DECC Electricity Market Reform

Chris Shoukry of ALCO Consulting was brought in to review the management of the Electricity Market Reform programme in October 2013 and worked with me to carry out an extensive review, talking to people across the programme and outside, attending our programme meetings, and providing expert advice and challenge.  This review resulted in an outline proposal from Chris to the SRO and me, setting out an ambitious vision for upskilling the PMO, transforming our focus, and changing the way the EMR project teams interact with the programme.  This involved substantial changes to people’s roles and management chains both in my team and across the programme, including recasting the objectives of all six heads of teams.  The review was carried out at a time of significant pressure for the programme, which is three years into a four-year programme of reform, with no contingency in the timetable.  Chris was able to persuade and inspire some fairly sceptical members of the programme, including some within my team and some at head of team level, that change was both possible and necessary.  She provided me personally (and key members within my team) with a huge amount of support during the difficult review period and in the aftermath.  Most importantly, she helped to raise the profile of good PPM within the Department, and to raise our level of ambition within the PMO.  Her expertise has been invaluable in helping us to focus on the right areas, to professionalise us as a team, and to persuade the rest of the programme of value of a strong and professional PMO.

The changes made as a result of Chris’s review led directly to a Gateway Review Assurance of Action Plan report which commended the programme for ‘significantly improved’ programme management.  Since helping us to design and implement the review, Chris has worked with me to do an assessment of how well the changes are working a month in, which involved her working with my team to make some adjustments to their roles to reflect the practicalities of the programme.  Again, she demonstrated tact and understanding to recast the roles in a way that fitted with the available resource while keeping the team motivated.  We have extended Chris’s contract to provide ongoing mentoring and support to me and my team, and we are benefiting from her expert advice across a range of areas including programme evaluation, transition planning, contingency planning, relationships with projects, risk and issues management, governance, programme closure, etc.