specialising in PFI • Lack of skills in current job PFI Active 31 chapter five Conclusions and recommendations Project management and the private finance initiative non-PFI-active respondents felt they needed additional skills to work on PFI projects. Fewer still said that the availability of those skills was not present in their current job (4% of non-active respondents from the follow-up survey). Amongst this group there were mixed views about specific skill requirements. However, risk appreciation, process and political skills were judged to be more important than understanding client needs and technical knowledge, although the differences were slight. There were also mixed views regarding the need for learning more about PFI for respondents’ career progression. Some 21% said that PFI would not be important for their future career and 33% said that it would be very important. Critical success factors for PFI projects therefore include: • Well-drafted output specification; • A robust business case; • Committed senior management; and • Full consultation with end users. This supports findings from recent research carried out for the Foundation for the Built Environment (Dixon et al, forthcoming). Critical Success Factors for PFI: • Well drafted output specification • Robust business case • Committed senior management • Consultation Key Skills for PFI: • Understanding the client • Risk appreciation • Process skills
5.5 Project management knowledge and expertise Despite the findings from the follow-up online survey, the interviews showed that building a successful and thriving skills base in appropriate areas is vital if project managers are to become active in PFI. Overall the research from the interviews and survey highlighted (Figure 5.2) a number of important strengths and weaknesses. The key weaknesses are that: • The public sector needs people with negotiating and management skills. The public sector also lacks skills in whole life cycle costing (including FM); construction, financial modelling, stakeholder management, and people skills. Figure 5.2: Project management / PFI skills balance sheet Strong Skills Weak Public sector • Client understanding • Process understanding • Political skills • Specialist sector knowledge (ie healthcare) • Negotiating skills • Management skills • Whole life costing • Construction skills • Financial modelling • Stakeholder management • People skills • The private sector needs people with specialist understanding, such as those with detailed knowledge of healthcare culture and background. Skills are also lacking here in whole life cycle costing (which includes FM), client understanding and people skills. However, the strengths were found to be of particular importance: • The public sector has a better understanding of the client than the private sector in terms of understanding processes, chains of command and decision-making processes. • The public sector is more adept in political skills than the private sector. • The private sector has more specialist expertise in terms of financial modelling, technical and legal advice than the public sector. • The private sector’s strength is also their experience and familiarity with construction and PFI. Private sector • PFI experience • Construction experience • Financial modelling • Technical advice • Legal advice • Risk appreciation • Specialist sector knowledge (ie healthcare) • Whole life costing • Client understanding • People skills +ve -ve Project management and the private finance initiative chapter five Conclusions and recommendations 32
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