A new team is being set up by Rotorua Lakes Council to ensure better management and outcomes of its projects and programmes.
The establishment of a project management office was recommended in a project performance report commissioned by the council's chief financial officer last year.
While the report found there were some "pockets of excellence", there were also eight key challenge areas identified.
The team will define and maintain standards for project, programme and portfolio management within an organisation.
The process of setting up this team started earlier this year, including discussions with about 12 councils who had already implemented a project management office.
The setting up process is now in the "execution phase".
The team will be small, with one position already filled and another being sought.
"It's all about getting better at doing projects basically," Project Management Office and risk manager Aimee McGregor told the Operations and Monitoring Committee at yesterday's meeting.
"[Project management offices] can make quite a big difference in the performance of an organisation ... There are good opportunities to make improvements."
Ms McGregor said the council had about 100 projects going on at any given time, though around 20 were classed as "high priority projects".
"We don't want to create process for process sake ... The more simple projects won't need much additional support."
Ms McGregor said the team would help make sure the council's projects were delivered on time, on budget and were meeting the goals set.
Committee chairman and councillor Charles Sturt said if the establishment of this team would "create no surprises" he was "all for it".
Council chief executive Geoff Williams added that project management was not new to the organisation.
"We are a middle-sized council and councils of this size tend to gravitate to either say 'we're going to have a project management office', which is the norm for very big councils, or not. If the answer is 'or not' then there is a greater reliance placed on external project management ... That is where we have been.
"With the increase of the number and size of the projects in front of us ... we really need to lift our capability internally to make sure we're well placed to deliver on those."
Key challenges the PMO aims to improve:
- Large number of diverse projects
- Alignment of project activity to strategy
- Visibility of projects across and up the organisation
- Internal maturity of project management disciplines
- Staff project management capability
- Common project policies, framework and standards
- Connectivity and integration of resources
- Consistency of priorities of projects and programmes