{"id":5257,"date":"2024-11-13T09:20:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T09:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=5257"},"modified":"2024-11-13T09:20:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T09:20:17","slug":"moveable-transactions-project-senior-responsible-officer-sro-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2024\/11\/13\/moveable-transactions-project-senior-responsible-officer-sro-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Moveable Transactions Project – Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blog from Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/a> \u00a0For 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.<\/p>\n

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Being a Senior Responsible Owner<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Moveable Transactions project was Anne\u2019s first SRO role for a major project. \u00a0To 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The value of assurance<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018There 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Preparing for independent assurance<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n