Project Routemap - Setting up projects for success
Project Routemap is the IPA’s support tool for novel or complex major projects. It helps sponsors and clients understand the capabilities needed to set projects up for success, incorporating learning from other major projects and programmes.
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What is Routemap? How is Routemap applied?
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What benefits can Routemap bring to your project?
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What is Routemap?
Successful project set up can take more time at the start but this is repaid many times over in delivery. It is proven that projects that focus on early stage capability development are much more likely to achieve their intended outcomes.
Routemap provides an early intervention that supports this effective project set up. It is a structured and tested methodology that ensures best practice and learning about the most common causes of project failure are considered at crucial early stages of development.
How does Routemap work?
Routemap is flexible. You can either apply it across the full scope of your project or to explore a particular area in more detail. Support is provided for both of these approaches through a collaborative process designed to bring stakeholders together to improve project-specific capabilities. Alternatively you can just use it as a standalone reference to identify relevant good practice from other projects.
Routemap has been used by many of the UK’s biggest, complex and most high-profile projects since its first publication in 2014. The benefits vary depending on the project and range from selection of the most appropriate delivery model, to clearer governance arrangements and speedier decision-making. Whatever the project, applying Routemap gives confidence to the people delivering projects, those approving them, and those investing in them.
What are the Routemap materials?
Routemap encompasses a Handbook, which explains what the Routemap is and how to use it, and accompanying seven modules. The modules offer guidance on the most common challenges for projects and explore good practice to identify and address gaps in capability.
Since Routemap’s first publication the way projects are delivered has evolved and our expectations of value are rightly higher. In summer 2021, updated versions of the UK Routemap handbook and accompanying modules will be published. These will incorporate new and emerging best practice in public and private sector project delivery and align with standards including the UK Government’s Project Delivery Functional Standard and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Building on its success with economic infrastructure, Routemap has also been expanded to cover social and defence-related infrastructure projects and includes guidance for application to non-infrastructure projects as well.
To access the international versions of all the Routemap materials, which have been specially adapted for a global audience, please click here.
Case Studies
View case studies that have used the Project Routemap.
For more information, please contact routemap@ipa.gov.uk.
Last updated 28 February 2022 + show all updates
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NEW IPA Delivery Planning Module updated
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Update to handbook
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Revised handbook published
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Publication of updated modules
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Updated modules published
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Update to text
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Factsheet updated
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Move of international version to separate page.
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These attachments are additional, new versions for international audiences
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Updated with: Asset Management Module - Improving Infrastructure Delivery: Project Initiation Routemap Risk Management Module - Improving Infrastructure Delivery: Project Initiation Routemap An updated handbook An updated fact sheet Governance module Requirements module Execution Strategy module ODD module Procurement module
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Added new documents, and link to new case studies
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First published.