PMO
The Digital Portfolio aims to manage the investment in digital change initiatives required to achieve the strategic objectives of Homes England. The Digital PMO offers enhanced governance, greater benefits realisation, more efficient utilisation of resources, the effective implementation of projects and improved engagement with our partners and customers.
We aim to pioneer PMO services within Digital in order to embed a user-centered and agile approach to delivery, while maintaining the integrity of standardised reporting and governance. We are a source for project documentation, guidance, management information, and data to support and provide oversight on the overall delivery of projects.
We want to be the benchmark for PMO services across Homes England and wider government, and we will proactively share learning, tools, expertise and advice with a variety of stakeholders to proliferate best practice.
What we offer
The Digital PMO offers a wide range of services to stakeholders across Digital and the wider organisation in order to support and improve project delivery and provide greater assurance and benefit realisation.
Our main communication tools are through the Digital PMO inbox and the DPB Teams channel.
Board Governance
Digital Portfolio Board
The Digital Portfolio Board provides oversight and challenge for new and existing projects within the Digital Portfolio and acts as a management forum for major decisions on the Digital Portfolio pipeline, project approvals, closures, escalated risks and project expenditure.
The Senior Responsible Officer for the Digital Portfolio Board is the Chief Digital and Technology Officer and is current chaired by the PMO Lead. The Digital Portfolio Board also includes senior stakeholders from Digital and directorate across Homes England including Transformation, Development, Investment, DES, Corporate Resources, Executive Office and MPP.
The Digital Portfolio Board acts as a stage gate for all projects moving between agile (incl. Discovery, Alpha, Beta and Project Close) or waterfall phases, with each project requiring a dedicated pitch deck (business case) which is to be updated at every stage gate before approval to move phase is agreed by the Digital Portfolio Board.
The approval process for the Digital Portfolio is set out in our Digital Portfolio Process Map. This process map will be updated once the new governance and pipeline process is finalised.
For further information, you can join the Digital Portfolio Board MS Teams site here.
The Digital Portfolio Board is currently under review as part of a wider review into governance and assurance processes across Homes England. An update will provided once the review is completed.
GDS Spend Control Pipeline
As an executive agency of MHCLG, Homes England is required to get approval on any Digital and Technology spend that is:
- on a digital service that’s over £100,000*
- on a technology service that’s over £5 million*
- of any amount on something that might be considered ‘novel’ or contentious
*For Homes England we are putting all digital and technology spend on the GDS spend control pipeline as we mature our governance processes.
The GDS spend control pipeline helps Homes England to ensure that our Digital spend is compliant with the GDS Service Standard or Technology Code of Practice (TCOP) and supports the organisation in planning spending on our Digital services. All Digital projects within the Digital Portfolio must be logged on the GDS spend control pipeline.
For more information on the GDS spend control pipeline, please visit the GOV.UK site here or contact our Digital Spend Assurance Lead Nikki Wilson.
Technical Design Authority (TDA)
The TDA is an advisory forum that aims to support the Digital team in making effective decisions regarding our technology at Homes England to ensure any new services meet the TCOP and Homes England’s architecture landscape. The TDA consists of technology, operational and engineering expertise, and support the reduction of technical debt while support user needs across the organisation.
You can join the TDA team site here, where you can make a request for your project or service to be placed on the agenda for the TDA.
Lean Assurance
The Digital Delivery team are working closely with colleagues across Digital Operation and Technology to streamline our current governance and assurance processes and provide a more efficient and agile experience when interacting with our users. We aim to review our assurance processes within Digital across 2021-22, and will engage with users as we update our processes.
Value Management
Portfolio Prioritisation
Currently, internal prioritisation of the Digital Portfolio is managed by the Digital Portfolio Board. However, there is currently a review into how Homes England can manage the prioritisation of all changes opportunities across the organisation at an Executive Level. This review is due to take place over the course of 2021-22, and this section will be updated once the review has been completed.
