Effective Delivery Checklist
This interactive checklist will give tailored feedback to event organisers or other interested users. Answer the questions to see how you score and be directed to the most relevant resources and case studies.
Institutional set-up and organisational management checklist
Establish clear divisions of responsibility and decision-making for the delivery of infrastructure and associated services
Have the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders for the delivery of infrastructure and associated services been mapped?
Is there a plan in place to regularly revisit the mapping of responsibilities over the course of the delivery of the Games as organisations are stood-up or wound down and roles evolve?
Have mechanisms and instruments to institutionalise and formalise roles and responsibilities been developed? Potential mechanisms could include:
- Ad-hoc legislation
- Memoranda of Understanding
- Terms of Reference
- Letters of Direction
- Responsibility matrices
Is the senior leadership of key institutional stakeholders integrated in the OCOG’s decision-making structures?
Put in place informal or technical coordination mechanisms to increase agility in decision-making
Are there internal mechanisms and processes to ensure the OCOG speaks with one voice?
Have formal governance and decision-making structures been established?
Membership to these structures should seek to balance between the appropriate level of seniority for decision-making and the technical expertise to provide adequate oversight.
Are there informal governance mechanisms, such as working groups or peer networks, in place at a working level?
The number of parties involved in the delivery of Games infrastructure can make efficient formal decision-making challenging, reinforcing the need for informal collaboration and high levels of trust.
Is there a plan to review the performance of collaboration mechanisms and their suitability as delivery progresses?
Build a flexible organisational structure to support delivery of infrastructure and associated services
Have you determined the roles and profiles required for the successful delivery of infrastructure and associated services? Do they account for the changing nature of the OCOG’s role and associated skill requirements through the Games delivery process?
Is the OCOG’s functional structure adequately flexible to adapt through the Games delivery process? This could include different areas ramping up or down at different points in the process, or transitioning from one focus to another (e.g. from preparing and executing tenders to contract management).
Are there specific plans for the rapid on-boarding, training and potential certification of the large number of volunteers generally required to successfully deliver infrastructure-related services?
Invest in leadership and staff with the capabilities to deliver a complex programme of infrastructure and associated services
Have you identified positions and functions where experience in Games-specific delivery is most valuable?
This may be most important where Games infrastructure and related supply chains are highly specialised or where there is limited local experience with delivering infrastructure related services at a comparable scale.
Have you identified and leveraged opportunities for secondments from local organisations (e.g. national and regional governments)?
This may be most important where local context is critical, such as security or transportation.
Is there a detailed training and knowledge transfer plan focused on the roles and capabilities required for the successful delivery of infrastructure and associated services?
Sustainability and legacy checklist
Maximize the use of existing infrastructure and use temporary venues where there is no long-term need
Have you completed a full inventory and assessment of all existing venues in the area of the Games?
Have you completed long-term business plans for all planned new or refurbished permanent venues to determine whether there is sufficient post-event demand and resourcing that investment in permanent venues is justified?
Business plans should be adequately scoped for realistic legacy use and address ongoing operations and maintenance costs. Post-Games viability should be subject to a detailed assessment of costs and revenues, including of the market conditions in which the venue will operate in the long-term.
Incorporate and prioritise legacy planning from the beginning of the delivery of the Games
Have you clearly assigned responsibility for legacy within the OCOG?
Have you established legacy considerations as part of the OCOG’s decision-making processes?
Resilience and maintenance criteria should be taken into account for project design, budgeting, selection and prioritisation and procurement processes should enable decision-makers to deliver in a way that maximises lifetime value.
Has a dedicated body or organisation outside of the OCOG with responsibility for the longer-term legacy of the Games been established?
If a specific body or organisation with responsibility for legacy exists (whether dedicated or not), is that organisation formally involved in relevant decision-making?
Implement clear sustainability strategies when procuring infrastructure and associated services
Have you created a dedicated sustainability function and/or made a senior leader responsible for sustainability targets?
Have you conducted an assessment and prioritisation exercise to identify areas where a sustainability lens should be applied? This may include (among others):
- Climate change and carbon footprint
- Gender and racial equity
- Disability inclusion
Have you developed robust policies for priority areas, and incorporated sustainability goals into broader policies (e.g. procurement policy)? This could include leveraging existing good practices and tools from inside and outside sport.
Have you clearly defined standards and targets, and communicated them widely? Particular emphasis should be placed on communication with the supplier community.
Have you established a framework to undertake monitoring and regular reporting on progress towards sustainability targets?
Have you conducted an evaluation of sustainability risks the OCOG does not or will not have the institutional capacity to adequately mitigate? For example, this might include workers’ rights and remedy mechanisms.
