The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) promotes the development and continuous improvement of all projects including the broader political goals of increasing productivity, supporting net zero ambitions, and maximising value for money. The IPA benchmarking data service team set out to build a platform that would allow government departments and arm's length bodies to confidently assess project costs and performance using data from previously completed projects. Through better benchmarking, we sought to save 1% of project expenses, resulting in considerable savings for the government and taxpayers.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) promotes the development and continuous improvement of all projects including the broader political goals of increasing productivity, supporting net zero ambitions, and maximising value for money. The IPA benchmarking data service team set out to build a platform that would allow government departments and arm's length bodies to confidently assess project costs and performance using data from previously completed projects. Through better benchmarking, we sought to save 1% of project expenses, resulting in considerable savings for the government and taxpayers.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) promotes the development and continuous improvement of all projects including the broader political goals of increasing productivity, supporting net zero ambitions, and maximising value for money. The IPA benchmarking data service team set out to build a platform that would allow government departments and arm's length bodies to confidently assess project costs and performance using data from previously completed projects. Through better benchmarking, we sought to save 1% of project expenses, resulting in considerable savings for the government and taxpayers.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) promotes the development and continuous improvement of all projects including the broader political goals of increasing productivity, supporting net zero ambitions, and maximising value for money. The IPA benchmarking data service team set out to build a platform that would allow government departments and arm's length bodies to confidently assess project costs and performance using data from previously completed projects. Through better benchmarking, we sought to save 1% of project expenses, resulting in considerable savings for the government and taxpayers.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) promotes the development and continuous improvement of all projects including the broader political goals of increasing productivity, supporting net zero ambitions, and maximising value for money. The IPA benchmarking data service team set out to build a platform that would allow government departments and arm's length bodies to confidently assess project costs and performance using data from previously completed projects. Through better benchmarking, we sought to save 1% of project expenses, resulting in considerable savings for the government and taxpayers.
The problem
How might we get and share clear, accurate, and up-to-date data from previously completed government projects?
Inaccurate estimates of major government projects result in large gaps between forecasts and actual project costs. From 2009 to 2020, the percentage rise between the forecast price and the final cost increased by 78.9% on average.
The most challenging problem for cost estimators is to access good-quality and trustworthy data. It can be difficult to collect, and they often have to rely on the 3rd party data providers at high costs.
Service blueprint as-is
Service user: types, needs and pains
Alpha scope
Find and compare data:
From learning about what IPA benchmarking service offers to downloading data files to benchmark.
Following team sessions, these are the first round of the riskiest assumptions we decided to take forward for alpha:
1. Service Value
We assumed that we could use the GOV.UK design system to create a simple accessible service that enables users to benchmark such a complex area easily.
2. Data
We assumed that government departments and ALBs own and have the benchmarking data that we need and that we will be able to get data from them to drive benchmarking service.
3. Policy
We assumed that we could provide more accurate benchmarking data from the public sector using policy implementation through this service to meet user needs.
Explore
The service to-be:
A service for benchmarking and capturing standardised data for major projects.
Service blueprint (to-be) has been mapped out to visualise the infrastructure project’s life span and gaps in policies and processes.
Service blueprint to-be
End-to-end user journey
1. Find and compare data
This journey is for external data users who need to find and compare existing project data to benchmark a new project.
2. Invite users
The IPA benchmarking team will run the service for external data users in a secure domain.
3. Create an account
This journey is for external data users and providers who need to find, compare and submit data.
Once admin users activate their accounts, they can invite colleagues who will then be able to access the service.
4. Submit data
A project team member should be able to share the project data once the project is completed.
This journey is from learning about why and how to submit project data to confirmation of data submission.
Prototype for 'Find and Compare date' journey
Design activities
1. Problem framing
• How Might We sessions
• Co-writing assumptions
• Scoring assumptions
• Planning to experiment riskiest assumptions
2. Ideation
• Review what others did
• Sketch ideas
• Shape user journey
• Create low-fi prototypes
• Data visualisation
3. Prototyping
• Interaction design
• Content creation
• High-fi prototype in Figma
• Prototype in code
4. Validation
• Validate or invalidate the riskiest assumptions
• Usability test
• Accessibility test
• Viability and feasibility check
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