What can projects learn from 290,000 operations staff?

The National Audit Office has published a 2025 report called Smarter delivery – improving operational capability to provide better public services.

It looks at how people working in operations can deliver better outcomes by building four capabilities: taking a whole-system approach, understanding demand, using information to improve, and embedding innovation and improvement.

The report is about public services, but the lesson also matters for projects.

Projects exist to deliver outcomes and value. Operations teams are often the people who have to make those outcomes work after the project has moved on.

Key observations

In my experience, operations teams often say they are not engaged enough during the project.

That matters because projects change how work will be run. They change demand, hand-offs, roles, data, service levels, and pressure points.

Three lessons stand out.

First, whole-system planning needs operations in the room from day one. They can see dependencies, pinch points, and practical constraints that project teams may miss.

Second, demand needs to be tested early. During design, proof-of-concept, and pilot work, the project should check what the change will mean for operational capacity, workload, and support.

Third, information should be used to improve before full delivery starts. Pilots, front-line metrics, feedback, and issue logs can show what needs to change while there is still time to act.

Operations input is most useful before delivery starts.

Implication for the reader

The project point is simple.

If operations are only brought in late, the project may already have fixed its design, plan, and assumptions. At that point, operational feedback can feel like resistance, when it may actually be useful evidence.

The better move is to build operations into the early project playbook. Use design work and pilots to test the future service, not just the project plan.