Digital

Planning – insights from the Technology Assurance Framework

January 29, 2025 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Digital Assurance Office, Digital Scotland

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

Planning is one of the Scottish Government’s programme and project management principles and is described as ‘considering all aspects of our projects and continuously planning, managing dependencies, agreeing and refining evidence based assumptions, and reporting on progress against milestones throughout.’  Planning has been identified by Audit Scotland as a common theme at the heart of failing ICT projects and programmes. In their Principles for a digital future they draw out the need for projects to be broken down into manageable stages and to be aware of optimism bias.

Analysing the recommendations from our major digital project reviews we can identify common challenges faced by those delivering digital projects. Organisation and planning was one of the dominant themes from major digital project reviews 2023-24 and at the time of writing was the 5^th most common theme from all reviews, with 123 recommendations (6% of all recommendations made) and featuring in 89 out of 249 reports (36%).

This blog shares insights from the Digital Assurance Office (DAO), who administer the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF), on the recommendations made for improvement around organisation and planning.

The programme/project should have a single integrated high level plan which:

• identifies major milestones, dependencies and planning assumptions and is developed using all relevant knowledge
• takes a long term and holistic view, planning for interdependencies and future needs
• has an identified critical path, and the near critical path, which should have a full set of dependencies and planning assumptions and be actively monitored
• is formalised and includes governance and assurance events
• is end to end and includes adequate time for business change activities

Underneath this high level plan there should be detailed plans for the short to mid term which:

• are prepared through comprehensive and detailed planning exercises designed to draw in all relevant knowledge which can challenge assumptions and provide confidence in the planning process
• are developed using appropriate tools for detailed project planning that are consistent across the project/programme
• demonstrate key activities and milestones that can be used to underpin decisions and assure and direct delivery
• are integrated with resourcing and finance information
• include pre-determined criteria for determining if project milestones have been achieved
• provides a clear launch date for the project and ensures all activities required prior to go-live are documented

Plans should be live and responsive to change:

• the high level and detailed plans should be challenged by the project team frequently and when particular issues arise, including changing planning assumptions
• changes to the plan should be reflected in the business case as required
• user research and communications activities should be included in plans with feedback mechanisms to provide ongoing insights
• proactive planning can be used as an opportunity to identify activities that can be front loaded in the programme/project and also support decisions on prioritisation

There should be effective communication with stakeholders:

• plans should be clearly communicated and where appropriate accepted by stakeholders
• where plans have identified dependencies with partners for particular elements of delivery this should be set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (or similar) to ensure there is clarity on requirements

Plans should clearly reflect the agreed programme/project scope:

• there should be a closure milestone for the project/programme which is clearly communicated and enforced
• a date for freezing MVP requirements should be put in place to support planning for go-live

Effective planning is a foundation for good governance and project control.  We have previously published insights on this theme. Recommendations illustrating the relationship between planning and governance include:

• to support governance boards to be explicitly clear on focus and prioritisation they must be action orientated and plan based
• to enable governance boards to make decisions they need good evidence to understand progress which should be provided by using programme/project documentation e.g. the critical path
• for governance boards to make timely decisions, decision making needs to be scheduled into programme/project plans and included on the critical path
• to support effective project control there should be up to date project management documentation (e.g. project plan, critical path, dependency map)

Further information

To help others improve delivery of digital projects the Digital Assurance Office are sharing insights from assurance and working with organisations who have had assurance to share their experiences. If you want to get involved – or have thoughts on what insights would be helpful to share contact us at DigitalAssurance@gov.scot.  You can find all of our published insights and case studies on Pathways or on the digital blog.

A number of Technology Assurance Framework reviews of the Social Security Programme identified good practice in programme management, control and governance.  The Programme uses the term ‘plan’ to describe the product based delivery schedule of a product or service area produced in Microsoft Project.  These plans detail the key tasks leading to the delivery of related milestones, including dependencies and are a key management tool, enabling the tracking and management of delivery progress and as such are subject to formal approval and change control processes via Programme Governance arrangements. The Social Security Programme tailored its approach against the Scaled Agile Framework.  Product and service areas employ agile management tools, with MS project plans being used to articulate key milestones and deliverables.  The approach to planning is set out in the planning section of the PMO handbook, and in more detail in the Programme Planning and Dependency Management Strategy which are available on Pathways.

Case studies with the Moveable Transactions project at Registers of Scotland explore their approach to governance and active leadership and reflections from the SRO which include their approach to project governance and planning.

For expert guidance to help you deliver high quality digital services visit the Digital Scotland Service Manual,  the Agile section allows you to learn about agile project methods. Guidance is also available on planning in agile and agile tools and techniques from the UK Government.

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. They offer a course on agile estimation and planning, other courses providing guidance on planning include Product Roadmaps, Introduction to Scrum, Product and Delivery Practitioners as well as Agile Leadership in Practice.

The Digital Scotland Service Standard Criterion 14, Ensure Sponsor Acceptance, provides guidance and links to more information on governance principles for agile service delivery.

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.

Tags: Continuous Improvement, Digital Assurance Office, Major digital project reviews, Programme and project principles, Technology Assurance Framework

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