Change is often urgent, there’s a need to get on with delivery within the organisation and show progress quickly. Without understanding your change lifecycle this desire for pace can quickly spin out of control and miss key steps in delivery which will come back to haunt you later.
Ever rushed to get out of the door with the family? Maybe headed out for a day only to realise much later that lunch is left sitting in the kitchen, or someone hasn’t remembered the clothes they need for your activity. This might be a small disruption to your day, or maybe a costly one as you pay the bill for an unexpected lunch out. The urgency of getting something done, even as simple as going out for a daytrip makes it easy to overlook and forget something which you’ll rely on later.
Scale this behaviour up to complex change, many more moving parts and an army of stakeholders and team members demanding progress and to ‘just get on with it’, your rush to ‘get out of the door’ with your change programme can become very costly indeed. With a clear delivery lifecycle implemented and owned by PMO you will be able to see exactly what is needed at each step along your change journey. With regular Stage Gate checkpoints you will also be able to take stock, check you have everything you need to progress the change and deliver successfully for your organisation.
With PMO supporting your change lifecycle and Stage Gates, mature and well managed deliveries will progress at pace, and any straying from the path with quickly be identified and guided back to the route to delivery success. Here’s how:
Breaking down the Change Lifecycles – Setting the Stages for success
All change follows a lifecycle, there’s a beginning, a middle and hopefully a successful end. At each stage of your change different things need to be considered and controlled so it’s important to think about your change lifecycle, and for your PMO to operate the right Governance and Controls for each step in that process.
We can break down a change lifecycle into simple stages which can be applied regardless of delivery methodology being used. Tailoring the right stages and exactly what happens in each stage will be specific for your organisation. Having a standard set of required deliverables and control checks at each stage will help ensure delivery maturity and maximise your chances of success.
Figure 2 – Example Governance Lifecycle Stages
Example Stage 1 – Ideas & Opportunities
There are many demands for change, for investment and for focus. Some will be fantastic new ways of doing things which set your organisation up for future success, others may be regulatory requirements which you must get done while some might not be achievable or someone’s ‘pet project’. By capturing the ideas and opportunities for change across your organisation PMO can help you assess what’s worth doing, and what’s not.
With the right Governance Framework, you will be able to quickly prioritise and select changes before making any significant investment. Picking the right changes at this early stage using a clear prioritisation criteria and approach will help the team focus on what matters and build the transformation roadmap. This early in the lifecycle assessment and estimate is at a high level, with a large margin for error so the Governance Framework will need to cope with this and allow you to re-assess as more is learnt.
Example Stage 2 – Shaping & Refinement
With prioritised ideas for change, now is the time to go beyond the idea and understand the opportunity in more detail. The Governance Framework will guide the evolving change through understanding the business need being met, the benefit of meeting that need and the complexity of the change involved. Adding detail and understanding allows assessment of if the change is worthwhile. The Framework will ensure the change aligns to the organisation’s strategic goals, technology and security requirements and any relevant regulations. Now is the time to delve into these and how the proposed change will meet them.
At the end of this stage your Governance Framework will require an assessment deliverable such as an outline business case which calls out estimates for value, costs, viability and challenges.
Uncertainty will remain but considering as many of the relevant factors for your organisation as possible, this stage will guide you in understanding if the change makes sense for you. A great Governance Framework and PMO will have the right estimation and assessment criteria for your organisation.
Example Stage 3 – Problem Definition
Making sure the challenge being addressed, and the scope of the change is clearly defined and well understood is key. Large complex change can often be derailed by additional problems, scope items and challenges being added creating scope creep. Having clarity on what the problem is (along with effective Change Management through the Governance Framework) will help your team defend against others piggybacking their problems on your investment.
With the problem well understood you can also fix on a solution, refine the business case making commitments to the benefits which will be delivered to the business, create the plan and begin actively managing your delivery risks, all controls that the Framework will put in place. These deliverables will allow you to gain funding approval and formally mobilise the change team.
Example Stage 4 – Design & Execute
Design, develop and build the change. During this stage, which may be broken down into sub-stages, Programme Increments or Sprints depending on the methodology being used. Here the change will be calling on the full suite of Governance and Control disciplines including Risk Management, Planning, Dependency Management, Change Control and, Resource & Cost Management all of which great PMO are experts in. Using the right combination of controls, processes and tools supported by experienced delivery professionals will keep the change progressing efficiently and predictably. Regular reviews, identification and resolution of challenges, with clear decision making and accountability all supported by the Framework will keep you on track.
When delivering a complex programme you will have several projects running in parallel. Each project within the programme should follow the project lifecycle, with gates within an overall programme stage. The specific requirements of the Project lifecycle stages will be different to that for a programme:
Figure 3 – Stage Gates for Programme & Project
Example Stage 5 – Benefits & Beyond
The change may be implemented, but the lifecycle isn’t over quite yet. Each benefit and commitment in the business case needs to be tracked and formally closed, meeting the deliveries commitment to the business. Additional work may be identified and initiated through new ideas and opportunities which will enhance and improve the business further. Taking the time to reflect, review and learn from each change helps us to identify what went well and what could be improved, and the Governance Framework to evolve to support transformation even more effectively.
We know that deliveries often develop inaccurate views of their own maturity. Issues can be accepted and ignored, or key deliverable skipped and missed. Mis-understanding the maturity of the change can lead to significant problems downstream which result in over-runs, delays and re-work causing a poor-quality output and lack of business benefits. By identifying problems early allows you to take prompt action and minimise the impact. Use of a good Governance Framework will help assurance check on the quality of the progress being made but stage gates are a useful tool to help you take stock of where how change is doing.
