Background
A local authority Client had recently set up a new Programme Management Office (PMO) function to manage a portfolio of existing and new projects following a period of disruption due to the Covid pandemic. The purpose of the PMO was to undertake a “start, stop, continue” review of existing projects, and to incorporate new projects into the programme pipeline, making sure they were all properly documented and resourced to deliver.

Requirement
Following a period of operation, the Council required an external assurance review on the governance arrangements to ensure the PMO and programme structures were working effectively. The aim was to review the central Governance body to ensure the Council was focusing effort on the right things, review the decision processes used and their effectiveness and, to provide a set of findings and recommendations in a report back to stakeholders. The Council selected Ameo Group to undertake the review who in turn approached CMI to undertake a detailed desktop study and generate lines of enquiry to explore in a series of 1-2-1 interviews with the Client team. 

Approach
CMI’s approach was to undertake a desktop review of existing programme documentation and data and to benchmark these against a series of predetermined criteria. The desktop review raised a number of queries which were captured and fed into a series of ‘deep-dive’ 1-2-1 interviews with the internal team, stakeholders and programme board members. 

The audit findings and initial recommendations were captured and ‘shaped’ with the internal team to ensure they were a fair reflection and allowed the Client a ‘right to reply’. 

Outcomes
The detailed findings and recommendations were drafted into a written report and shared with the internal team for circulation to stakeholders and board members so that an implementation plan could be developed to address the recommendations.