Introduction
Canadians do not have the right to bear arms. That is, the right to carry guns and other arms as personal weapons. On the other hand there is a large portion of mostly rural Canadian population that use small arms for sport hunting and eliminating animals that destroy property or crops. A significant group exists that owns guns for sport hunting in the forests close to most Canadian urban areas.
The Canadian Federal Government, with support from the police forces of Canada, decided to implement a personal gun registry. This decision led to one of the most egregious Canadian Federal Government project undertakings resulting in a wave of popular reaction and scope creep ballooning from $119.0Million(CDN) to more than $1.0 Billion(CDN).
Project management practitioners agree that a major project must have a defined process with gated approvals and dedicated project management practices. The Federal Government of Canada has a demanding policy of step like funding approvals and a requirement for project management in all major Department undertakings.
The Canadian Federal Government has a Treasury Board composed of select group of officials headed by a Minister of the Treasury Board. This group is a Senior Corporate Review Board with oversight on the phased funding of major projects. They have staff and a gated approval process for the validation of Departmental project funding requests. The Treasury Board, with governance overview of Departmental policies and plans for program acquisitions and systems, has a comprehensive IT Framework policy for the management of Departmental projects.
How then did the system fail, in spite of a host of policies and process coupled with long corporate experience with public agency Major Crown Project acquisitions? Some of the Canadian Government formal project management institutionalizing goes back more than 30 years.
The Canadian Firearms Program had fatal management flaws. The Program environment was not analyzed and failed to proffer a well thought out business case. In the face of this the fatal imperative was that it failed, contrary to policy, to properly structure a Major Crown Project element that was fundamental to the continuing effective operations of a Departmental Program. Consequently the Program has hierarchy of scope confusion and consequent fuzzy planning because of a failure at all levels of management, political, governance, Major Crown Project and IT Project management.
Observations
The first and primary impact is that of political decision and policy. The Political Factor is an all embracing oversight and a government decision to fund the Program. The remainder of the hierarchy is impotent and frustrated unless this factor is strictly managed within a Program Business Case embracing the following:
1. Political - The political environment was a moving feast occasioned by the Federal Government structure of Canada. The Program could not be fixed in place due to the misplaced analysis that, although it was a Provincial responsibility, the Program would be accepted by all of the Canadian Provinces. Such was not the case. There was no contingency plan for a less than enthusiastic response from some of the Canadian Provinces and a few opted out.
2. Governance - The nature of the Canadian Firearms Program crossed Department boundaries and required a single point of accountability. This was not implemented and the Program Office did not lead, rather it reacted to only the Department of Justice's needs for funding and expense accounting.
3. Major Crown Project - The central control agency of the Canadian Government is the Treasury Board of Canada. A full range of high level program/project management structuring, planning and performance measurement is required as a matter of written policy. Significant amongst which is the gated approval process. The Program Office failed to implement the basic funding and milestone performance measures required for the management of a Major Crown Project.
4. IT Systems Management Project - A significant element of the total scope of the Major Crown Project was the development of an IT gun registry system which was to be implemented across Canada by legal agencies. Although the Treasury Board has an IT Framework for the development of computer systems none of it was implemented. There was no system configuration management with at one time more than 1,000 field changes, which according to reports, produced a useless operational product.
The lesson to be drawn from this unfortunate Program management experience is that you can have all the best practices management policies in place but if they are ignored you are left with a "Billion Dollar Boondoggle". One that moved a Project from $119Million to more than $1.Billion and growing.
You must analyze the project environment and set up a continuing Risk Management System. While the Program failed to effect some management process and organizational structures appropriate for a Major Crown Project, it is likely that the result would be the same, although a flag would have been raised much earlier, within a formal Major Crown Project definition.
For more read the 2002 Report of the Auditor General of Canada - December - Chapter 10 - Department of Justice - Costs of Implementing the Canadian Firearms Program.....[ Auditor General ]--> [ Home ] -->{Search] - Gun AND Registry.
For background on this contentious Canadian Federal Government Program there are two viewpoints. Here are two site searches that reflect this difference of opinion.
the National Firearms Program.
Max Wideman has a personal slant on the Canadian Gun Registry Issue .... [ Max Wideman ]
Discussion
Read the Auditor General's Report and browse through the site searches provided. Make up your own mind. What went wrong? Was it politics, governance or failure to implement standard major project management practices ?
According to Kerzner circa 1987 the six Critical Success Factors for project management excellence are:
Were these critical success factors addressed in the Canadian Gun Registry Program ?
Write to the Editor with your opinion and if you do please provide a factual rationale for your observations..
Theo Vandertak has written to the Editor..
Answering your call on feedback about the Canadian Fire Arms Program, I note the following:
." In a program it is essential to get a clear picture of the objectives involved. There is barely any mention of these objectives in the audit: it is explicitly aimed at getting answers to financial and cost issues. In my experience this is what makes governmental bureaucracies weak: vague objectives, large bureaucratic systems and limited, procedure focused auditors. The heavy emphasis on financial and procedural issues even enhance the resistance of these bureaucracies against external audits"
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(1) Reference [ PM Library Organizational Audit Reports ]