Tough at the top

Paul Mansell, deputy managing director, Moorhouse Consulting, looks at the findings from a recent survey designed to highlight problems and attitudes to running projects at the highest level.

Private and public organisations across the globe are at a critical point in their history. The current economic climate means that there will be winners and losers; the losers will succumb to the pull of the recession, whilst the winners will harness the opportunities to pro-actively push themselves through the current fog. Forward thinking organisations recognise that driving success through programme delivery excellence will be the key to success.

At the apex of programme governance is the senior responsible owner (SRO), sometimes known as the programme sponsor or executive sponsor, and it is this critical role and its current pressures, that we considered in a recent research study.

Many SROs are caught between a rock and a hard place right now new to the job, criticised for not having the vision, leadership or experience for the role, but in reality not truly enabled by their organisations due to wider systemic misunderstanding of programme governance and immature delivery capability.

In association with our partners (BT, the Home Office, the Association for Project Management and the APM group), we interviewed 80 SROs across the public and private sector, who are together responsible for the delivery of programmes worth in excess of 24 billion. Our aim was to help SROs identify common problem areas and mutual support mechanisms and examine general attitudes to programme leadership, governance, and stakeholder engagement so we can help this community improve delivery.

Survey highlights

The survey results showed that many SROs feel that their already complex roles will get tougher over the next 12 months. There is also a clear question mark over their teams perceived capability to deliver programmes successfully, with almost half the leaders interviewed saying their teams dont have the sufficient skills required to do their jobs successfully.

The SROs also admitted that they lacked clarity around what they were accountable for and required more support in their roles; indeed, only 10 per cent felt there was an adequate understanding of the benefits their high-profile, costly programme would bring.

The research also revealed concerns in relation to major programme governance (specifically, in terms of getting this optimally designed into corporate governance constructs) and a lack of understanding generally, from multiple programme stakeholders, as to the role of the SRO.

The survey highlights the fact that SROs are in an incredibly difficult position right now. Many are new to their roles and feel they and their direct reports, are not getting the appropriate training and support needed to do the job.

Development

The fact that 47 per cent of SROs (see fig. 1) felt their teams did not have the sufficient skills to deliver their programmes is alarming, but perhaps not surprising, given the number of high profile programmes that fail. Many admitted that they (and their teams) were new to the programme environment and herein lies part of the problem. Although some people were excellent at leading, they were perhaps not experienced in PPM delivery, and whilst others were very experienced at PPM, they were not seasoned team leaders. Alternatively, some SROs were skilled in both these areas, but not in how to influence people or change behaviours two vital skills required for winning over stakeholders and leading people through change.

It was also felt there was more that could be done to support people on a 1-2-1 basis, as well as on a team basis, and that senior staff were just as in need of training as junior.

The APM Group is addressing some of these concerns by rolling out a new, Home Office developed training programme and qualification for SROs, which, responding to feedback from the industry, is less based on the technical aspect of the role, but more on how the SRO should approach their role, and how these areas play a critical part in their programmes success.

Above: Figure 1 - Does your team have sufficient skills to successfully deliver the programme?

47% of the SROs felt that their teams did not have sufficient skills. This is an alarming, but not surprising, data point which is supported by the number of high profile programme failures across UK Plc.

Accountability

SROs also agreed that there was often insufficient clarity surrounding accountabilities and authorities to ensure that organisations knew where the buck stops when things get difficult. It was acknowledged that this aspect becomes increasingly critical to UK Plc when these mega-programmes are such a key means of driving through the current economic gloom.

Benefits

As for understanding the benefits of major programmes 90 per cent of SROs felt that there was a general lack of understanding as to why they were embarking on their major change programmes in the first place, and reported that deficient business cases caused them major issues (see fig. 2).  Many business cases only did a competent job in getting the initial activity kicked off, but too often werent built to last the programmes life cycle and flex with wider organisational or economic changes meaning quickly became redundant. It was reported that more work is needed to design robust business cases that are reviewed and updated regularly in line with changing strategy and goals, to keep teams and key stakeholders engaged and on track.

But if the world is constantly changing, how does an SRO check that their programme remains on strategy and is going to deliver value? Pulling the plug on a major programme that has gone off track and is doomed to fail can be a good move if it is going to save you money and resource in the medium to long term. But too few SROs are given the authority or support to take the tough decisions.

Similar to business case and benefits management, there was confusion and contradiction around how well programme governance is understood. Only 25 per cent of SROs felt that there was sufficient knowledge and application of programme governance structures across government and industry. However, over 70 percent said they believed the programme governance structure on their programme was adequate.

Below: Figure 2 - Are the disciplines of business case and benefits management...

Most SROs believe their programme teams have a good understanding about business cases and benefits realisation but this weakens considerably at organisational and sector level, raising questions about the effort organisations put into educating their practitioners about key programme management topics.

Going forward

Businesses need to work harder to understand the true role of the SRO within their organisation, find the person with the right blend of vision and experience to do the job, and then incentivise them to stay continuity of leadership being a key contributing factor to programme success.

An example of progress in this area is by the Office of Government Commerces Major Projects Review group, which strategically focuses on the key tenets of affordability, deliverability, and value for money as a barometer for the UKs 40 major programmes likely success. The survey highlighted that SROs have much to do before these three principles can be achieved as standard (i.e. more likely than not) on major programmes. Until this happens, SROs need greater support, and appropriate challenge, to ensure they have the governance, the accountability, the benefits realisation and PPM capabilities in place to ensure delivery success.

• Paul Mansell is a director at Moorhouse Consulting. He has broad programme leadership and management experience, particularly within the defence, transport, finance and telecoms sectors. He is PMP, PRINCE 2, MSP qualified and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Management Consultancy (CMC qualified) and the Association for Project Management (FAPM).