Digital delivery assurance
How to review a troubled digital programme without creating another report
A useful recovery review should reduce uncertainty, not add another layer of reporting. Start with the decisions, evidence and ownership that will change what happens next.
When a programme is under pressure, people often ask for more reporting. However, more reporting is not the same as more control. The review needs to establish what is true, what is material and what decision is now required.
Start with the decision, not the template
A recovery review is useful when the sponsor can say what they need to decide. Is the programme still viable? Does the scope need to change? Is the delivery model wrong? Does a dependency need executive intervention?
Without that question, the review can become a catalogue of observations. It may be accurate and still fail to help the programme move.
Use evidence from more than the status report
Status reporting is one source of evidence. It is not the whole position. A credible review should compare the plan with what delivery teams, suppliers, users and decision-makers are experiencing.
- What has actually been delivered and accepted?
- Which decisions are waiting for an owner?
- Which risks have remained open and why?
- Where are dependencies affecting the critical path?
- What do users or operational teams need that the plan does not currently address?
Separate symptoms from causes
A missed milestone is a symptom. The cause may be unclear scope, a dependency, weak technical design, insufficient capacity or a decision that has been deferred for too long.
The review should not assume that the loudest issue is the most important one. It should make the relationship between symptoms, causes and consequences visible.
End with ownership and choices
The output should be short enough for leaders to use. It should identify what is working, what is failing, the material risks, the decisions required and who owns the next action.
A programme does not recover because a report is well written. It recovers when the organisation makes a few difficult choices and follows them through with enough discipline to see whether the position improves.