About The Teal Book

The UK government is responsible for delivering some of the most complex and innovative portfolios, programmes, and projects in the world. Some of these are directly delivered to transform services for citizens and people within the government. Others are delivered with external partners to improve national physical and digital infrastructure, provide humanitarian assistance, or create new capabilities in sectors such as health, environment, energy, defence and space.

It is crucial to invest wisely, deliver efficiently, and ensure sustainable outcomes and benefits for British people. This helps to respond to global challenges, transform the lives of citizens, and puts the UK at the forefront of innovation, digital delivery and sustainability.

To achieve this, practitioners need clear expectations and the necessary procedures, guidance, and tools to help meet them. The Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, first published in 2017, sets the expectation for the direction and management of portfolios, programmes, and projects for government departments and arm’s length bodies.

The Teal Book serves as the core and definitive reference on how project delivery should be done in government and provides the structure for presenting more detailed and specific policies, processes, procedures, and guidance. It supports Government Project Delivery’s commitment to continue to strengthen the delivery of portfolios, programmes, and projects, to build expertise and share learning and good practice.

Since its first publication, The Teal Book has become a widely used reference across UK central government and has attracted interest from other government functions, overseas public sector organisations, and professional bodies. In 2025, HM Treasury recognised The Teal Book as its Innovation of the Year for providing a clear, practical model for how central guidance can support delivery teams at every level. This third edition reflects continued feedback from across government and builds on that foundation.

The purpose of The Teal Book is to provide guidance to enable practitioners and teams to direct and manage portfolios, programmes and projects in government, ensuring the successful and timely delivery of government policy and business objectives.

The Teal Book supports the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery and provides:

• an overview of project delivery in government and how it is governed, assured and structured
• a description of how project delivery operates in different sectors
• descriptions of the practices and techniques involved in directing and managing a portfolio, programme or project
• descriptions of the activities and techniques involved in planning and controlling the work
• descriptions of the activities and techniques involved in delivering the solution

The guidance set out in this document is primarily aimed at project delivery practitioners and so should be of use and interest to those undertaking any of the roles described in the Project Delivery Capability Framework. In particular, this guidance is aimed at:

• portfolio directors and senior responsible owners in ensuring the breadth of practices required for successful delivery are used
• portfolio, programme and project support offices, managers, suppliers and their teams, including those undertaking specialist roles, advising them to understand how to use the practices required
• owners of departmental methodologies, ensuring that processes and techniques used are consistent in concept and scope

The guidance should also be of use to those who need an understanding of project delivery, such as those contributing from other government functions, those providing assurance and audit services, and for accounting officers and senior leaders in ensuring that an environment exists that promotes project delivery success and integrates with the other activities that their organisation is undertaking.

The guidance set out in The Teal Book applies to portfolios, programmes and projects undertaken within or across government departments and their arm’s length bodies:

• ranging from those listed in the Government Major Projects Portfolio through to those at the local business level
• whether for digital, infrastructure, transformation, service delivery, military capability, property, regulatory compliance or other purposes
• regardless of delivery methodology, approach or technique used

The guidance is written in the context of UK central government, where funding is authorised by the UK Parliament and managed in accordance with Managing public money. The approvals, processes and governance arrangements described throughout The Teal Book reflect this context. The Teal Book can also be used for project delivery in the devolved governments, where approvals and processes are set under different constitutional and financial frameworks by the relevant devolved government

Other public or private sector organisations might find this guide useful and are welcome to adapt it to their organisational context and operating environment.

The Teal Book complements other central government policy and guidance developed to support project delivery. In common with the other publications described here, The Teal Book should be embedded in the governance and management approaches used in achieving successful outcomes rather than regarded as a set of standalone or extra processes (see Part B: Tailoring and adopting The Teal Book).

The Teal Book does not replace or duplicate any of these other publications and instead sets out where they are relevant, when and, if applicable, how to apply them in a project delivery context.

Managing public money provides the main principles for dealing with resources in public sector organisations in the UK. It sets out the process for parliamentary authorisation of public resources, personal responsibilities of accounting officers in central government, the governance and management of public sector organisations and the means by which central government organisations can obtain funds.

Government functional standards are set by each function to set expectations, direction and advice for people working in and with the UK government. They bring together and clarify what needs to be done, and why, for different types of functional work. They are mandated for use in departments and their arm’s length bodies through Managing Public Money.

British standards and, later, international standards were created to promote trust and ease trade. Government functional standards work in a similar way and are system-wide reference documents designed to:

• support coherent, efficient and mutually understood ways of working across government
• provide a stable basis for continuous improvement and professional development
• provide a stable basis for proportionate and tailored assurance activities to monitor adherence, enable risk-based control and compare performance
• clarify accountabilities, by defining the roles needed, what people in those roles are accountable for, and who they are accountable to

The Functional standards common glossary brings together the defined terms used in the suite of functional standards, and which function owns each definition. This glossary is used when describing functional work to bring consistency in the vocabulary used across organisations, and help people use the same language to mean the same things, wherever they work in government.

The Project delivery glossary brings together terms from the Functional standards common glossary and defines additional terms that have specific meanings in a project delivery context. See How to use The Teal Book for more information on the conventions used.  

A number of codes of practice have been issued for central government and are referred to in The Teal Book where they apply:

• Green Book (requires log in) provides guidance on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects
• Orange Book (requires log in) outlines the principles for good risk management across government departments and their arm’s length bodies
• Magenta Book (requires log in) provides guidance on evaluation in government: its scoping, design, conduct, use and dissemination as well as the capabilities required of government evaluators
• Aqua Book (requires log in) provides guidance on producing quality analysis for government
• Rose Book provides guidance on how to manage knowledge assets in government organisations
• Commercial playbooks are produced by the Cabinet Office to improve decision-making and ensure the assessment, procurement and management of public services delivers better outcomes and value for money for the public

A wide range of publications, which support The Teal Book, are available on the topic of project delivery in government. These are available on projectdelivery.gov.uk. In particular, The Teal Book takes its authority and structure from the:

• Government functional standard for project delivery which sets the mandatory expectations for the direction and management of portfolios, programmes and projects in government. This standard is supported by its companion Continuous improvement assessment framework for project delivery which is designed to drive continuous improvement within and across government, by helping government organisations assess their adherence to and practical application of the project delivery standard
• Project delivery capability framework which is the professional standard for project delivery professionals, describes the roles and associated skills, experience and learning needed to undertake functional work