Digital

Moveable Transactions Project – Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) reflections

November 13, 2024 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Digital Assurance Office, Digital Scotland, Technology Assurance Framework

Guest blog from Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office.

The Digital Assurance Office (DAO) working with Registers of Scotland (RoS) have shared some of their experiences from the delivery of the Moveable Transactions project.  For this blog we caught up with the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the project, Anne Godfrey, to capture her reflections on the value she got from independent assurance and how she prepared for her role as the SRO.

Being a Senior Responsible Owner

The Moveable Transactions project was Anne’s first SRO role for a major project.  To prepare she undertook formal training organised by RoS and put in place a mentoring relationship with a senior colleague who had significant project experience. This, alongside using the project sponsor as a sounding board, provided good support.

Strong governance and communication, with key issues being socialised at a senior level by the SRO, was identified by the major digital project review team as an area of good practice. Discussing this Anne noted the value in having a member of the Executive Management Team (EMT) on the project board, who is also the project sponsor. This structure provided a line of sight from the project through to RoS leadership. Alongside this, the EMT were regularly updated on the progress of the project and the risks the team were actively considering so when they needed to take decisions there were no surprises.

Discussing what enables a successful project Anne calls out the need for the right team with the right skills alongside a culture that allows the team to thrive. She found getting this balance right – empowering the team to deliver, with the right governance to ensure you are getting the assurance you need as SRO – is crucial and challenging.

The value of assurance

‘There is no guidebook, the project has dealt with issues that there is no past practice to draw on. Using the reviewers to get an opinion on whether the approach being taken is robust and recommendations for improvement was critical.’

The project was working to an extended delivery phase due to changes in the parliamentary timetable. Recognising the length of time between formal review points, Anne used health checks as interim reviews of progress. These allowed her to tailor the assurance to focus on particular issues being faced by the project. Health checks sit outwith the mandatory review points and may be carried out on a project e.g. at the request of the SRO or to support major delivery milestones in multi-year projects.

Anne found independent assurance allowed for a step back; the opportunity to consider whether the project was operating as it should, and space to answer specific questions that warranted independent review. This strategic, independent view sat alongside the confidence received from regular project governance and management arrangements.

Preparing for independent assurance

The major digital project reviews found that assurance had been used to support project delivery and there was an active culture of collaboration and learning lessons. Although the team had experience of Digital Scotland Service Standard assessments, this was their first major digital project review. Anne worked with the project manager to take a number of steps to prepare for assurance, including:

• with support from the DAO, speaking to another organisation who had been through major digital project reviews to understand what to expect
• running sessions with everyone who might be interviewed in the course of reviews to set out the purpose and process and what value it provides
• building assurance into project governance and structures with a monthly standing project board agenda item on future assurance plans and progress against assurance actions

For more information about this case study contact PMO.Support@ros.gov.uk

The Technology Assurance Framework (TAF) is designed to help prevent digital projects from failing for common reasons, improve delivery and ensure that the lessons learned from previous experience are reflected and embedded in future practice. The Digital Assurance Office are working with organisations to share information which might help others deliver digital projects and we have been publishing our insights and case studies on our blog. If you want to get involved contact us at DigitalAssurance@gov.scot.

This case study identifies the importance of creating the right culture which resonates with the Audit Scotland Principles for a digital future report and its section on leadership. Other DAO case studies covering how to get the most from assurance include the Census Programme on their approach to integrated assurance and meeting the Digital Standard the Moveable Transactions project and their approach to governance and how the trove.scot project worked with the Digital Standard assessment process.

The Scottish Digital Academy is the public sector centre of expertise for digital capability and can provide information, advice and guidance on developing digital, data and technology skills to support transformation, including a range of leadership courses.

For expert guidance on delivering a digital project visit the Digital Scotland Service Manual.

For further information and signposting to advice and support on programme and project management, including details of the SRO/Project Leadership Development Programme which provides an introduction to the role and various aspects of it for new and aspiring SROs’ contact the Programme and Project Management Centre of Expertise.  The role of the SRO published by the UK Government explains what is expected of senior responsible owners when leading projects or programmes in government.

The Social Security Programme: Our Story Team are part of a wider legacy portfolio, whose goal is to capture and disseminate eight years of acquired knowledge, capabilities and lessons learned to demonstrate that irrespective of the size, nature or maturity of your Programme, your profession or career pathway, ‘Our Story’ has the potential to build individual and team skills and capabilities whilst improving the effectiveness and quality of your delivery. They do this through a variety of means from building case studies, interviews and blogs to facilitating workshops and resource loans, for the benefit of Social Security Scotland, the wider Scottish Government and public sector. You can access their resources on Pathways or contact the team: socialsecurity.ourstoryteam@gov.scot.  They have a specific case study covering Assurance, and their approach to this which you can access here.

Tags: Continuous Improvement, Digital Assurance Office, Moveable Transactions, Registers of Scotland, Technology Assurance Framework

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