Programme strategy and set up is a project to plan, coordinate and manage several projects (programmes) with different timeframes to achieve certain objectives. Programme strategy and set-up is a subset of the programme management office. The aim is to have one programme manager for several projects in order to reduce the overall effort, reduce the budget and time required.

In order to have a successful Programme strategy and set up we:

1. Initiated a meeting with the client and his PMO team (programme management) in Salford, Manchester; we introduced ourselves and presented our company; we established contacts within the team; we collected documents from previous projects, requirements/asks from stakeholders and prepared a workshop which led to identify different risks involved with programmes.
2. We carried out workshops for all the different teams involved (PMO) to communicate each other’s expectations;  in order to do so we used Mason and Marlowe facilitated workshop tools. These workshops helped us establish relationships between all the key stakeholders of our client’s project(s). Participants got to know each other through the different workshop exercises and they established clear expectations regarding their roles and responsibilities in the project.
3. We carried out a paperless office training for all our client’s people; we provided them with tablets to use during workshops in order to work more efficiently on visualising the different requirements, risks etc…
4. We helped our client to establish relationships with all his stakeholders (teams outside of PMO) such as main contractors (leading subcontractors), finance/accounting department; we also organised several meetings between the PMO team and different key people outside of the company in order for them to get to know each other and help establish a better understanding in terms of the language used when talking about projects, timelines and budgets.
5. We built an Excel spreadsheet with the different projects, timeframes and deadlines in order to have one programme plan for all of our client’s programmes.
6. We worked on creating a PowerPoint presentation to communicate the objectives of establishing a programme management office (PMO). It helped us demonstrate to our client how it can be beneficial in terms of cost-saving when using one organisation’s people instead of several if they are managing multiple related projects at once.
7. We established training plans for prime contract employees so that they would know their responsibilities, what timelines they should respect when delivering specific requirements etc…  

In order to make sure that our client’s Programme strategy gets successfully implemented we Continuously monitored the activities of the different programmes, making sure they were on track and no deadlines would not be missed. We also  Work on a daily basis with all project managers in order for them to fix any issues as soon as possible.

1. Experience: we’ve been in business for more than five years; we know how to plan and manage projects (programmes) successfully.
2. Specialists: our team has worked on many different types of project (programme) such as construction, IT etc…
3. Confidentiality: all the information you give us is safe with us; we will not disclose it or share it with other parties.
4. Convenient: all our services are tailor-made and adapted to your needs, requests etc…
5. Connected: we have many partners working together with us so that we can provide a better service.
6. Long-term approach: we do not help you just for this one project/programme but we establish long-term relationships because we know that you want the same.
7. Friendly: we are not here to just do business with you; we also want to be friends so that our relationship will last for a very long time.
8. Fulfill special requests: let us know if there is anything specific you would like us to provide, even if it’s not on our list of services; we will work hard in order to fulfil your request.
9. Perform regular communication audits: this service helps us determine whether communication is effective or not; if it isn’t effective then we try to fix the situation together with all the relevant stakeholders (communication owners).
10. Comfortable working environment: your employees work in a relaxed atmosphere; they focus on their objectives without distractions and delays.

Our prices depend on many factors such as the amount of people who will be trained (for Training), number of projects/programmes (for Programme strategy) etc.

Mason & Marlowe are serving one of its leading clients, based in Salford, Manchester, to prepare and implement a programme strategy and set up. Our client is building a new campus as part of its transformation plan. The construction process will be undertaken by several contractors who will build different components such as the groundworks and roads on site. We have been asked to provide support for the whole project life cycle from pre-construction through design development phase until completion stage. This includes supporting the client with their internal stakeholder management during all phases of this complex project.

You can expect us to deliver an integrated solution that provides our client with best practice guidance throughout each stage of this large scale project which involves multiple stakeholders within their organisation including senior managers across both public sector organisations involved in delivering this major regeneration scheme for Greater Manchester region. We believe we can help them achieve their goals using our expertise gained over many years working on similar projects around UK regions like London or Birmingham City Centre areas where we successfully managed various programmes involving multiple stakeholders within public sector organisations involved in delivering these large scale projects successfully without any delays or issues along the way resulting into successful delivery at end user level (i.e.: residents).