Not long after the completion of Terminal 5, Development Projects launched a business transformation programme. They were seeking quicker, lower risk and more beneficial implementation of their projects. Whilst they were shrewd enough to recognise that altering procedures alone would not achieve the necessary behavioural changes; they also recognised that trying to achieve the changes off the back of inconsistent methods and processes would not be sensible.

One set of processes in need of updating existed around the project lifecycle and it’s supporting assurance functions. With LHR’s overarching transformation to a benefits led programme organisation, aligned to recognisable industry standards, this lifecycle refresh was a critical undertaking requiring buy-in from all levels of the organisation and also needed to be done with pace, a challenging undertaking but one LHR took head-on.

Because of this and especially the need to move at pace it was decided to conduct a ‘Blitz’ week; key stakeholders from the delivery and operational interface communities were invited to participate in an intensive five day exercise. This would culminate with a live presentation at the end of week, to the senior leadership team of the Development Projects division, of the proposed lifecycle. The presentations objective was to gain their endorsement for developing the detailed view and supporting sub-processes of lifecycle management and project assurance.

CITI was engaged to guide and facilitate the ‘blitz’ week for several reasons; our acknowledged expertise in industry standards (Cabinet Office, APM etc), a proven track record in assisting other large organisations with similar challenges and expertise in delivery of change management initiatives and their governance. This would all prove valuable and is also coupled to a strong ethos of practical application. This meant they could quickly translate external best practice and fundamental principles into LHR’s language and existing processes. Working from first principles the team started by matching existing practice to a stage gated process; the client quickly came to re-discover the value of some fundamental ‘rules’ that had been lost in the development of their current processes. Three particularly valuable points were:

1. The primacy of the business case in steering projects to a successful conclusion
2. Differentiating approvals from authorisations, and
3. Early and consistent involvement of the users to achieve benefit.

They also discovered some new techniques; how to effectively tailor the processes to individual circumstances and the necessity for partnership between the project manager, sponsor and the affected lines of business to agree appropriate courses of action within the framework. This included identifying ways of shortening the project durations through tailoring the assurance processes that supported the project lifecycle. This was achieved by tailoring the level of assurance through a semi-automated approach, dependent on the risk and complexity of the project; this would ultimately break the dependence on ‘heavy-duty’ formalised board reviews of all projects.

Of course, process alone wouldn’t deliver the benefits. These would depend on the project management and sponsoring community adjusting their behaviour to a more cost and risk balanced approach to the establishment of governance for each piece of work. Further development was needed to start making this change but the lifecycle and processes started to act as pull-through for this to take place. Foremost amongst these additional changes were the development and delivery, by CITI, of sponsor and senior management capability in leading change initiatives from a benefits and outcomes based perspective. Of similar importance was the work, on developing and delivering, for both the programme/project management and also the sponsor and business functions, the material to understand and craft effective business cases – a significant and ongoing initiative.

The far-sightedness and wisdom of Heathrow’s investment is paying off. During a recent best-practice seminar the sponsor of the work was able to publicly identify several critical changes in the organisation’s behaviour. Foremost amongst these was the ability to take a forward looking view of why a piece of work should or shouldn’t proceed. The convention still operated by many organisations is that proceeding is based on approval of what has gone before rather than authorisation of what is to come. To get to this point different questions, different areas of expertise and different mind-sets need to be applied – if they are, benefit delivery becomes much less challenging.

Opportunity

The challenge facing Network Rail managers is considerable. They have to deliver commercial benefits within demanding financial, quality, health & safety and legislative parameters, within a complex stakeholder environment.

This presents challenges far beyond the traditional understanding of engineering programmes, whose principal goal is frequently seen to be the delivery of engineering solutions.

Approach

In the face of tough competition, CITI was delighted and proud to be selected as the supplier for all project, programme, and sponsor level development for Network Rail.

“We have already piloted six of the core courses – each followed up by a course review day to establish the impact and effectiveness of the programme. Of particular note from the reviews is the fundamental importance that the role of portfolio manager has to overall programme and project delivery,” remarked Thomas Docker, CITI Client Director for Network Rail.

