WaterNSW Program and Change Led Project Management Framework

The WaterNSW Project Delivery Framework (PDF) was developed in 2015 and was a high level document that addressed the delivery of all project types including transformational change, informational technology and construction.

There were a number of factors leading to the PDF no longer being fit for purpose:

WaterNSW were required to deliver an increased volume of projects and without a clear framework, project success was low.
There was a significant amount of conflict between teams which was leading to frustration and poor behaviours.
Many of the teams and templates referred to within the PDF no longer existed or were unused.

This resulted in the need to refresh the PDF.

TBH’s Role

TBH was engaged to both develop a new framework as well as support and influence adoptions using Organisational Change Management (OCM).

During the three-week discovery phase, taking an OCM-led approach TBH interviewed over 86 staff across WaterNSW. The purpose of the discovery phase was both to get a true understanding of the issues behind poor project delivery and to understand the impact of the change on different teams (a dual program and change-led approach).

On completion of the change impact assessment, the team developed a change focused program / schedule to address key issues and challenges in a structure way that not only ensured solutions were found, but to ensure that implementation was structured to best influence adoption across all teams.

TBH identified a quick win in the need to update the governance framework to better reflect the needs of a growing portfolio. This new governance approach saw project change requests lead times drop from 12 weeks to two as well as a significant increase in the quality of the requests.

Whilst the governance framework was being stood up, TBH concurrently worked with the leadership and their teams to develop a project management framework (PMF) to address challenges across the lifecycle. The PMF incorporated the full project lifecycle including planning phases to ensure an end-to-end understanding of the lifecycle by all stakeholders.

By supporting the development of the PMF with strong change management, TBH were able to influence the WaterNSW leadership team and built a common desire to not only address all the root causes identified within the Discovery phase but to continue along the maturity journey by establishing a Portfolio Management Office and an 18 month change-led framework to improve project management and control maturity.

The TBH Difference

12 months since the implementation of the identified early wins, the delivery team met the following targets for the first time since the organisation was formed: