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The Head of Profession leads and champions project delivery within their organisation and across government. They are responsible for the strategic development of the project delivery profession and enhancing project delivery capability. Their role includes influencing decision-making to ensure projects, programmes and portfolios are properly resourced and successfully delivered.
| Responsibility | Detail |
|---|---|
| Strategy development | Agrees on the strategy and plan for developing the project delivery profession, prioritising and resourcing work activities in collaboration with peers. Contributes to specific objectives and deliverables within the profession's plan, shaping and delivering the work plan, and actively participates in governance boards to develop the profession within the department. |
| Visible leadership | Provides visible leadership to the project delivery profession and community, modelling positive behaviours and professional excellence. Builds productive relationships with other key functions and professions, communicates key messages, drives communities and events, and inspires others to feel proud of being part of the profession. |
| Board interaction and advice | Influences key board discussions and decisions on project delivery, driving collaboration between policy and delivery, especially in the early project stages. Advises a permanent secretary, departmental board, and senior leadership on project delivery leadership appointments and performance. |
| Talent management | Helps identify and develop a high-quality pool of project delivery talent across government, securing support from other senior colleagues, holding career conversations, managing talent, and supporting development activities. Provides mentoring and support for project delivery professionals, sponsors MPLA and PLP participants, assures apprenticeship and fast stream placements, and acts as an ambassador for the programmes and schemes. Shares insights and collaborates to secure cross government |
| Capability | Increases project delivery capability by leading efforts to gather data to identify capability gaps and requirements. Implements measures to fill capability gaps. Supports the collection and analysis of capability data, building relationships with other departments and professional bodies to support capability development. |
| Resourcing and workforce planning | Establishes mechanisms to understand supply and demand for project resources, build central workforce plans, and share insights across government. Supports effective recruitment and development of specialist skills based on need and government priorities, committing to sharing resources across government. |
| Management information | Provides management information to support the profession's development, informing resourcing decisions, key appointments, and development activities. |
| Digital and data | Leads and champions the use of digital tools and data analytics across projects to enhance project delivery standards. |
Suitable for a senior and experienced project delivery professional at a leadership level with a strong reputation and influence within their department. These individuals have led major projects as a project director or SRO, interacted with boards and Ministers, and are passionate about developing people and the profession. Appointment is by joint agreement with the departmental Permanent Secretary and Government Head of Profession (NISTA).
Generally, not suitable for individuals outside the profession, but may be appropriate in some cases depending on an individual’s experience and dual professional anchor.
None: No knowledge and no experience.
Awareness: Basic knowledge and limited or no experience. You understand how it can be applied. You can describe the benefits and importance. You may have applied it in a low complexity project under supervision or assisted others in delivering it.
Working: Working knowledge and practical experience. You have a good understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in low complexity projects and/or under supervision in more complex projects.
Practitioner: Detailed knowledge and significant experience. You have a deep understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in medium and/or highly complex projects. You advise and may supervise others in the delivery of this competence. You can adapt your approach to meet the requirements of the project.
Expert: Expert knowledge and experience. You are considered an expert within government and in the wider profession. You have applied this competence in multiple complex projects. You have been responsible for developing unique variations to suit specific situations. You champion capability development in this area.
| Competency area | Level |
|---|---|
Commercial and procurement
The ability to work with commercial colleagues to procure goods and services and manage contracts effectively to deliver the work.
|
Practitioner |
Planning
The ability to define the fundamental components of the work in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget. It also includes the production of broader plans incorporating risk and quality to provide a consolidated overview of the work.
|
Practitioner |
Resource management
The ability to identify, profile, secure and manage the resources required to deliver the work.
|
Practitioner |
Budgeting and cost management
The ability to estimate costs, produce a budget and control forecasts and actual spend against budget.
|
Practitioner |
Risk and issue management
The ability to systematically identify and monitor risks and issues, planning how to mitigate or respond to those risks and issues and implementing the responses.
|
Practitioner |
Business change and implementation
The ability to integrate the solution into operations ensuring that activities are planned and completed to enable the business to implement the change and realise the benefits.
|
Practitioner |
Governance
The ability to clearly define roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and establish controls and approval routes appropriate to each stage of the work to monitor progress and compliance.
|
Expert |
Frameworks and methodologies
The ability to identify and amend appropriate frameworks and methodologies to enable a consistent and efficient approach to delivery at all stages of the lifecycle.
|
Practitioner |
Stakeholder engagement
The ability to systematically identify, analyse and communicate with stakeholders, using appropriate channels, to ensure all those impacted by the change are engaged, taking account of their levels of influence and particular interests.
|
Expert |
Assurance
The ability to establish, plan and manage reviews at appropriate points through the life cycle to provide confidence that the work can be delivered to the agreed outcomes and benefits within time, cost, quality, and other constraints.
|
Practitioner |
Business case development
The ability to prepare, develop, commission and update business cases to justify the initiation and continuation of projects in terms of benefits, value for money and risk.
|
Practitioner |
Benefits management
The ability to identify, value, plan and track benefits to justify investment and ensure the expected outcomes and social value are realised.
|
Practitioner |
Knowledge management
The ability to identify, share and promote best practices and lessons learned to create a culture of learning and good practice that supports continuous improvement to optimise project delivery.
|
Practitioner |
Digital and data
The ability to effectively leverage digital tools and data analytics for better project delivery outcomes. Combining an understanding of digital technologies with the ability to manage, interpret and utilise data to make informed decisions, improve efficiency and achieve outcomes and benefits.
|
Working |
Sustainability
The ability to incorporate environmental and social considerations into the strategic objectives of the work and to effectively identify, assess and manage these throughout the lifecycle, seeking to maximise benefits and mitigate negative impacts.
|
Working |
None: No knowledge and no experience.
Awareness: Basic knowledge and limited or no experience. You understand how it can be applied. You can describe the benefits and importance. You may have applied it in a low complexity project under supervision or assisted others in delivering it.
Working: Working knowledge and practical experience. You have a good understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in low complexity projects and/or under supervision in more complex projects.
Practitioner: Detailed knowledge and significant experience. You have a deep understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in medium and/or highly complex projects. You advise and may supervise others in the delivery of this competence. You can adapt your approach to meet the requirements of the project.
Expert: Expert knowledge and experience. You are considered an expert within government and in the wider profession. You have applied this competence in multiple complex projects. You have been responsible for developing unique variations to suit specific situations. You champion capability development in this area.
| Competency area | Level |
|---|---|
Visible leadership
The ability to engage, motivate and coach others. To act as a role model and inspire and empower others. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Credible action
The ability to promote the wider public good in all actions and to act in a morally, legally and socially appropriate manner at all times. Challenges unacceptable behaviour. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Working with ambiguity
The ability to work in an environment of uncertainty and continual change. Able to feel comfortable making decisions and setting direction without having the full picture and re-focus as details emerge. Can apply knowledge and techniques to reduce ambiguity. Aligned to the making effective decisions Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Collaboration
The ability to establish and develop productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders, bringing people together to benefit the project. Aligned to the working together Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Influencing
The ability to influence, change and impact decisions with both internal and external stakeholders. Aligned to the communicating and influencing Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Conflict resolution
The ability to recognise, anticipate and effectively deal with existing or potential conflicts at an individual, team or strategic level. Aligned to the working together and leadership Civil Service behaviours.
|
Expert |
Inspiring others
The ability to create and present a compelling vision and set clear direction, that motivates others to work towards a common goal. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Resilience
The ability to adapt to changing circumstances and adverse situations whilst remaining calm, reassuring others and maintaining performance. Aligned to the delivering at pace Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Innovation
The ability to think of, research and apply new ideas and ways of doing things. Encourages and supports innovations from others, is willing to experiment and follow ideas through to implementation. Aligned to the changing and improving Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Culture change
The ability to plan, lead and effect positive cultural change, securing commitment and buy-in, and promoting a positive long term vision. Recognises when broader culture change is necessary to deliver a project. Aligned to the seeing the big picture, and changing and improving Civil Service behaviours.
|
Practitioner |