The ESDC Programme Management Life Cycle
Transcript
Welcome to this brief introduction to the ESDC Programme Management Life Cycle, a key component of ESDC's Programme Management Framework. You can see displayed a high-level diagram showing the life cycle.
Programmes are described by the Government of Canada Treasury Board as 'a group of projects and change management activities that together achieve beneficial change for the department'.
Programme management is recognised as being an effective approach to allow organizations to deliver large-scale, transformational change in the most beneficial way to achieve the outcomes and Benefits the department is seeking to obtain. Programmes are designed to handle a level of uncertainty which comes from the delivery of large-scale complex change.
As you can see in the diagram, there are four phases in the life of a programme. These are Identifying a Programme, Defining a Programme, Managing the Tranches and Closing a Programme.
Just to step through these in a little bit more detail, the first phase starts with the approval of a Programme Proposal which has been developed to address a departmental mandate or strategic priority. The purpose of the first phase—Identifying a Programme—is to develop potentially viable business change options. Contained in the Programme Brief, these options are presented to Senior Executives who will confirm how the department should proceed in delivering the change.
The second phase is Defining a Programme which looks at what the end goal of programme delivery is and what is the most effective way in achieving this. Several planning documents are produced during this phase, including the Blueprint describing the changes and the Programme Plan describing how the changes will be delivered. It also enables an effective governance structure to be developed to support successful delivery.
The third phase, Managing the Tranches, is the process where the delivery of the programme is carried out. In most programmes, delivery is broken down into chunks so there is a progression through what needs to be delivered in a stepped way. These chunks are what we refer to as a tranche. Each tranche will deliver one or more projects. The changes delivered by these projects will be introduced into the department in a phased way enabling Benefits to be realized as the programme progresses towards achieving its final goal. Several planning documents and reports are produced to plan and track progress as each tranche is delivered.
Very often, programmes take some time to deliver and they consume a lot of resources. Therefore, they need a structured approach to being closed out properly. Closing a programme is the phase which sees us shut the programme down once it has achieved its end goal or a decision is made to prematurely close it. It's important that the experience gained through the programme be captured and shared.
It's also important to note that programmes are reviewed several times during their life to track progress and approve proceeding. The department conducts reviews for all programmes and Treasury Board may choose to conduct reviews of large programmes.
I hope you have found this presentation of interest. You can find out more about programme management and the department's approach by referring to our iService pages on programme management.