Capital Development Guidelines

{Cover all high level issues that would be covered in an Executive Director’s briefing.}

1. Clear, succinct summary of the service delivery requirement to be addressed.
2. Project Objectives
3. Alignment with government, departmental, and program strategic directions.
4. Project Status
5. Project Profile Model
6. Options to be explored further in next phase.
7. Next Steps in Progressing Project

The Executive Summary should be 3 pages for small projects, a maximum of 5 pages for complex projects. Write it as if this is the only part of the document that will be read. It should cover all the issues that a decision maker will need to know about.

Write the Executive Summary at the end of the documentation, but do leave sufficient time to write it. It can be time consuming to get the arguments and logic clear in a few pages.

If it is written well, the Executive Summary can be used as the main source of briefing material.

Use short summary tables where these help clarify the points made.

For more information regarding Executive Summaries, including some recent examples, please email capital@dhs.vic.gov.au.