Delivering the Tranches

Task:

Review the programme governance structure effectiveness.

Review the internal governance arrangements and action lessons learned.

Confirm strategic alignment of the programme outcomes.

Identify additional change activities required to stabilise the services.

Guidance:

If Programme Assurance has been appointed, they should be involved with the review.

The review should assess the capabilities and skills of the existing Programme Team and propose the necessary changes to the programme structure to ensure the delivery of the next Tranche is optimised, in particular between the use of internal and external resources. Individuals should have performance targets and objectives set.

The nature of the team will change as it moves to the next Tranche. There should be knowledge transfer arrangements in place and it will be necessary to activate the arrangement for recruiting/procuring the team.

There may be additional change activities or opportunities that arise that can be exploited, these may be seen as opportunity risks, but the environment should be scanned to cover this.

The Governance framework may well have evolved already as part of the programme delivery. This may have affected the way the Strategies have been delivered. This may have left gaps that need to be accounted for.

If the arrangements have remained stable then this is an opportunity to reflect on the lessons of the Tranche and improve the Governance arrangements for the next Tranche, particularly if the nature of the programme is changing, for example, from construction to technology.

Task:

Initiate quality reviews of project outputs and performance.

Review and identify lessons from effect of the programme controls.

Ensure that there are acceptance sign offs for the project deliverables.

Ensure that there is business sign off of the outcomes being achieved.

Manage project escalations.

Manage the dependency network to track the programme critical path.

Manage project escalations.

Track effectiveness of project controls and compliance to framework standards.

Track and control inter programme dependencies.

Undertake an assurance review of the testing plan to confirm all elements are in place.

Review the Monitoring and Controls Strategy for effectiveness.

Review the Information Management Strategy for effectiveness.

Review the Quality and Assurance Strategy for effectiveness.

Impact assessment of lessons learned from controls and strategies and raise change requests.

Maintain configuration and change controls.

Monitor impact on physical assets performance.

Guidance:

At this point the transitions to achieve the outcomes should have been achieved, so the controls will focus on monitoring and tracking transition and project closures.

The achievement of the milestone should include the review of control effectiveness in preparation for the Gate review.

This review should look to establish whether the direction and route are correct.

 It should also look at whether the projects will build the capability that was defined for the Tranche and whether there is a justification for continuing the programme.

The Quality and Assurance Management Strategy should be reviewed and the effectiveness of audit and assurance be evaluated:

Have they happened enough to have had an impact?

Are the recommendations being adopted?

Is there adequate process to support this?

Information Management Strategy should have adequately secured and managed all programme information, including project and business information.

Check that the currency and integrity of information been maintained and associated information attributes been appropriate to the programme. Based on the review the strategy may require amendment.

The Monitoring and Control strategy will cover the interfaces with the projects and business operations, again, this one will require review and improvement.

Review and identify lessons from effect of the programme controls, these could come from the business, from project or any other sources.

Check that the proposed controls for the next Tranche are robust and are appropriate.

Task:

Ensure the review identifies potential to increase benefit opportunities.

Review the effectiveness of business performance metrics and benefits forecast confidence and refine.

Confirm the projected benefits and their ownership.

Guidance:

This is a point where benefits will be released and the change has happened, it is also very likely that there will be a lot of other activity to bring other benefits to life

The review should test and challenge the benefit profiles and the realism of the plan, benefits should have been realised or it may be that there is evidence of over optimism which could nullify the programme's value. Updates to Benefit Profiles should be issued based on the experiences to date.

The effectiveness of the Benefits Management Strategy should be assessed, including the suitability of the areas being monitored. Assess whether business performance is being effectively managed through the various controls. If benefits are not appearing, this should be a cause for concern. A Benefit Review should have been undertaken at least once.

Business Performance monitoring should already be in place to track benefits, but they may need to be extended to monitor other factors for negative or positive impact.

Task:

Gain stakeholder input on direction and alternative approaches.

Review the effectiveness of stakeholder tracking and communications plan impact.

Confirm adequate high impact stakeholder support continues.

Ensure project and programme communications plans are synchronised.

Review the effectiveness of stakeholder tracking and impact of the communications plan.

Maintain regular bulletins.

Deliver launch or major announcement events.

Track stakeholder profiles and perceptions.

Monitor and action stakeholder feedback.

Activate communications to acknowledge the achievements to date.

Guidance:

This could be a point of significant achievement, so there may be a lot of communications around business change activities that will need to be managed through the communications plans.

The Stakeholder Profiles should be maintained and reviewed. The individual stakeholder group profiles will be changing and information about them should be updated on a regular basis, a monthly review would be appropriate.

The information to maintain these profiles needs to be tested for accuracy.

The Communications Plan should be active, with clear and consistent messages being delivered effectively.

The review should test levels of support or resistance to the programme and whether they are increasing, if resistance is rising, then alternative directions may be considered.

