One of the most significant pressures on defence programme delivery is that of timescales and iterations: time vs tempo. In this paper, we explore answers to questions around programme viability, how we can adapt our programme models, behaviours and approaches and how to respond to tensions around time vs tempo successfully.
25 November 2021
In complex defence programmes, adopting an agile approach often benefits. Agile is more than a buzzword: it is a philosophy and development framework that needs to be integrated into organisational environments that typically do not – or indeed cannot - work in this manner. If you get this integration wrong or don’t give it sufficient focus, tensions will derail programme delivery.
One of the most prominent pressures on defence programme delivery is that of timescales and iterations: time vs tempo. How can we adapt our programme models, behaviours and approaches to respond to these tensions? How can you iteratively develop an upgraded capability and deliver it to the front line by a required date – to avoid a capability gap – whilst adhering to long-timescale organisational processes and continually demonstrating value-for-money and programme viability?
In this article, Andrew Gray, Senior Principal Consultant, and Leigh Storer, Consultant, BMT, describe how programmes and governments can apply agile frameworks and development environments in the right way to help prioritise work, identify risks and manage options before programme delivery is threatened.
Andrew is an experienced transformational and operational capability change practitioner who can draw upon his practical and theoretical knowledge of the leadership and management of people and activities across the product generation, capability development and business transformational change cycles. From an engineering background in the aerospace sector leading teams in multi-discipline, multi-site and multi-cultural environments, Andrew now works for BMT Defence & Security where he advises clients in all aspects of complex change management. As well as being a Fellow of the APM and a Chartered Project Professional, Andrew is a UK and European Chartered Engineer, and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Leigh Storer is a Consultant within BMT Defence and Security UK. She has experience in a wide range of projects across the lifecycle as well as contract management. Leigh holds the APM PMQ and enjoys a versatile workload, including client work and involvement in the Research and Development area of BMT.
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This paper outlines what we mean by complex projects, Systems Thinking, emergent properties and benefits management, and proposes the benefits of combining these to aid successful project delivery.
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The third article in our Bias series, this piece focusses on hindsight bias. It can have severe implications for project management, impacting the assessment of decisions, hindering learning, and contributing to overconfidence in (and in turn the potential jeopardising of) project success.
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In recent years, bias in the workplace, both subconscious and overt, has come under intense scrutiny. In this bias series, we will be looking at some of the lesser-known workplace subconscious biases: what they are; how they affect you and your colleagues, and what you can do to tackle them. In this first article, we examine the negatives and - perhaps surprisingly - the positives of a bias that affects everyone nearly every day: optimism bias.
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Confirmation Bias: what is it? How does it affect you? Can you overcome it? Welcome to the second article in our bias series on some of the lesser known subconscious biases in the workplace.