Have you identified appropriate organisations to partner with to address these risks? Elements of these partnerships could include policy development and learning and the organisation of technical seminars.
Stakeholder and citizen participation checklist
Detailed and ongoing mapping is required to understand the stakeholder landscape
Have you undertaken a stakeholder mapping for the delivery of infrastructure and associated services, or a broader stakeholder mapping which includes the delivery of infrastructure and associated services?
Determining who the relevant stakeholders are, their interests, how they will affected by the Games, and the influence they could have on the delivery of infrastructure and associated services is a key step to managing risks around stakeholder participation.
Have you identified any legal requirements for stakeholder participation?
Depending on the local context, there may be legal obligations to undertake some forms of stakeholder participation or to engage with certain groups.
Is there a plan to maintain and update the stakeholder mapping throughout the delivery cycle?
Ensure access for all stakeholders and citizens with an interest in Games infrastructure and associated services
Are there measures to disseminate information on infrastructure projects and associated services, including their potential short and long-term effects?
This should include the on-demand provision of information and proactive measures to disseminate information.
Is information being disclosed in a standardised, accessible, reusable, understandable and machine-readable format, in a periodic and timely fashion?
Are there opportunities for stakeholders and citizens to provide feedback on the planning and delivery of Games infrastructure and associated services? Are there processes and measures to incorporate stakeholder and citizen perspectives, concerns, and recommendations into decision-making?
This could include open meetings and town halls (online and in-person), public consultations, or deliberative assemblies.
Have you considered mechanisms and processes that would involve citizens and stakeholders in decision-making, co-creation of ongoing monitoring related to infrastructure and associated services?
This could include crowdsourcing, hackathons or public challenges, civic monitoring, or the co-design of solutions.
Is there a strategy to address mis- and disinformation?
By building capacity for timely and preventive efforts to respond to problematic content, OCOGs can position themselves to counter the spread and effects of mis- and disinformation.
Stakeholder participation strategies should promote inclusive collaboration
Has a stakeholder participation plan been developed and published?
The plan should include details of how the OCOG will engage with different groups, such as how to provide meaningful information, what venues or formats to use, and how input from stakeholders will be incorporated into decision-making.
Are there specific and tailored tools to remove potential barriers to participation for vulnerable, underrepresented, or marginalised groups? Are there incentives in place to foster the participation of these groups?
Have you identified specific measures and policies required for disadvantaged groups to benefit from the delivery of Games infrastructure and associated services?
Programme management checklist
Use robust, evidence-based analysis to guide delivery mode decisions
Are there clear criteria for evaluating available delivery modes?
Criteria should be based on projects’ characteristics, the optimal risk allocation and the use of value for money analytical tools.
Does the project have a transparent and appropriate allocation of risks throughout the full life cycle?
Have the different delivery models been stress tested by checking their sensitivity to circumstances when certain risks materialise?
Take measures to ensure market readiness and capacity
Has a comprehensive analysis and evaluation been undertaken to ensure a strong understanding of the structure of the market?
Is there a plan to engage with suppliers and business associations to present procurement strategies?
This could include details on planning, scope, identified delivery mode, procurement method, requirements and award criteria.
Take a strategic approach to supplier management
Has an overall contract and supplier management strategy been developed before going to tender? Has the strategy been incorporated into the development of tender documents?
Have you undertaken an analysis of the OCOGs’ supplier portfolio, including evaluating the relative importance of suppliers to OCOGs from a risk perspective?
Have you implemented mechanisms and processes to go beyond first-tier contractors and develop visibility on the full supply chain?
Implement a risk-based approach to manage the short timelines inherent to Games delivery
Has risk management been incorporated into all stages of the delivery of infrastructure and associated services?
Are there standardised tools to identify, assess and monitor risks and bring them to the attention of relevant personnel?
Have procurement activities and tracking been integrated into the OCOG’s overall financial management and budgeting processes?
Now what?
The graph below displays results based on answers you provided to the questions in the checklists. Click on each segment of the graph to access relevant good practices and external resources
1
Institutional Set-Up
2
Sustainability and Legacy
3
Stakeholder Participation
4
Programme Management
Case studies
External resources
IPA Routemap on Governance
Project Routemap is the United Kingdom Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s (IPA) support tool for novel or complex major projects.
The Governance module of Project Routemap helps to assess the suitability of existing or proposed governance arrangements. It includes consideration questions across four pillars (allocating and exercising accountability, empowering decision-making, maintaining alignment with corporate strategy, and reporting effectively and embedding assurance) to assess governance arrangements and suggest improvements, as well as 10 good practice examples.
