Project One was engaged to provide an embedded and focussed programme leadership team of specialists in business change, technology and transformation to work in collaboration with the Babcock team to deliver a set of key initiatives over 12 months. The objective was to improve materiel flow, develop more efficient ways of working and deliver a great service against key customer priorities.
The approach taken was not to stand up an independent programme team, but to work shoulder-to-shoulder, as part of the Babcock business team, creating ways of working and a mindset of continuous improvement, leveraging actionable intelligence and data. The programme, called ‘Step Up Together’, was positioned to encourage proactive interaction and contribution from the whole internal team.
Louise Atkinson, MD, Defence Equipment Babcock, said, “The Project One team integrated perfectly with our own leadership team providing expertise, hands on help, and bringing their considerable experience to the table, but without being disparate from the team who had to embed the changes and make them sustainable. Because of this approach, everyone felt fully involved and empowered and we were able to harness the huge amount of knowledge, experience and ideas that already existed in all levels of the organisation. I’m really proud of what we have achieved together and know that this will be a change that sticks for the long term.”
The joint team identified the key initiatives and focus with careful consideration to what would be most impactful from a customer and business perspective. A portfolio of work was agreed and then divided into a series of agile sprints with the focus of delivering value as fast as possible.
“The programme was a really positive collaboration between Project One and Babcock. The teamwork has been great and the shared values between the businesses was evident throughout”.
Neil Walton, Transformation Director, Project One
Project One’s approach to agile benefits: speed to business value

Project One’s approach to benefits: tracking and realisation in agile
Benefits realisation is not just something to consider once the project has come to an end…
Before
Plan:
- Identify benefits
- Define measures
- Establish a baseline
- Engage stakeholders
- Clarify roles and responsibilities.
During
Deliver:
- Implement with benefits as the ‘North Star’
- Keep focus on adoption
- Establish reporting.
After
Track:
- Track benefits
- Handover to BAU
- Identify lessons learned.
“We have a much better understanding of the business through the use of dashboards and actionable intelligence which is now visible across the business”.
Sandy Donald, Head of Operational Delivery South, Babcock