Portfolio Assurance

 

Your anxiety

You have a number of projects grouped into a portfolio of programmes and realise you need credible, relevant analysis of their viability and performance in order to direct corrective action and prioritise resources. In addition, you:

• Lack clear and reliable visibility of how projects are performing
• Worry that bad news is being filtered out as it rises through the organisation or is being drowned in volumes of data; and
• Are uncertain as to whether best practice is being shared across the programme enabling optimal benefits to be delivered.

How we can help you

Our portfolio assurance approach is to set-up a small team to provide independent, outcome focused, and constructive assurance directly to your organisation’s board. Designed to fit our clients’ organisation and governance arrangements, and the scale and scope of their project portfolio, typical outline steps are:

• The portfolio is prioritised on inherent risk which includes the PR risk, as well as traditional delivery and cost risk. This provides a more sophisticated mechanism than simple project spend and allows focus of management effort on high impact projects.
• Independent (of delivery team and line management) reviews of the high impact projects (e.g. independent third party technical reviews, peer reviews etc.)
• The results of the reviews are synthesised with regular management reports to provide an independent commentary on the portfolio.
• The commentary report is fed into appropriate governance and management forums for action.

How we would work with you

We typically establish a joint team and work with our clients to implement portfolio assurance. We set up and then tailor a process designed to meet your specific needs. During the ‘setup’ stage, ‘pilot review’ will typically be conducted to ‘fine tune’ the process such that the output is in the form required of senior management. We seek to introduce a service delivery ethos of ‘challenge and support’. Striking that balance in the relationship between portfolio assurance and delivery teams is, in our view, critical to the success of this type of work. Experience tells us that much of our joint effort will need to focus on this aspect of the engagement rather than the less contentious mechanics of setting up the assurance team itself.

Tools & training we can provide

While setting up and embedding the assurance function we aim to coach your team in maintaining the ‘challenge and support’ balance, transferring skills to both the assurance team and also to senior management recipients to ensure they know best how to use assurance information. Our risk categorisation tool, and independent review templates enable a running start to setting up the assurance function.

How this could deliver value for you

Our portfolio assurance methodology delivers real value by ensuring that finite management and external validation resource is focused on mission critical projects. Independent assurance reports are delivered in an easy-to-digest format for senior management and external stakeholder reading. These reports can be used as a third-party ‘pressure test’ as to whether critical projects are on track for successful outcome – recognising that project progress reports can occasionally suffer from a self-generated, optimism bias. The reports, and ensuing facilitated discussion, ensure that senior management are focused on the strategic issues required to address any opportunities for portfolio-level, systemic improvement.

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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: Dom Moorhouse dommoorhouse@moorhouseconsulting.com +44 (0) 20 3004 4482