Delivery management
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We support clients through every stage of the delivery lifecycle, helping to ensure projects run smoothly and efficiently. Whether it’s planning, execution, or overcoming unexpected challenges, our focus is on providing practical support to help turn client goals into tangible outcomes. And with extensive experience, we understand what it takes to create successful products and services.
Delivery management is a vital function, accountable for the successful delivery of complex, high risk products and services. We’re responsible for the coordination of resources and activities, managing risks and issues, and ensuring deliverables are available on time, to budget and that they meet the clients’ expected quality levels.
A lot of the work that goes into delivery management is hidden from view, but it is essential to keep projects running smoothly. We negotiate and set budgets in complex environments, have a thorough understanding of the project lifecycle and maintain delivery momentum throughout.
We have experience across the full project and delivery management spectrum, from agile to lean and waterfall, and everything in between. Importantly, our delivery approach flexes to the needs of the client and the specific project we’re working on. This flexibility is key for successful delivery and allows us to adapt our approaches to ensure we can work with clients and other stakeholders in a collaborative way.
At NEC Digital Studio, delivery management is split into two functions: project delivery and delivery operations.
We provide project and delivery management roles, from project managers to programme managers and directors across the full range of delivery methodologies. The project delivery function engages clients on a strategic level, managing the desired outputs and outcomes of the project in line with the agreed budget and timescales.
Delivery Managers work collaboratively with clients to establish high levels of trust and satisfaction. We’re usually the main point of contact for clients and ensure communication lines between subject matter experts and our delivery teams are always open and effective.
We are also the connection between the technical and non-technical teams, managing the boundaries of responsibility and ensuring efficient collaboration and production of deliverables. We manage stakeholder expectations and moderate discussions about risk and complexity, gaining mutually agreeable approaches and actions. Delivery management bridges the gaps between different areas of expertise in a project to find a clear path towards a united goal.
Another hugely important element of delivery management is the discipline applied when following the agreed processes. This ensures clarity, transparency and predictability in our work and the services we provide. Delivery management keeps us accountable, honest and on track.
Also known as the project management office, or PMO, delivery operations are the administrative support for the project delivery teams. Delivery operations are responsible for a huge number of vital activities that ensure a project is successful including:
Resource management and assignment. We balance resources with competing priorities across the business. That means knowing what skills are required for each project and which colleagues are available with those skills. Robust resource planning allows us to provide accurate estimates to clients and ensures we have the right people to deliver the work.
Project governance. We have processes and controls in place to ensure projects are well-managed and meet their objectives. This includes risk management, contract management and commercial change management as well as the communication of the achievement of key milestones and more general updates to stakeholders on progress. We can also establish and support project/programme boards to provide effective oversight and decision-making for delivery in line with client requirements.
Financial management. We track the financials to make sure costs are in line with expectations. We invoice the client at the right time for the relevant work and continually monitor and report on the financial health of each project.
Onboarding and offboarding. Whenever anyone starts a project, we set them up to hit the ground running. That means sharing project information, getting the right access to files and setting up colleagues with relevant technology and tools. Similarly, when anyone leaves a project or when a project comes to an end, we ensure the processes and outcomes have been documented so we can learn for future work and celebrate our successes. A lot of our learning feeds into our delivery framework, to build capabilities and grow expertise across our teams.
The NEC Digital Studio project delivery framework provides our teams with a blueprint to work from when delivering projects. It identifies key activities at every stage throughout the project lifecycle, from how to start a project right through to how to close it down.
Each section has specific templates and advice to guide the teams through the process and ensure we’re consistently delivering to a high quality. It’s a source of inspiration for ideas as well as ensuring we stick to project governance.
It’s also a tool for encouraging and driving continuous improvement. We’ve built in regular retrospectives and feedback loops to learn where our project teams encountered challenges, so lessons can be learnt and processes can be improved. Read more about the details of how we run digital projects.
Most importantly it’s a framework, not a mandate. It gives our teams a platform to build successful projects on, but without restricting their ability to adapt to the needs around them.
Different clients have different requirements or ways of working, and, in some cases, pre-defined governance that must be followed. Our delivery approach is built on firm principles, but we’re adept at adapting to accommodate these differences. We define and agree our approach at the beginning of every project with key stakeholders, to ensure we’re working in line with their expectations. We’re skilled in coaching our teams and clients to inspect and adapt their processes and grow from there.
We’re not interested in prescribing exactly how something must be done, and most of our clients don’t want to hear that. We can offer guidance on best practice within established frameworks, but ultimately, we’re here to fit into the client’s working style/approach.
Programme managers lead our delivery teams on large-scale digital projects with multiple workstreams. Each delivery manager takes on different responsibilities and priorities within their workstream, reporting into the programme manager who has ultimate responsibility for the project as a whole.
Our programme managers act as an escalation point for any commercial or delivery risks. We’re skilled at removing blockers and manage dependencies of varying complexity, with our project and programme managers embracing the role of a ‘Servant-Leader’ who addresses challenges that might otherwise inhibit a team’s ability to deliver. We strive to adopt the right leadership style for each project to deliver the right outcomes. And as priorities change throughout the project lifecycle, we balance the objectives and redeploy people and resources as required.
Programme managers take a strategic role in our client partnerships. We engage with senior stakeholders to understand the desired outcomes for their client’s organisation and the constraints and impediments currently preventing them from getting there. It’s our job to understand what our clients are trying to do and the environment they’re operating in so we can take a strategic approach to those requirements, joining business needs with innovative analysis.
