When it comes to remembering the presidential legacy of Barack Obama most of us would think either that he was the first black American president or his controversial healthcare reforms – Obamacare.

I doubt that many of us would mention improving programme and project management in government. However, one of President Obama’s last official duties on the 14th December 2016 was to sign into law the Program Management Improvement and Accountabily Act of 2015 (PMIAA) which is intended to ‘enhance accountability and best practices in project and program management throughout the US federal government’.

PMIAA requires the Deputy Director for Management of the US Office of Management and Budget to:

• Adopt and oversee implementation of government-wide standards, policies, and guidelines for program and project management for executive agencies;
• Chair the Program Management Policy Council (established by this Act);
• Establish standards and policies for executive agencies consistent with widely accepted standards for program and project management planning and delivery;
• Engage with the private sector to identify best practices in program and project management that would improve federal program and project management;
• Conduct portfolio reviews to address programs identified as high risk by the Government Accountability Office (GAO);
• Conduct portfolio reviews of agency programs at least annually to assess the quality and effectiveness of program management, and
• Establish a five-year strategic plan for program and project management.^[1]

The head of each federal agency will be required to appoint a Program Management Improvement Officer to implement agency programme management policies and develop a strategy for enhancing the role of programme managers within that agency. The US Office of Personnel Management is directed to issue regulations that:

1. Identify key skills and competencies needed for an agency program and project manager.
2. Establish a new job series or update and improve an existing job series for program and project management within an agency, and
3. Establish a new career path for program and project managers.

Under the Act, the GAO is instructed to issue a report within three years examining the effectiveness of the following on improving federal program and project management:

• The standards, policies and guidelines for program and project management;
• The strategic plan;
• Program Management Improvement Officers; and
• The Program Management Policy Council

The legislation received rare bi-partisan support in the US Congress and was supported by the Project Management Institute (PMI). In the PMI’s annual Pulse of the Profession^[2] report the institute found that only 64% of US government initiatives ever met their goals and business intent and that government entities wasted $101 million for every $1 billion spent on projects and programmes. The report’s research also showed that ‘projects are 2.5 times more successful when proven project management practices are used… and waste 13 times less money.’

The PMI in association with the US National Academy of Public Administration has published a detailed white paper in July 2017 on Implementing the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act of 2015 which interested readers can download from the PMI website

It will be ironic if Obama’s enduring legacy turns out not to be the first president of colour but to have created the conditions for a step change in government programme and project efficiency.^[3]

1. Summary: S.1550 – 114^th Congress (2015-2016), https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1550
2. Pulse of the Profession, The High Cost of Low Performance, PMI 2016, http://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pulse-of-the-profession-2016.pdf
3. Implementing the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act of 2015, PMI 2017, https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/business-solutions/program-management-accountability-act.pdf