Our client was a UK government department seeking to deliver a complex programme.
A UK government department was managing a complex change programme involving 15 government organisations. The department chaired a change delivery board, which included representatives from the organisations.
With just three months remaining until a hard delivery deadline, the department commissioned us to support the change programme. We were asked to establish a Project Management Office (PMO) to monitor each organisation’s preparations for the change and to maintain a complete picture of risks.
Due to COVID-19, all project management activities had to be conducted remotely, primarily through videoconference meetings.
Senior civil servant and project sponsor
Given the tight timeline and the many stakeholders, it was essential to break the task down into manageable parts. We worked with the department to identify eight distinct workstreams.
Each workstream was allocated a lead department or agency, whose contact we met with weekly to evaluate the completed work, upcoming planned work and any issues that required the change delivery board’s attention.
We combined this information with our broader understanding of the goals and progress to create whole-of-programme insights for the board. We updated the board weekly with a PMO report and meeting.
The PMO gave the department a strong foundation to push the change forward. Benefits to the board included:
We supported the board to complete its change mission ahead of the deadline. Seven of the eight workstreams were completed before the deadline and the remaining one was prevented from completion due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The deadline had potential to cause significant disruption, but thanks to the workstreams all stakeholder organisations were prepared for the change when it arrived.