Challenge

The program was a major transformational program and implemented the biggest payroll application in the southern hemisphere. The program was significantly challenged with solution quality issues, poorly defined roles and accountabilities, lack of ownership of stakeholders, changing business priorities and scope challenges, unclear technical and business implementation options and approaches, complex organisational data quality challenges, and poor project management practices (including financial, risk & issue management, stakeholder & team management) which all contributed to major project delays.

These delays resulted in further scope challenges (timing delays meant ongoing regulatory changes that needed to be incorporated into the solution). These continuing delays resulted in a significant erosion of business confidence. The client had no choice but to continue with the underperforming initiative as the legacy pay system was at end of life and continued to pose major business risk.

Our client hired the Cynosure project director to recover the project, and to provide an alternative, industry based approach to resolve the significant issues with the then performance of this key organisational initiative.

Approach

The project director undertook the following activities:

• Immediately introduced an independent PMO. This was done to re-establish transparency and visibility of true project performance, and to introduce appropriate standards and rigour, and reporting (at all governance levels) around financial performance, risk and issue management.
• Re-negotiated scope, focusing on the substantial scope additions, through introducing a tightly governed scope management process that only allowed changes that were regulatory, or where there could be a clear justification of project resource utilisation that aligned with the original business case objectives.
• Deconstructed the existing project team and acquired a significant resource commitment from business, and other stakeholders. This was done to design and implement a truly integrated project team where roles, responsibilities and accountabilities were clear that resulted in an empowered and motivated team culture.

Outcomes and Benefits

• Successful delivery of the project without incident.
• Successful delivery of the business change program to support the transformation.
• Successful delivery of the project under approved funds.
• Regained stakeholder confidence resulting in being engaged to continue management of the next delivery phase of the program.