Business representation in how and when the programmes are delivered will better enable engagement and increase changes of success. The effectiveness of the Stakeholder Management Strategy and Communications Plan should be reviewed, with any changes being made based on lessons learned.

The Communications Plan should include launch activities and how feedback will be managed to ensure optimal communications channels are developed.

Task:

Realign plans to achieve any new requirements.

Review accuracy of planning and project tolerance and adjust accordingly.

Formalise plan for the programme tranches and review.

Project transitions completed.

Guidance:

The reviews should focus on the direction of the programme and the strategy for getting there. Lessons learned on planning, customer performance and rate of change capability should be reflected in a revised plan and the plan for the next Tranche.

Assess the effectiveness of the project controls and internal programme management controls as defined in the Monitoring and Control Strategy to ensure that adequate governance of the projects is being achieved. It may be necessary to tighten or vary the levels of controls based on early experiences. The Dependency Network and planning tools should be reviewed and assessed for effectiveness and ensure the next Tranche has the appropriate toolkit in place. The Resource Management Strategy, the effectiveness of supply chain installation and also development of internal talent may require the plan or strategy to be changed.

The plan should set the pace for the programme and ensure that there are adequate controls in place to enable delivery. There should be focus on the Intermediate Blueprint, but later Tranches may need feasibility work to be undertaken. Any residual projects remaining under the control of the programme should now be terminated.

The main projects should be at Project Stage Gate 7 as their individual outputs will have been implemented and accepted into operations by the business.

Evidence of sign off will be required by the programme and where the projects have not met their quality expectations then plans to remediate should be included in actions that follow this programme milestone.

There may be projects that have not been at Project Stage Gate 7 for a variety of reasons, one may be that they have further stages.

Task:

Undertake risk impact assessment of the changes.

Review risk management effectiveness and implement improvements.

Undertake risk identification review of any new programme threats or opportunities as a result of outcomes.

Update the risk management strategy from lessons learned if necessary.

Remove risks have now passed their proximity from the risk register.

Guidance:

At this point the level of change relating to this Tranche should be nearing completion so business stability risks should be reducing or should have passed, so this is a good moment.

The review of risk should look at the current aggregated exposure and the nature of the risks. In particular, the focus should be on the risks that affect the organisation's strategy, the ability to achieve the blueprint and realisation of the benefits.

The effectiveness of the Risk Management Strategy should be evaluated. Effectiveness of the escalation routes and the identification of both risks and issues, along with effectiveness of associated processes, including change control, mitigation plans and general levels of engagement will all enable improvements to be made to the approaches.

Task:

Review effectiveness of resource management, productivity and optimise.

Review the programme resource management plan for the remainder of the tranche.

Review the resource management strategy that will be required for the remainder of the programme.

Guidance:

The achievement of a major outcome means that a significant transition has now happened, so it is the opportunity to review the effectiveness of transition resources as well as delivery resources. Resources to support sustaining the business to achieve benefits may still be needed, the resource plan should be checked for this.

This is a good moment to analyse the effectiveness of business transition resources, the change team and pick up lessons for future transitions and tranches.

Based on the review here, there may be a need to revise the resource management strategy and/or resource management plan for the programme, as well as the impacts on the projects delivering the capability.

Task:

Refine finance plans to accommodate any changes.

Review effectiveness of financial forecasting and address causes of weakness.

Review the funding strategy and anticipated costs.

Guidance:

The review should principally focus on the ongoing financial viability of the programme and, in particular, the availability of funds to support it. The balance of benefits and costs should have been under review all the way along, this is the opportunity to stand back and re-think against the bigger picture of organisational context.

The review should assess the accuracy of the estimates being provided for costs and benefits. These should be re-forecast and a revised Business Case produced to justify the programme continuing.

Funds to mobilise the programme and put the infrastructure in place need to be ring fenced to ensure availability.

Task:

Review effectiveness of supply chain productivity and optimise.

Review the procurement strategy effectiveness.

Ensure outstanding commercial changes from the transition have an action owner.

Guidance:

Where there is a major change of supplier, ensure that transition plans are handed over from the incumbent to the replacement.  There are many risks that can be triggered as knowledge may be lost.

At this point, there may be lessons learned about how the procurement was managed that will be valuable to other programmes and future Tranches, the Portfolio Office should be informed.

Outstanding actions may be best handled as programme level issues.

Task:

Undertake independent review of project output alignment to confirm Blueprint achievement.

Guidance:

The Vision Statement for the programme should still be valid; if it is not then the impact on the programme direction should be considered. It is not desirable to change a Vision Statement, but it may be worth considering re-validation and commitment.

There should be a test to ensure that the end Blueprint is still desirable and that there have been no market changes offering more optimised solutions. Ensure assumptions about developments that underpin the Blueprint are still valid and that the strategic direction of the organisation will be supported by this programme. There should be particular focus on the achievability and desirability of the next intermediate Blueprint.

The projects should now have delivered the outcomes in the Blueprint.

There should be lessons about the technical and organisational feasibility of the programme which may require changes to be made to the project or other controls.