Department for Education

Supporting in-house teams to optimise their project management office functions.

Assessment of existing PPM capability

The Department for Education (DfE) needed their existing Project Management Office (PMO) capability to be enhanced in preparation for the re-procurement of an administration service for the Teacher’s Pension Scheme (TPS). The aim was to ensure the embedding on practice whilst acknowledging existing levels of PPM expertise. Lumera were commissioned to support the internal team and enable them to optimise their processes to then get the procurement up and running.

Solution

Our delivery of this assignment was structured into four phases: Assessment, Operating Model, Template Production and Skills Transfer.

The initial task was to complete an assessment of PPM/PMO practices being deployed within the TPS team. This quickly allowed us to understand existing capability levels and identify areas for development in a concise assessment report.

We rapidly progressed to developing an operating model for a PMO, defining it’s role, how it would interact with the wider business and it’s resource requirements. This enabled the PMO to be resourced promptly, having identified suitably skilled internal staff.

In parallel with the initiation of the PMO function, we developed a series of templates that aimed to provide DfE with a robust but easy to use set of tools that supported their delivery whilst also aligning to PRINCE2 standards. Our toolkit of templates included the following:

Portfolio report
Transformation map
Programme definition document
Programme overview document
Project brief
Project initiation document
Strategic schedule
Action log
Decisions log
Risk dashboard
Risk register
Stakeholder engagement and communications strategy
Communications plan
Benefits realisation plan
Project closure report

Our final activity was to undertake a skills transfer exercise to ensure the newly appointed resource and wider stakeholders within DfE were able to fully utilise the PPM toolkit and provide high quality support to the pensions administration reprocurement programme. We provided mentoring and skills transfer to the Teachers’ Pensions in-house team, delivering a number of one-to-one and group-based sessions, and ensuring that all templates included guidance written in plain English, making it accessible to non-PPM professionals.

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“Lumera’s understanding of behavioural science and its application to communication strategies was evident from the start. They excel in translating complex pensions information into clear, concise messaging which resonates with our customers and drives meaningful engagement."

Programme Director, National Audit Office

The assignment provided DfE with a complete assessment of the current application of PMO practices, along with a RAG-rated list of recommendations to address areas of improvement. This was supported by a tailored approach and supporting implementation plan for setting up a robust portfolio office. We were able to provide the client with everything they needed to reform their application of PMO practices across the department and move forward with a successful procurement.

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The results

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