Programme Assurance
Many programmes and projects either encounter
serious problems or fail completely causing costly overruns or
expected benefits being left unrealised. Therefore, organisations
are increasingly implementing their own structures and resources
for carrying out internal reviews, health checks and audits of
their programmes and projects.
Within the Public Sector, the Office of
Government Commerce (OGC) has created a rigorous governance
framework to assist government departments with a staged gateway
review process that provides assurance by means of a series of
snapshot view of progress of a programme or project at significant
milestones.
VEGA’s approach to programme assurance
VEGA’s approach to programme assurance
planning can be seen as complementary to the OGC gateway and other
internal processes. Based on the OGC framework of best practices,
we aim to deliver independent programme assurance that provides
Senior Responsible Owners (SRO), programme and PMO managers with
the confidence that any investment by the organisation is being
utilised effectively to meet the agreed objectives and
benefits.
Although VEGA can provide programme and
project assurance based upon any other best practices or
methodology, it is likely that most assurance activities will based
upon the following two scenarios:
- Focused Subject Review
Service – The organisation has a specific problem or
concern and has requested a review that takes a specific view
and/or is centred on one particular subject area or work package
within a project or programme. This could include, but is not
limited to, business, user, supplier, technical, quality or change
readiness reviews. Any one of these reviews could be completed in
isolation or as a group of reviews that could maximise benefits and
impact. This type of assurance involves the need for subject matter
experts who can provide best practice assurance in the required
subject area.
- Programme and Project Assurance
Review Service – Alternatively, an organisation is seeking
external, independent assurance that best practices are being
followed effectively and efficiently within any of its projects and
programmes. This is a ‘continuous’ service where event-driven
assurance activities are planned throughout a programme or project
lifecycle. Generally, this would be appropriate for high risk or
larger projects and programmes. In such instances, VEGA will adopt
an OGC Gateway style approach to assurance, and provide
appropriately trained and accredited OGC Gateway reviewers plus any
other subject matter expertise necessary in the conduct of
assurance activities.
Resulting from either of these review
services, or directly as an additional service, VEGA can then
offer:
- Project or Programme Recovery
Service –. This aims to provide necessary basis and
recommendations to recover a programme or project and restore it
fully to a viable initiative with assured confidence of success
either as a result from a Vega Assurance review or from an
organisations internal review. Our programme and project recovery
services are further broken down to include:
- Recovery Planning – Includes
the cause and remedy advice service, but takes the approach further
to the creation of a realistic, prioritised and resourced plan for
an organisation to implement in order to affect successful
recovery.
- Full Recovery Service – Adds
the management of the recovery plan, with acceptance of
responsibility for success, to the cause and remedy, plus recovery
planning services described above.
- Assurance of Action Plan –
Provides the necessary assurances that the agreed recovery plan has
been executed to re-establish the programme or project benefits or
objectives to the organisation.
Contact VEGA for further information about
programme assurance