Tasks for Project Executive >

Authorise the disbanding of the project.

You are likely to be asked to present your Business Case to the Exec Board to ensure that all bases are covered, consider taking your Senior User to the board with you to cover the operational issues and benefits that have been delivered.

Authorise the achievement of the Programme Blueprint being in place.

This is the point where the operational change has been delivered and the organisational is now stabilising.

The outcomes are when the blueprint comes to life.

You will be expected to sign off releasing staff from the project to move back into business as usual.

This is an opportunity to communicate the achievements that should not be missed, or if the outcomes have been disappointing acknowledge the situation and be upfront about it.

Assure the removal of any legacy assets, processes and working practices not required as part of the Business Operating Model.

There will be a desire in some parts of the operation to hold on to iconic assets or traditional ways of working at this point.

The failure to remove legacy systems is a common cause of failure to achieve benefits.

Leaving unsupported equipment in place will increase operational risk and cost so rigor must be applied to this work.

Ensure that the business requirements are supported by senior stakeholders.

As part of a programme, it is highly likely that what you are required to deliver is part of the programme blueprint and/or is aligned with programme benefits.

As the leader of the project you should be checking that the project team understands the constraints that they are working with and ensure alignment with the needs of the programme.

Ensure that there is a transparent and auditable assessment of potential solutions against a defined criterion.

This can only be done well if there are a number of options available. 

If you are only looking at one option, then questions should be asked about how the business design has been reached or the rigor of the options identification.

The fewer options you have, the weaker your negotiating position will be.  Therefore, it is more likely that the solution will dictate the business model rather than the business dictating the solution.

Check that the preferred approach is optimal in the strategic context, not just for this project.

It is important that this is only the preferred option at this stage.

You should be careful to ensure that the project team do not start assuming the recommended option is the only option that will now be pursued. 

At this point the recommended option will be the option that appears to be the optimal way of achieving the requirements.

Things will change so all the other options should not be discarded.

You should ensure that there are no corporate or governance issues that could cause the preferred option to be invalidated. 

It is likely that you will need to provide an update on progress to the Programme SRO and Programme Board.

Acknowledge recommendations and ensure any required actions are allocated and managed.

You are likely to be asked to present your Business Case to the Portfolio or Programme Board to ensure that all bases are covered. Consider taking your Senior User to the Board with you to cover the operational issues and benefits that are being faced.

Ensure that there is a coherent Business Operating Model that justifies the investment and that the benefits will be achieved from it.

It is tempting to focus on acquiring or building a system of some sort without working out how it will fit into the current operating model.  This work will help focus on the size of the operational change that is being planned and be the basis for decisions about specific solutions in the future.

Ensure that the team produce a design that is suitable and is aligned to the business needs.

It is critical that you seek out assurance and advice from sources external to the project to ensure that the technical design is reflecting the range of requirements, that it considers the process and organisational changes that will be required, as well as the technical specification for the asset/products.

Independent assurance could come from other projects, operational leaders or peer organisations, who may have done this type of project before.

Authorise the procurement. Sign off the selected approach and supplier.

Depending on the scale of the project, this could be a quick job or take a year.

Your job is to ensure that the approach taken to select the preferred supplier is compliant with the procurement strategy, is transparent and auditable.

Ensuring that the right priorities are being set in the evaluation criteria at the outset is essential. 

Without this, you will end up with the wrong supplier or product - you may even know it but be unable to do anything about it due to procurement procedures.

Present Business Case detail as required to the governance boards and ensure that any recommendations are actioned.

You are likely to be asked to present your Business Case to the Portfolio Board to ensure that all bases are covered.  Consider taking your Senior User to the board with you to cover the operational issues and benefits that are being faced.

Commission an assurance review to check that the contract meets the needs of business operations and sign on behalf of Organisation X .

This is the point of no return for the project expenditure as you will be committing to spending money with a supplier.

This step will include the negotiation of the contracts so ensure that appropriate exclusions and break clauses are being included to cover supplier or product performance issues.

Ensure that the corporate standards and policies are being included.

Authorise any changes to the operating model which will be necessary as a result of the negotiations.

Once the contract negotiations have been completed then the impact of the new facilities on the operating model can be assessed and refined.

It is important that this impact is communicated to the senior stakeholders so that they understand the implications and have chance to contribute.

Ensure that adequate expertise is included within the team to enable robust testing of builds.

The priority for you is that the quality and functionality of the capability being produced will enable the benefits to be delivered.

As such you should be seeing reports on progress and, in particular, watching out for apparently minor issues that could have knock on effects on the overall delivery and the achievement of the operating model.

Authorise the acceptance of the assets or services and authorise the project to move to the gate review.

You should focus on looking for tangible evidence that the capability meets the specifications and the contract.

This is a critical stop/go decision and the buck stops with you - you need to be sure that the team have covered all the bases.

It is advisable to invest in independent assurance at this point to assure yourself that the risks are fully understood. For a big project this is essential and likely to be external, for a smaller project it is worth asking a different part of the operation to do the tests.

Check performance and ensure that communication is effective to maintain senior stakeholder support.

The transition is likely to be turbulent and the voices of resistance will be loud during this period.  

It is important that you are very active and visible to your peers and the operations providing leadership.  You will also be a focal point for management concerns.

Check that performance changes have been projected.

It is really important that the level of service risk is understood, the performance prior to transition should be checked against historic levels.

 It may have already dropped for other reasons, that makes the risk to the business higher.

Ensure effective communications are in place to maintain senior stakeholder support.

This is a point which should be celebrated, whether it went smoothly or not.

Ensuring good communications and emphasising the positives generated.

Authorise the achievement of the Business Operating Model being in place.

This is the point where the operational change has been delivered and the organisational is now stabilising.

The outcomes are when the operating model comes to life.

You will be expected to sign off releasing staff from the project to move back into business as usual.

This is an opportunity to communicate the achievements that should not be missed, or if the outcomes have been disappointing acknowledge the situation and be upfront about it.

Authorise the disbanding of the project.

You are likely to be asked to present your Business Case to the Exec Board to ensure that all bases are covered, consider taking your Senior User to the board with you to cover the operational issues and benefits that have been delivered.

Sign off the final acceptance of the services or assets on behalf of Organisation X .

The capability should now have been proven in the operational environment and all issues should be stabilised.

Prior to sign off you should ensure all stakeholders have been consulted and views sought.

The sign off should be based on the achievement of the contracted specifications not on whether operations like the solution.