Imagine a world where your organisation's projects are like well-oiled machines, perfectly aligned with strategic objectives and delivering tangible value. That's the power of LPM! The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) helps us break down departmental silos, fostering a more collaborative environment. By working together, we can prioritise initiatives based on genuine value, ensuring our efforts are directed at the projects that will have the greatest impact. LPM also helps us establish a continuous flow of work across the entire portfolio, streamlining the delivery process and reducing bottlenecks.
Blog: Silo struggles turn to streamlined success as UKSBS embraces Lean Portfolio Management
Here at UKSBS, we're all about efficiency and delivering maximum value.
We facilitated a cross functional workshop to modernise our Portfolio Management Office (PMO) with a view to achieving Business Agility.
Rob Warner, Head of Lean Agile Centre of Excellence, commented: “Managing a complex portfolio of projects can be a challenge, and sometimes it can feel like we haven't quite cracked the code for optimal coordination. That's why we recently started a journey towards a more streamlined approach, and we're chuffed to share the positive outcomes of our workshop on Lean Portfolio Management (LPM)!”
Workshop wins: collaboration and clear decisions
Our recent workshop was a collaborative triumph! Everyone actively participated, shared valuable insights, and helped us reach some key decisions. We'll be trialling the use of Jira for our portfolio visualisation, ensuring clear visibility into project progress. We've also adopted the SAFe Kanban Board with minor modifications to suit us better at UKSBS. This will give us a shared understanding of workflow stages. Finally, the "Epic Owner" role will be flexible, based on project needs – meaning we can use existing positions to fulfil this vital role! These decisions pave the way for a more streamlined and efficient approach to managing change.
How does LPM benefit a public organisation like UKSBS?
For UKSBS, LPM is a game-changer. Here's how:
- Prioritising public value: LPM ensures our projects directly contribute to the bigger picture, maximising the impact of taxpayer's money for our clients.
- Transparency and alignment: Clear workflows and shared visuals bring transparency to decision-making, allowing us to allocate resources more effectively.
- Adaptability in a changing landscape: The ever-evolving public sector demands agility. LPM empowers us to continuously adapt our portfolio to meet new needs and challenges.
Looking ahead: building on success
The workshop was just the first step. We're excited to move forward with action items like populating Jira with sample Epics and establishing clear definitions for Kanban board states. We'll also be scheduling a follow-up workshop to delve deeper into portfolio thresholds and prioritisation strategies.
Stay tuned!
We'll be sharing our progress and the ongoing benefits of LPM at UKSBS. We believe this approach will not only streamline our internal processes but ultimately enable us to deliver greater value to the public we serve.