Where this applies
A major project or program is being mobilised.
The schedule and the delivery plan assume an organisation that behaves the way the org chart describes it.
How it shows up
- The same decision returns to the steering committee more than once.
- Team workload rises while the critical path keeps slipping.
- Reviews queue behind the same few specialists.
- Risks are identified and recorded, but remain open.
The context
A program is generally mobilised based on the governance plan, the organisational chart, the responsibility matrix and the delivery schedule. These are written at the beginning, often before some of the people who will run the program have been appointed, and they describe the organisation the program expects to have, for the work as it was understood at the time.
As delivery progresses, the understanding of the work matures and the work itself can change character. Decisions move to where the information is, the interfaces between teams settle into working arrangements, and what is learned in one part of the program reaches the others at different speeds. The documented structure and the operating structure diverge without the change being recorded. The program usually continues to report against its plan, and the cost becomes evident late, when a decision has been taken by a team that did not hold the full picture, or held back by one that assumed another team did.
When
The structure set at mobilisation describes the work as it was understood at the time, and the work keeps maturing after that.
Before
Before mobilisation, while the governance, the decision rights and the information flows are still being set, so they fit the work the program is taking on.
During
During delivery, when the arrangements need realigning on what the program is there to achieve and who does what, before the gap between the plan and the current state becomes more expensive to close.
After
After completion, when a retrospective with the people who delivered the program carries what was learned into the next one, including where the contract carries a continuous improvement obligation.
What we do
Establish the real starting conditions.
We establish how decisions, approvals and information currently move across the program, with the people who hold them, against what the governance documents describe.
Define how it needs to work.
We design the decision structure and the information flows with the teams that will run delivery, and pressure-test them against scenarios the program is likely to face, drawing on the experience of the people in the room.
Set the sequence and the measures.
We define the order in which the arrangements are put in place, the conditions each phase has to meet, and the measures that show how the program is being run.
What you get
How the program currently runs.
How decisions are made, where approvals go and how information moves today, recorded and confirmed by the people who run it.
Who decides what.
The decision rights, delegations and approval paths, with forums sized to decide, set against the delivery plan.
Who needs to know what, by when.
The information flows between teams and forums, so what is learned in one part of the program reaches the others in time to inform their decisions.
Measures of how the program is run.
Measures such as decision turnaround, actions closed against actions raised, rework from late changes, and decisions documented with their rationale, including the options considered and why they were set aside.
The conditions for each phase.
What each phase has to deliver before the next begins, defined in advance and agreed by those who approve it.
How the plan stays current.
At each milestone, what has been delivered is checked against the conditions set for it, and the phases that follow are reassessed against where the program now stands, with a defined way to approve changes to the plan itself.
Where else this applies
Technology and AI
A technology or AI implementation is going in.
The requirements were specified against the documented process, and the conditions the pilot succeeded in are not the ones it has to scale into.
Joint venture
A joint venture or alliance has to work as one.
The contract sets out how the parties will work together, and neither party works exactly that way today.
Transformation
A transformation has been signed off.
The plan was approved against how the business is described, and it now has to succeed under the conditions in which the business currently operates.
To start that conversation, get in touch.
The first step is a conversation about the program, what has been committed, and where the open questions are. It takes about an hour and it produces a view on whether this is the right work to do.
The first stage can also be commissioned on its own. It sets the starting conditions and defines what the rest of the work would involve.
Get in touch