As a follow-up to the news reported in The importance of project management, (which was also picked up by CIO, Silicon.com, ZDNet.co.uk, and Ron Rosenhead, among others) it turns out the UK government’s Department of Transport are not the only branch of government failing at project management.

The UK’s National Audit Office has looked at 20 of the largest projects in the Ministry of Defence. They found the projects were on £205 million over budget and 96 months later than initial estimates! Tim Burr, who is the head of the National Audit Office, said:

“Performance remains variable and, until the MoD and the defence industry improve their decision-making processes and show sustained learning from previous projects, value for money will not be consistently delivered.”

To be fair to the MoD, many of these projects are procuring cutting edge technology, and you would expect some problems. However, as the Financial Times reports, the NAO “identified key failings, including shortcomings on project management and the department’s failure to act as an intelligent customer.” That, combined with an apparent ‘lack of realism’ suggests the MoD needs to look again at its project management.