Service
The programme grew. The way you run it did not.
The frameworks, processes and PMO structures a delivery office needs to perform before it has had time to form habits.
A bigger programme is a different problem, not a bigger one
An organisation delivering five million dollars of capital work a year that suddenly has to deliver two hundred and fifty million does not have more of the same problem.
At the smaller scale, delivery works because a handful of experienced people know how things are done here. At the larger scale, those people are outnumbered by new hires within months, and the knowledge that made delivery reliable has no way to reach them fast enough.
The programme does not fail loudly. It becomes inconsistent, and inconsistency at that scale is very expensive.
Why a framework beats training
Bringing fifty people to a consistent standard by training alone requires the training to be excellent, universal and remembered. In practice people revert to what they did at their last organisation, which was reasonable there and different here.
A framework does not depend on memory. It puts the right way in the path of the work.
What we build
A lifecycle that fits the work. Stages reflecting how your projects genuinely progress, not a generic template everyone has to translate.
Gates that mean something. Defined decision points with written entry criteria, a named decision maker and required evidence. A gate everything passes is a meeting, not a control.
Processes for what carries risk. Initiation, planning, gate review, change, close-out. Enough structure that projects are comparable, not so much that project managers spend their time feeding the framework.
Templates that match it. Plans, registers and reports designed to be filled in during delivery rather than reconstructed before a governance meeting.
Somewhere people can find it all. One page, one click, in software you already own. This matters most when a team is new, because a new project manager will ask a colleague if that is faster than finding the answer, and colleagues are busy.
Proof
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council faced exactly this after Cyclone Gabrielle: a scale-up from around five million dollars a year to a programme worth 250 to 300 million, delivered through a new fifty person office made up largely of recent recruits.
We established the critical project processes and an information and document management framework, then made every approved process reachable in one click using the council’s existing software. Delivered under budget with no additional software investment, and the framework has since been reused for other council functions.
PMO frameworks use the same foundations as our process design and document control work, applied at programme scale.
What you end up with
- A delivery framework new project managers can pick up and use immediately
- Gates that are actually applied, with criteria written down rather than assumed
- Consistent practice across a team assembled faster than culture can form
- Reporting that comes out of delivery rather than being compiled for a meeting
- A framework you can extend to other functions without us
Common questions
Do you manage programmes for us?
No. We design and improve the frameworks your team uses to deliver. Running the programme stays with your people, which is the only arrangement that leaves capability behind when we finish.
We are standing up a new PMO. When should we bring you in?
Earlier than feels necessary. A delivery office that starts without a framework forms habits within weeks, and changing those later costs considerably more. The most valuable moment is just before the first wave of hires arrives.
Is this PRINCE2, or MSP, or something else?
Whatever suits the work. Established methodologies are useful sources and we draw on them, but adopting one wholesale usually imports overhead that does not fit.
Our project managers are experienced. Do they need a framework?
Experienced people produce good projects individually and inconsistent programmes collectively, because each brings a different good approach. A framework is less about competence than about making delivery predictable enough to govern.