The brief

The auto-enrolment programme had significant implications for the workload of The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which recognised the need to strengthen its ability to manage its project workload. The capacity of the organisation was going to be critically stretched in order to meet the auto-enrolment deadlines, so it needed the capability to control and balance its project and operational demands.

Establishing portfolio management

CMC implemented a Portfolio Management Office (PMO) to support the Board and Senior Executives to define and control the business transformation portfolio, to ensure it delivered expected outcomes to time and budget, and that the organisation secured its return on investment. This needed to be capable of providing the data needed by the Board to control project workload at an enterprise level.

As part of this engagement we proactively worked with the Board to strengthen project and change sponsorship, establish portfolio governance arrangements and provide an interim portfolio manager. We also introduced a standard project lifecycle and a baseline approval process linked to the corporate planning arrangements.

Enabling a seamless handover

We helped TPR to recruit a new permanent portfolio manager and a team of PMO specialists, transferring skills to ensure this capability was sustained after our departure. We left TPR with robust portfolio management arrangements, having improved programme, project and change capability.