CITI’s portfolio management course was tailored to include Network Rail specific cases. As Alistair Kirk, Director of the Programme Control Office identified, “The long-term goal is to have in place a centre of excellence, and we are currently assessing how to implement it. In the short term, we are focusing on increasing the level of competence prior to rolling out best practice systems and practices”.

Outcome

Network Rail’s commitment to improving project management is reflected in a series of one-day seminars that the organisation puts on, at which invites are extended to other enterprises. CITI is working with Network Rail on the next seminar to be run later in the year. The topic area will be project controls – seen through the eyes of portfolio, programme and project managers.

To ensure that the proposed programme and project community could meet the challenges he and the marketplace were setting, Richard Brown, CEO, asked CITI to support his management team. He needed to put in place the components of an integrated portfolio management approach to maximise value, monitor performance and ensure predictable programme and project delivery, with safety as a particular concern. This involved all members of the change community; the board in their role of portfolio steering group and as individual project sponsors, the programme management office (PMO) in it’s role as monitor and guardian of performance, and the programme and project managers themselves.

Our approach

CITI’s starting point was to ensure that Richard and his direct reports had a shared vision of what was to be achieved and could articulate this consistently throughout Eurostar, to provide the required leadership. This was achieved through a two-day workshop and one-to-one support on a call-down basis. A benefits-impact-product (BIP) map was produced to provide the context for creating the new organisational structure. The BIP map identified the financial and strategic benefits that were being sought, the impacts that needed to be achieved in the new operating model to deliver those benefits, and the products that needed to be created to make those impacts.

With a focused leadership team established, a half-day launch event was created and facilitated by CITI for those who were going to be impacted the most directly by the change. This set out the vision and purpose for the new community and how this was to be achieved. A celebrity guest speaker provided an interesting insight into change as part of selling the concept to the workforce.

The next step was to determine the number and types of programmes and projects Eurostar was currently running and had planned over the next four years. In parallel we profiled all Eurostar’s programme and project managers to determine their levels of knowledge, attitudes (and behaviours), skills and experience – what we describe as their KASE. Eurostar’s programme and project community members came primarily from the UK, France and Belgium and there were cultural differences that had to be allowed for. Looking across the population, we were able to identify an organisational footprint of Eurostar’s ability to run programmes and projects. To check this understanding, we ran a number of project health checks to identify common issues and points of concern.

From this analysis five strands of work were woven together into a mutually reinforcing programme of change. In essence, these were:

1. Developing appropriate governance – policies, processes and procedures; accountabilities and responsibilities (RACI)
2. Developing a PMO – initially by ‘fast-starting’ the PMO using our resources with apprentices from Eurostar, and transferring this to a full Eurostar capability within 15 months
3. Establishing a toolset – providing a suite of our tools that included electronic best practice guides and analysis tools
4. Establishing a development framework – creating career paths in programme and project management, and in the PMO
5. Developing capability – through courses, master classes, workshops, mentoring, coaching and health checks we quickly established capability and ensured that it was embedded in Eurostar.

Across these strands, we used our experts to short-fill positions as role models, so that best practice could be demonstrated to Eurostar’s people. This made acceptance of the new way of working much easier, particularly as our experts were charged with transferring their skills across to Eurostar’s managers.

We also provided assurance with a soft touch focus on supporting programme and project managers to get it right.

Senior managers were involved with seminars and workshops to ensure issues and accountabilities associated with the governance of a portfolio and the sponsorship of programmes and projects were thrashed out and clear lines of responsibility drawn.

Outcome

The impact of the change programme was evident after just nine months. Project governance was in place and working. There was a perceptible ‘professionalisation’ within the programme and project management community and cultural differences had been addressed. The focus on performance and delivery had sharpened, and the status and influence of the PMO continued to grow. There remained much to do but, leading from the front, Richard had engaged all levels of the business and rapid progress was ensured, to the extent that within three years, Eurostar won the APM’s Programme of the Year Award 2008.

“CITI demystified many of the aspects of project management and governance for us, allowing the whole organisation to understand much more clearly what is required for successful delivery – a state much closer to ‘conscious competence’ than we were in before. We continue to develop our project arrangements, and to apply a project management approach to a wider range of change activities using the increasingly respected Project Management Office to advise and facilitate. I have no hesitation in strongly recommending CITI to others.”

Richard Brown, CEO, Eurostar