Infrastructure Journal recently posted an article about what happened when City of Edinburgh Council adopted the FAST Modelling Standard for a financial modelling project. It is based on interviews with staff at City of Edinburgh Council and Ernst & Young and looks at why a change in established working practices was desirable and what the effects of the Standard were on the project and the staff involved.

One of the members of the CEC team, Alasdair Black, Finance Manager at the Zero Waste Project, summarised the project team’s experiences:

“I think maybe some members of the project team were a bit apprehensive to take this on – it was potentially a big risk and it might have been safer to go down the tried and tested route. Now, the standardised approach is mentioned internally as a great thing and good value for money. It works well for everyone – we have had good feedback from the project board and the consultants are supportive of it.”

Gordon Pollock, Project Manager for Zero Waste said,

“As the client, high quality modelling support is non negotiable. Adopting the FAST standard has facilitated this service being provided internally. I have the full support and confidence I need. Also, a lot of money has been saved that would otherwise have been incurred on consultants”.

For subsribers to IJ online, the article is available here. Alternatively you can download a PDF copy.

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