Managing risk across Transport for London's £12bn investment programme

The challenge

Transport for London (TfL) is the integrated body responsible for the capital’s transport system. As of April 2005, TfL embarked on a mammoth Investment Programme equating to a c. £12 billion investment (£3.5 billion enabling 2012 Olympic transportation), over the forward five-years.

TfL recognised that delivery of the Investment Programme (IP) would require new structures and processes at the senior levels to ensure that the TfL Commissioner and the TfL Board had adequate visibility. A key component of the new organisation was the need for an Oversight Group to provide the TfL Commissioner with independent assurance as to the progress of the IP and the mitigation of identified strategic risks.

Our approach

As part of the set up of Oversight, we delivered a comprehensive framework, to identify and manage strategic risk across the IP. There were three components to this:

• We developed a governance risk exposure diagnostic for the IP. Drawing from the APM Principles of PPM governance, the NAO/OGC reasons for project failure, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries’ Combined Code and Sarbanes Oxley Directives, we developed a diagnostic against twelve core categories to assess TfL’s risk exposure. The output – widely acknowledged as “the first time this has been done” – codified and prioritised the strategic risks involved.
  During our functional set-up of Oversight, a number of these risks were addressed and mitigated.
• At a sub-portfolio level, the Oversight engagement facilitated the set-up and use of an integrated risk management process across the separate TfL businesses. We subsequently facilitated a number of strategic risk mitigation efforts – for example, improving the ability of projects to gain planning consents approval and maximising the opportunity to develop the PPM capability of TfL’s staff.
• We developed and facilitated a process to categorise the hundreds of projects within the Investment Programme against a number of inherent risk criteria. The output – a register of the ‘Top 50’ projects which represented c. 60% of the risk within the portfolio — is now regularly used to apply executive focus to these priority areas.

How did this deliver value to the client?

The prioritised ‘Top 50’ concept and the strategic risk management framework has enhanced the organisation’s ability to manage risk across its programme - which, in turn, has improved the delivery chances of the ‘planned for’ benefits to the travelling public.

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If you would like to talk to us call on the number below. Alternatively, click on the consultants email address, provide us with your details and we will call you back. We look forward to speaking to you. Contact: Email: Tel: Paul Mansell paulmansell@moorhouseconsulting.com +44 (0) 1225 446 313