Great! Please then tell us what the answer is if they can:
a) No longer initiate new programmes
b) no longer negotiate any programmes
I went to a project management software user group meeting in the mid 80's. There were a number of industries represented there including defence. I got talking to a chap from BAE and I could not believe how far they were behind the construction industry in using computers for project management, or even critical path analysis, despite the fact that the American defence industry had developed CPA to keep the Polaris submarine project on track in the 60's
Then someone invented PRINCE (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) or how to get so far behind programme, your end project will be obsolete/redundant before it is finished. Oh how I laughed
. Then they came up with PRINCE 2 and the laughter did not stop. The Government saw this as the answer to all there problems of time and budget and made their contractors use it.
On time, on budget,
never ever, except once AFAI. The only project I ever did that had PRICE in the contract was a district general hospital reconfiguration, £30m and 18 months to do it
. I was the Planning Manger on it and the Project Manager was one of the best I ever worked with. We realised very early on that if we followed the PRICE rules, it was going to take five years to get it done, so we ignored ALL the rules of PRINCE, taking the ££££ risks of doing so ourselves. We delivered the project on time and under budget, it was unheard of to do this on a project of this size and complexity for the NHS.
The answer is employ competent project mangers, let them get on with delivering what they were tasked to deliver and do not tie their hands behind their backs.
PRINCE 2, please, don't make me laugh any more, I can't take it.