Reducing risk with a Change Operating Model Transformation

The first challenge for Project One was to make the ‘case for change’.  Our Programme Director interviewed the executive team and senior representatives from each of their business areas to gather data on the current state. Findings showed that there was a huge volume and many different types of Change Activity – with differing needs for skills, resources, approaches, levels of governance and types of reporting – depending on the nature and risk of the change. It was being delivered inefficiently with duplication across siloed teams, who were already overstretched and lacked the benefit of having change skills or best practices. It was at high risk with lack of visibility and governance and some high-profile failures.

The case for change was presented to the ExCo alongside the COO, predominantly focussing on the Risk impact. We used data to show the opportunity to reduce risks and improve efficiency by developing a more structured and robust cross-bank operating model. As a result, the ExCo requested that the Change Team lead an activity to establish a holistic view of Bank-wide change in order to help manage priorities, resources and risks to delivering Bank objectives.

We made pragmatic recommendations for handling the different types of Change through different ‘delivery models’ in order to achieve appropriate levels of delivery quality, oversight, control, risk mitigation and forward planning. The delivery of this required introduction of new capabilities captured in a new Change Target Operating Model (TOM), plus a phased roadmap for achieving it.

We worked closely with the internal teams to design and deliver the new TOM for managing Change Bank Wide. This included the delivery of:

1. Processes and data providing full visibility and reporting on Bank Wide Changes, capacity planning and a roadmap and horizon planning for the larger Changes.
2. Robust, cross-bank governance for triage and prioritisation of the changes through introducing new forums to ensure that the right priorities were being led by the appropriate team in the right order – supported by a new Change Policy
3. A new ‘light’ change delivery lifecycle methodology for the ‘medium’ scale changes, and rolled this out across the Change Team and local teams in-flight portfolio delivery of lower risk changes through skilled
4. A new ‘Pre Mobilisation’ stage to the delivery lifecycle methodology in order to shape each significant new change coming through the Triage Forum
5. A new org structure with a strengthened, internally-resourced Change Team and Portfolio Management Office with new skills – who would deliver as well as co ordinating reporting and standards
6. Introduction of PPM Software for management and reporting on the changes.

The Bank now has in operation a more mature operating model appropriate to the increased scale and complexity of the business post-COVID. They have a new PMO team using new software and new processes and governance to capture, triage, prioritise and manage the changes across the Bank, forward planning the roadmap of changes into the future, underpinned by capacity planning across all the central teams needed for delivery, with appropriate reporting both for the internal teams who need visibility and for the Exec leadership. All levels of management are engaged across the organisation with new roles defined and local points of contact established within each area.

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theteam@projectone.com