Tech-Enhanced Central Government Projects

Central government departments have increasingly recognized the power of technology to enhance project management and drive efficiency. This blog post delves into how these departments, like Cafcass, use project management tools to overcome challenges and increase productivity. In a recent event, we explored their journey, from adopting centralized solutions to tackling common pain points.

We share some insights from Lucy Oldham-Smith, PMO Manager at Cafcass, who discusses their shift from reliance on outdated tools like SharePoint and Excel to a more cohesive, Microsoft-integrated platform. Lucy offers a firsthand account of the benefits and obstacles encountered, highlighting considerations such as the importance of change management, phased rollouts, and training.

Whether you’re part of a government PMO team or are interested in how technology can elevate public sector project management, this blog will equip you with actionable insights. Join us as we journey towards streamlined, tech-driven project management in the public sector and discover how you can apply these practices within your organization.

• Portfolio Management: to provide roadmap oversight and to ensure that the right projects are being identified and approved–they’re aligned with the organization’s strategic goals.
• Project Governance: to ensure the processes were being followed to ensure successful outcomes.
• Benefits Tracking: Track the benefits that would arise from the project.
• Resource Management: to support better demand and capacity planning.
• Business Intelligence: to access instant visibility of projects and portfolios and to enable the team to focus on analysis.

This aligned well with the Mentimeter responses.  Participants were asked what their top three project and portfolio management challenges were; below are the results:

Achieving consistency was one of the biggest challenges that participants faced, with reporting, visibility, and resource management being common themes.

To address these challenges, the Cafcass Programme Management Office team searched for a solution. As a Microsoft 365 user, a native Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management app seemed a natural choice.

When participants were asked via Mentimeter what their top blockers were to implementing and adopting technology, we received the following responses:

Cost and budgetary constraints were prominent, alongside technology-specific themes revolving around ‘data security concerns and IT’. By implementing a Microsoft solution, Cafcass could mitigate these concerns because the organization already used the Microsoft cloud.

Lucy stressed, however, that a tool alone wouldn’t address every problem raised by stakeholders. Further, she explained that it was important to bring people with you on the journey, emphasizing the importance of change management, adequate training, and coaching to improve uptake. She also highlighted that an implementation should not be rushed and stressed:

• The introduction of the PPM tool is something that is going to take some time
• A tool by itself is not going to solve the problems raised by stakeholders
• Consider friendly early adopters to help you
• Consider a phased implementation
• A PPM tool has so much functionality; consider which elements to prioritize to build a strong foundation, and then you can expand into more challenging areas later
• Review and implement training and coaching as required
• Bring people with you on the journey
• Use a Comms Plan to improve the visibility of the PMO and the tool

One of the key outcomes of the implementation within Cafcass was the setup of a Community of Practice. This community was built on ongoing insights to help mature project management practice. Feedback is regularly captured through this to help drive continuous improvement and raise maturity.

Moving from manual ways of working towards a centralized solution has already started to yield positive results, and it’s a transition that all organizations should consider. If you belong to a larger organization that has adopted M365, you may also find that you’re already licensed, so do have a chat with your IT team.