Programme Management Supporting Expertise and Tools
Provide an appropriate tool set and access to experts on communications, procurement and contract management, financial planning and control, risk management, programme domain expertise, etc. These experts may be part of the programme team or may come from other parts of the organization, or may be provided by an outside consultancy.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Programme Management Supporting Expertise and Tools at each level of maturity.
- 1Initial
- Practice
- Rely on the best endeavours of staff.
- Outcome
- An immediate basic capability is turned on.
- Metric
- Number of experienced staff.
- Practice
- Leverage professional associations and networking to identify a known working toolset and basic expertise guidance.
- Outcome
- The implementation of working approaches that are known to be effective is very fast.
- Metric
- Number of approaches, methods, tools, or processes adapted from outside to get up and running.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Identify skills deficiencies in supportive areas such as accounting, financial control, legal, regulatory and contract matters, facilities management, environmental engineering, bacteriological controls, chemicals storage, and so on.
- Outcome
- Programme team skills and competence deficiencies are identified early.
- Metric
- Number of skills and competences identified as being deficient within programme allocated resources and staff.
- Practice
- Identify and seek support from internal resources who have the skills in which the programme is recognized as being deficient.
- Outcome
- Organizational internal resources to fill programme team skills and competence gaps are identified.
- Metric
- Number of deficient skills and competences satisfied by internal resources.
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Set aside and use contingencies to procure skills and services in areas outside the competence of the programme teams.
- Outcome
- The programme schedule is not affected by shortages in specialized skills or tools within the programme team.
- Metric
- Size of contingency budget and percentage of contingency budget used.
- Practice
- Request programme accounting codes to help track expenditure and revenues generated by programme deliverables.
- Outcome
- Having the correct metadata makes it easier to monitor, control, and report on programme financial status.
- Metric
- Number of programmes with accounting codes allocated.
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Use advanced accounting tools and techniques that allow multiple codes to be assigned to cash flows — i.e. programme tracking and business profit and loss accounting do not interfere with each other.
- Outcome
- Programme-specific accounting views are available to programme management to help monitor and control cash flows.
- Metric
- Number of programme-specific accounting views available.
- Practice
- Use contracts to manage risk around outsourced activities and areas where the programme teams lack experience and or competences.
- Outcome
- Contracts for tools and skills gaps corrections are used to help manage programme risk.
- Metric
- Number of positive and negative risks associated with contracts for tools and skills gaps corrections.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Leverage the business ecosystem for the necessary services and advice on how to procure and or manage such services.
- Outcome
- There is increased likelihood of success from recommended vendors using recommended contracts and business terms.
- Metric
- Number of satisfactory and unsatisfactory contracts.
- Practice
- Develop a programme of continuous improvement around programme management competence development and tools provisioning management, that leverages best-known industry practice, research findings, and the advice of programme management tools vendors.
- Outcome
- Excellent approaches and methods are used to provide supportive expertise and tools to programmes.
- Metric
- Number of innovations in the area of supportive skills and competence provisioning to programmes.