Mission-led major projects: lessons for information management

In a recent DCplus article (7 October 2025), Lawrence Chapman from the Sizewell C nuclear project asks how should information managers respond as the government evolves its approach to major projects?

Chapman notes a recent publication, Mission-led major projects, by the Major Projects Association, and says the report raises critical questions for those working in information management and digital engineering:

• How should data be structured to serve not just individual projects, but whole portfolios?
• How can we ensure interoperability across sectors? and
• How do we embed transparency and benefits measurement into our digital delivery practices?

Chapman then explores the lessons that mission-led thinking offers for information management across the major projects landscape.

Traditional project-centric information management needs to be reframed so that projects are no longer isolated efforts but part of a collective portfolio delivering national goals. Information managers must therefore design frameworks that allow consistent data standards, taxonomies and reporting across projects and programmes. Without this consistency, portfolio-level analysis and decision-making become fragmented.

The mission-led agenda demands the breakdown of silos between sectors, regions and delivery organisations. For information management, this means prioritising interoperability. Data structures, classification systems and exchange protocols must allow reuse across government, industry and regulators. Open standards such as IFC and Uniclass become more than technical preferences – they are enablers of system-wide collaboration.

Overreliance on external consultants risks hollowing out institutional memory. This applies equally to information management. Without in-house capability, organisations are unable to retain knowledge, enforce standards or learn from past programmes. Building permanent internal information management teams ensures that lessons, processes and data governance practices are carried forward rather than lost at the end of each project cycle (Chapman cites experiences at Thames Tideway and HS2 which have set a benchmark by investing heavily in internal digital engineering and information management capabilities).

Chapman goes on to note the importance of:

• systems leadership and integration
• geospatial and digital twin thinking
• stakeholder engagement and transparency
• supply chain resilience, and
• the demand for projects to report against outcomes, not just outputs.

” … mission-based government requires mission-based information management. …Information managers have a unique opportunity to help major projects deliver more than physical assets: they can deliver the data, insights and trust that underpin national missions.”