Ready, Stage Gate, Go – Proceeding with Confidence
Going through a programme of regular stage gates will help the delivery regularly take stock, ensure issues are being addressed and the full scope of required deliverables are being produced. A mature delivery presenting for stage gate review shouldn’t be slowed down by the checks, but where the required level of maturity hasn’t been reached, additional work may be required before being allowed to progress to the next stage. It might even no longer make business sense to continue with the change. Stopping a delivery in a controlled way may be the best for the business. Well timed and effective gate reviews will help ensure changes are maturing properly and they remain viable, realistic and under control.
When creating a stage gated delivery framework it’s important that:
Each gate is there to assist the delivery by assessing and confirming a suitable level of maturity has been reached for delivery to progress. It shouldn’t be a fault-finding exercise, but a health check to support delivery management. PMO must support the delivery in reaching the right level of maturity for delivery success, not stand as blockers to progress
Each gate should be assessed against a clear set of consistent and complete deliverables which the delivery team should know about at the outset. The PMO isn’t allowed to move the goalposts during delivery
During each stage the delivery will need to produce a standard set of mandatory deliverables. Mandatory deliverables provide key controls to the change and all projects or programmes must have them. Other non-mandatory deliverables should be considered on a case-by-case basis for each change and agreed up-front with the delivery lead and PMO. Tailoring the requirements of each gate in this way will set clear expectations on the teams of what is needed to successfully complete the change and should be considered during planning and creation of the work or task breakdown structure
Stage gate reviews shouldn’t be a forum to assess and sign off individual deliverables. All deliverables being presented at a gate should have been reviewed and signed off by the relevant party (e.g. Technical SME, Business Lead) before the gate is held. The stage gate is an opportunity to demonstrate and confirm these approvals are in place
Each stage needs a defined set of entry and exit criteria. Gates don’t demand that every deliverable is complete before the gate, but that the delivery has reached a sufficient level of maturity to end the current state and move to the next. Experienced PMO can help judge this, making gates a valuable control, not a tick-box-exercise which slows delivery down as happens with immature gate controls.
The Stage Gate Process
During the Stage Gate process the state of delivery will be assessed – using a clear checklist of questions to be asked at each stage allows the team to know what’s coming and prepare answers to demonstrate where the delivery has reached.
Before starting work on a stage, the delivery lead should work with the individual responsible for the stage gate review, the Review Chair and PMO to agree any exceptions and tailoring to the requirements of the stage. The Review Chair should be an experienced delivery leader who is independent from the change. They will oversee the gate activities and support the change by questioning progress, maturity and adequacy of what the team is delivering.
Once the requirements for the stage are agreed and the plan formed the delivery should progress and create the required deliverables, ensuring they meet the standard required for the gate. They’ll need to produce deliverables in-line with an agreed product specification or description which identifies the quality, content, review and approvals needed for the deliverable. Each deliverable will need to gain formal sign off before getting to the gate.
The Stage Gate itself should be a short meeting – potentially combined with other delivery meetings with attendance from key delivery stakeholders including the Review Chair, Sponsor, Delivery Leads, PMO, Design, Test and Business leads and any other relevant specialists needed to support the delivery through the gate.
The change will be presented by the delivery manager including:
Confirmation all actions from previous reviews have been resolved
Current status of delivery
Status of Gate deliverables
Plan and Readiness for next Stage (including risks)
Each Stage Gate will benefit from a clear checklist to assist the delivery manager in producing the required evidence and considering the maturity of the change and readiness for next stage. It’s a good idea for the delivery manager to work with the Review Chair during the completion of the checklist so any exceptions can be addressed ahead of the Gate. The Review Chair may empower other specialists to support the review of specific deliverables for the stage (e.g. a detailed plan review from a planning specialist) to provide an informed view of maturity.
The Outcome
The outcome of the Stage Gate should be a clear direction to the change team on what comes next:
Stop – The delivery in its current form is no longer viable. The business goals may no longer be achievable, or the change may be unfit for purpose.
We mustn’t allow the momentum of a change programme destined to fail to continue consuming resources, funding and time. We won’t throw good money after bad. Stopping a change, although extreme and rare can show a real maturity in the transformation team to recognise what’s not right and re-think.
Go-Back – The delivery isn’t at the right level of maturity to continue into the next stage. There is key work needed to meet the exit criteria for the current stage which must be completed and the change re-presented at gate before progressing.
The delivery manager will need to plan the necessary additional work to reach the required maturity and prepare for re-presentation at Stage Gate. A reduced Gate may be possible if only specific areas require re-review. This should be agreed with the Review Chair
Proceed with caveats – The majority of the delivery is at the right level of maturity to continue. A number of issues have been noted which need to be addressed by the delivery team within an agreed timescale to ensure the change remains on track.
Stage Gates shouldn’t slow delivery, so allowing progress but noting caveats which need to be addressed is a good way to maintain momentum, but also identify and address potential issues before they disrupt the change.
Proceed – The delivery has reached the right level of maturity to progress. With no significant issues identified by the gate the team has a clean bill of health and can carry on at pace.
With clear understanding of maturity, direction if ready to proceed or not, and the support from delivery experts like PMO, delivery will be kept on track.
With PMOs help you will be able to define a clear delivery lifecycle and maintain a reliable view of the maturity of each change going through the lifecycle. You will be able address emerging challenges before they become issues, maintaining the pace of delivery without missing any key steps.
When delivering change with urgency and speed you don’t want to forget anything which you’ll rely on later. And don’t forget your lunch!
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