Benefits Management
The Digital PMO manages the overall Benefits Register for Digital Services, and works with Benefit Owners on a monthly basis to ensure we are quantifying and measuring benefits. The Benefits Management process is managed under the Benefits Framework that supports the development of benefits in the pitch deck process prior to project initiation. Throughout the project’s delivery, benefits should be refined and measure against benchmarked data or information.
Risk Management
The approach to risk management within Digital is set out in the Digital Risk Strategy.
Digital PMO manages the overall strategic Digital Risk Register and Digital Portfolio Risk Log, including consolidated risks or escalated risks from projects. They are held on Project Online and reported to senior management through our governance forums. The Digital PMO will also be the route for escalating high-level project risks through the Digital PMO one-page report.
Pipeline Management
Requesting a New Project
The Business Relationship Manager manages the process for new projects or opportunities entering the Digital Portfolio pipeline. If you or a member of staff within the organisation wish to raise a new request to be entered into the Digital Portfolio, you can fill out the Digital Request Form.
Once you have raised a request through the Digital Request Form, the Business Relationship Manager will be in contact with you within five days of receipt of the request to understand more about the proposed project or opportunity. The Digital team will meet on a weekly basis to review all new work requests and determine whether the project will enter the Digital Portfolio, or be triaged to Homes England’s Transformation Programme, our Digital Service Teams, or is considered BAU.
For more information about requesting a new project, please get in contact with Reena George, Business Relationship Manager.
We are currently exploring with the Transition Alignment Group (TAG) in developing an enterprise wide ‘front door’ for change projects for Homes England and will provide more information once an update is available.
Pitch Deck Process (Business Case)
If the new project request or opportunity is proposed as a Digital Portfolio project following receipt of the Project Request Form, then the request is progressed to the pitch deck (business case) process. The pitch deck process provides further justification for delivering the project request within the Digital Portfolio, sets out the case for change, the proposed benefits, risks, costs, resources and timescales, as well as identifying its link to other interdependent projects or areas of work within Homes England.
The current pitch deck template is available here (please download a copy of the template), and is a streamlined version of the Five Case Model as adopted by HM Treasury. In the future, we are proposing to move the pitch deck process to our portfolio management system Microsoft Project Online to support the governance and reporting of all projects during the initiation stage.
We will expect that the information provided in the Digital Request Form will inform the Pitch Deck process and the Business Relationship Manager and Digital Business Analysts will work in collaboration with business areas to support the development of their pitch decks.
Demand pipeline
The Digital PMO manages the internal prioritisation process for all new and existing projects within the Digital Portfolio. This is currently managed through the Digital Portfolio Prioritisation Framework, which links all Digital Portfolio project against a set of criteria to ensure our projects are matched against organisational priorities.
The Digital PMO also manages the Digital Portfolio Roadmap that support strategic and long-term planning and sequencing of our current projects over the financial year. The Digital Portfolio Roadmap is available here.
Resource Management
The allocation of Digital Resources is managed in a Partership between Heads of Profession and the Digital Resource and Capability Team. Decisions around the allocation of resources are made by looking at the prioritisation of the work, the skills that we have available, the level of resource available, and any associated budgetary issues.
The Digital Resource and Capability team lead the conversations between the Heads of Profession, and work with wider Homes England to ensure we can identify, and if appropriate, fill the resourcing gaps
The team use Project Online to help to identify where those resource gaps may be, and develop solutions based on the needs, and the budget associated, with the piece of work. Using Project Online, we will have a set of Strategic Resourcing reports available.
The Digital Resource and Capability team also manage our DDAT (Digital Data and Technology) Capability Development, and work closely with partner across government in the wider development of Digital Professions.
For more information on Digital Resourcing, DDAT Capabilities, or Digital Careers please contact Victoria Sherrington or Kate Wilkinson.
Knowledge Management
Due to the nature of the temporary resource that lend themselves to project work, there is a risk that knowledge is lost when resources move on. From the start of a project, it is good practice to hold retrospectives after each sprint or after a project stage gate and note down lessons learned for others to pick up when they start planning their projects. This knowledge sharing is aided by a Lessons Learned register in Project online.