In our 15+ years of hands-on transformation experience, early 6-9 months decide much of the programme’s success; we developed a Programme Set-up Framework (PSF) to help avoiding common pitfalls
The problem
- Many large scale transformation programmes fail to deliver what they promise; they are “over budget”; deliver late and/or defer delivery of benefits; do not offer expected quality and fail to stand the test of time for “future-proofed” flexibility and modularity.
- In our experience, much of the future programme’s success is defined by its early stages: from the initial idea to the start of implementation. The ability to act in later stages diminishes and “fighting mode” becomes often common practice.
The solution
- We developed a Programme Set-up Framework describing the “tool box” each programme should develop (or actively decide to skip);
- It provides a generic “Staged and Gated” process structuring early stages of the programme and proposing internal and external (e.g. by Group function) reviews and approvals;
- In Guidance Chapters, background and hands-on recommendations are given to the programme team, mitigating the risk of typically low practical experience in the wider team;
- The team is equipped with generic, yet relevant, templates and outlines of the most programme artefacts.
The result
- The Programme Set-up Framework has been successfully tested at several large IT transformation programmes of tier-1 operators in Europe;
- A pan-European operator employed a framework based on PSF as their prescribed methodology for initiating and signing-off large IT programmes;
- The PSF is designed to set-up programmes, but it also proved helpful in on-going programmes to quickly identify and close gaps, making the programme more successful.
