Programme & Project Assurance - Where is your project data?
Mark Weller
I work with specialty re/insurance and regulated clients to help them deliver on their data and digital journey. Providing consulting advice, technology solutions and industry leading people.
In the current climate many firms are looking at their 2021 technology and business led project portfolio. Like previous years the money available to deliver projects is finite, and therefore the top 20% of projects will have the focus and resource based on appropriate budget allocation. As always there will not be enough to deliver everything - the critical versus nice to haves. Balancing the delivery of these projects using employees and external partners is nothing new, and selecting the wrong partners can be terminal.
The challenge this year however is the quantity of business critical projects that go beyond 2021 as a result of the rapidly changing landscape we find ourselves in. The digital revolution has been forced upon us irreversibly, and at great speed, so the need to catch up or try and stay ahead is paramount. Digital programmes are now everywhere! The micro and macro economics are all changing at an unprecedented pace to make things even harder. To select, initiate and begin the delivery of projects as we go into 2021 requires particularly careful planning and governance, not to mention the skills and nerves of a high rope walker!
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, - the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope!
Whilst many programmes initiate successfully all come to a critical point of no return. Critically one aspect is still often overlooked. Ensuring that the project data is managed with transparency and access, using a central secure cloud based application. This means that as the programme or project goes beyond the point of no return, the fundamental project data to support decision making, on either technical or financial decisions, is documented.
"Too often critical documents are not available and in essence the project DNA that underpins successful delivery is lost." Programme Manager, ECMS
Using an independent partner firm to provide the "check and balance" to managing projects or programmes successfully could not only assure delivery, but provide valuable cost savings that can be directed to many other much needed projects.
Food for thought...