Responsibility Matrices
Responsibility matrices can be useful tools for mapping and assigning the participation of various organisations involved in the delivery of infrastructure and services. The examples at right provide a range of approaches to setting up and assigning responsibilities:
- An approach from the Public Olympic Authority for Rio 2016, responsible for coordinating the efforts of federal, state and municipal governments to prepare and stage the Games. Its Responsibility Matrix listed projects, responsibilities and financial contributions and was regularly updated and published.
- A comprehensive example of the roles and duties of various positions compiled by Crossrail Limited for the Crossrail project in London, UK. It outlines the tasks and responsibilities across all levels of management, from the Chief Executive to the Head of Urban Intergration.
ProcurCompEU
ProcurCompEU is a tool designed by the European Commission to support the professionalisation of public procurement. It defines 30 key competences and can be used by organisations to assess and enhance their procurement function to respond to the organisation’s priorities.
Major Project Leadership training
Major Project Leadership training can help to retain and build critical infrastructure skills and expertise on major project delivery.
While necessarily context dependent, the examples to the right have been identified by the G20 Global Infrastructure Hub.
IPA Routemap on Organisational Design and Development
Project Routemap is the United Kingdom Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s (IPA) support tool for novel or complex major projects.
The Organisational Design and Development module of Project Routemap helps to establish appropriate organisational design and provides gives guidance on change management approaches. It includes consideration questions across four pillars (understanding organisational context, designing the organisation, developing the organisation, and a managing ongoing change) to guide organisational design and change, as well as 10 good practice examples.
IPA Project Delivery Capability Framework
The IPA’s Project Delivery Capability Framework describes the job roles, capabilities and learning for project delivery professionals. It contains three main elements:
- ‘Career pathways’ that set out the job roles within the profession
- Technical and behavioural competencies aligned to those roles
- A development section to enable project delivery professionals to identify the right development for them
While developed for use in the United Kingdom Government, the Framework may be useful for OCOGs in identifying the skills and capabilities required for project delivery, as well as a template for skills development.
European Investment Bank: The Economic Appraisal of Investment Projects at the EIB
The Guide illustrates how the Bank conducts economic appraisal of projects. It takes a broader view than standard financial appraisals that focus on private financial returns to include other benefits and costs to society, accounting for all resources used by the project, whether human, technological, or natural, and gauges the value the project generates to all stakeholders. The Guide includes methodology specific to the tourism sector, including venues, and a case study involving a multi-purpose sport, social and cultural arena.
Asian Development Bank Guidelines for the Economic Analysis of Projects
The Guidelines set out a general approach to the economic analysis of projects. They include a financial evaluation of the project and financial analysis of the implementing entity, supported by detailed guidelines on the financial management and analysis of projects.
OECD Infrastructure Toolkit: Value for Money
Ensuring fiscal sustainability is an integral part of ensuring the success of infrastructure projects. This involves embedding evidence-based project appraisals, implementing an effective prioritisation process and ensuring affordability within public budgets.
The OECD Infrastructure Toolkit is an online resource to guide the planning, financing and delivery of infrastructure.
Implementing the OECD Recommendation on Global Events and Local Development: A Toolkit
The toolkit provides concrete guidance on the full life-cycle of global events, including the pre-bidding, bidding, operational and delivery, and evaluation phases. It includes a detailed self-assessment checklist to track progress. Many elements of this checklist are applicable to the sustainability and legacy risks faced by OCOGs.
Fédération internationale de l’automobile’s (FIA) environmental accreditation programme
The programme introduces a clear and consistent environmental management system, and includes a detailed self-assessment tool. While aimed at motor sport and mobility stakeholders, the Guidelines and Self-Assessment Tool can be a useful guide and tool for OCOGs
Nature-Based Solutions Tools Catalogue
The catalogue provides an inventory and assessment of nature-based solutions tools (methodologies, software, catalogues, repositories, e-platforms, guidelines and handbook) to support climate resiliency. Aimed primarily at cities, a number of the tools can be useful for OCOGs and their partners.
UNEP Sustainability-Weighted Procurement Portfolio Model
The model supports organizations in identifying procurement categories that represent the highest sustainability risk exposure, and where interventions will yield the highest relative sustainability impact.
European Commission Green Public Procurement (GPP) Criteria
The GPP criteria provide a framework and examples to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in tender documents for categories including catering and cleaning services.
OCOGs could choose, according to their needs and priorities, to include all or only certain requirements in their tender documents.
OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises – National Contact Point (NCP)
The Guidelines provide non-binding principles and standards for responsible business conduct in a global context. Governments adhering to the Guidelines have set up NCPs whose role includes providing a mediation and conciliation platform for resolving practical issues that may arise with the implementation of the Guidelines.
OCOGs operating in adherent countries could consider promoting the NCPs’ grievance process for the resolution of issues of alleged non-observance of the Guidelines throughout their supply chains.
OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes
Guidelines for organisations designing, planning, and implementing a citizen participation process. The guidelines walk through ten steps to design, plan, and implement a citizen participation process, and detail eight to involve citizens, illustrated with good practice examples.
Meaningful stakeholder engagement: A joint publication of the Multilateral Financial Institutions Group on Environmental and Social Standards
Based on lessons learned and evolving standards, this technical note summarizes key objectives, principles and elements of stakeholder engagement with an emphasis on integrating stakeholder engagement into project design and implementation. The note proposes ten elements that ought to be present in a systematic and meaningful stakeholder engagement process.
Stakeholder engagement: A good practice handbook for companies doing business in emerging markets
The handbook aims to provide good practice “essentials” for managing stakeholder relationships, with a dedicated focus on stakeholder groups that are external to the core operation of the business, such as affected communities, local government authorities, non-governmental and other civil society organizations, local institutions and other interested or affected parties.
Part One of the handbook contains the key concepts and principles of stakeholder engagement, the practices that are known to work, and the tools to support the delivery of effective stakeholder engagement. Part Two shows how these principles, practices and tools fit with the different phases of the project cycle, from initial concept, through construction and operations, to divestment and/or decommissioning.
OECD Good practice principles for deliberative processes for public decision making
This guide presents common principles and good practices on the establishment of deliberative processes.
Deliberative processes convene groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations, and can provide an innovative approach to engaging with citizens.
Inclusive infrastructure and social equity: Practical guidance for increasing the positive social outcomes of large infrastructure projects
This Reference Tool on Inclusive Infrastructure and Social Equity provides an actionable framework for an inclusive approach to infrastructure and is designed to provide guidance that is practical and based on global lessons learned. It presents the key pillars of inclusive infrastructure and their related practices in detail, as well as a number of case studies
Open Policy Making toolkit
This manual from the UK Cabinet Office includes information about using collaborative approaches and applying analytical techniques to create more open and user-led policy.
EPA Public Participation Guide
This guide from the American Environmental Protection Agency provides tools for public participation and public outreach in environmental decision-making; however, many of the tools and insights are widely applicable where public input is important to decision-making.
How to design and plan public engagement processes: a handbook
This handbook provides guidance for designing and planning effective and empowering public engagement processes. It includes a structured framework with concrete stages to map strategic considerations, identify requirements, develop a process design and elaborate a detailed plan.
Guide to Digital Participation Platforms
This guide explains how digital participation platforms can engage citizens in all types and stages of participatory processes. It also includes guidance for selecting and setting up a platform, and using it to run a participation process.
Support Tool for Effective Procurement Strategies (STEPS)
The STEPS tool bridges a major capability gap for public and private sector procurement of infrastructure and other bespoke projects. STEPS approaches the development of procurement strategies in an evidence-based way, helping project owners identify and manage potential procurement failures.
A comprehensive procurement strategy developed using STEPS helps to define, among others, the capabilities required in-house, contract scoping, and commercial terms. More broadly, STEPS sheds light on the options and trade-offs project owners face in achieving their objectives.
Reference Guide on Output Specifications for Quality Infrastructure
This reference guide is designed to assist in the development of output specifications (i.e. a technical specification that predominantly adopts performance-based requirements to define the project scope) to deliver quality infrastructure.
Focused on PPPs, it includes sector case studies and output specification examples across a range of jurisdictions and sectors.
OECD Infrastructure Toolkit: Procurement Strategies
Procurement is an essential part of the infrastructure life-cycle, it is thus important that it is done in an efficient and transparent manner to ensure infrastructure objectives are achieved.
The OECD Infrastructure Toolkit is an online resource to guide the planning, financing and delivery of infrastructure.
Rapid mobilisation playbook
The New Zealand rapid mobilisation playbook is designed to help construction or infrastructure projects get started faster. It includes tools such as checklists and templates to support tasks including risk allocation and project team and governance selection.
Project and programme management
The United Kingdom’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) supports the successful delivery of infrastructure and large-scale projects.
Compendium of large infrastructure projects
Through an analysis of projects across the EU, this report identifies three recommendations for the European Commission, namely: 1) to improve the training of both procurement and project management professionals in the selection and implementation of the procurement procedures; 2) to recognise procurement as playing a significant role in the overall design of the project organisation and its resulting long term capability; and 3) to strengthen the efforts to facilitate a more dynamic form of knowledge creation through the development of national and pan European communities of infrastructure organisations.
Checklist of potential risks in the goods and services procurement process
The Tasmanian Government (Australia) developed a checklist of potential risks in the procurement cycle that is composed of 11 parts.
