Reducing funding request rejection by improving quality of submissions

How we sped up delivery and improved governance at the same time.

The situation

  • Pragmatic PMO was engaged to provide governance oversight to a portfolio of projects, which were often poorly prepared for incremental funding requests.
  • Internal Audit had recommended that delays to funding approval and hence delivery needed improvement.

The target

  • We were asked to put in place a framework to address the situation, and in doing so reduce costly delivery delays (to revise and resubmit funding requests) at a time when the organisational ability to fund these delays was severely constrained.

The approach

  • We reviewed existing processes and PM artefacts, and integrated them into a single, documented process.
  • We created a template to simplify check point reviews and assess project readiness to request funding.
  • We carried out gate reviews using the new template, and in advance identified funding requests that would be rejected or deferred due to lack of information for decision.
  • Using the review template as a guide, we worked with project managers to improve the quality of their funding requests to the investment decision board.
  • We created and delivered training to the portfolio office team to enable them to use the new approach.

The result

  • Increased the proportion of project funding requests being either approved or rejected on their first presentation to the investment decision board, as opposed to being deferred due to lack of information on which to make a decision.
  • Consequently, improved speed of project pipeline management and in-flight project delivery whilst satisfying governance requirements, and reducing unnecessary spend against the organisation’s constrained portfolio budget.

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