The Strategic Value of Independent Project Assurance in Complex Programs

Dave Allen

Senior Director, Consulting

Dave is a vastly experienced program and implementation manager with 25-plus years of experience delivering solutions for investment management and financial institutions. He brings significant expertise on strategy, search and selection, and delivery across front-office, risk, outsourcing, and data management functions. He is adept at defining and delivering business and technical strategies for front-, middle-, and back-office functions, including extensive experience in developing program plans and building program teams, to deliver solutions covering all investment processes, asset classes, and delivery of robust operating models.

Before joining Cutter, Dave served as a director at Reformis, a Deloitte company, working on outsourcing initiatives for key investment management clients and outsourcing providers. He also worked with key wealth management clients to define strategic direction for next-generation investment platforms and delivered key data management strategies for a number of clients. Dave is DCAM accredited.

Chanelle Crabtree

Consulting Principal – Investment Operations and Outsourcing

Chanelle Crabtree has extensive experience consulting for the asset management industry in Australia for the past 20 years. Chanelle has considerable knowledge and expertise in investment management, outsourcing, and the development of operational models that support the investment management lifecycle. Chanelle leads Cutter Associates’ Investment Operations and Outsourcing practice, and oversees Cutter’s Australia office. She has decades of experience working for investment management firms, custodians, and consulting firms, in roles that included middle-/back-office operational, business analyst, project management, consulting, and senior management. She has a deep understanding of investment management, covering the operational, governance, and system requirements to support all types of clients, products, and asset classes.

A former Director at Deloitte, Chanelle led key engagements, particularly for complex clients with diverse asset classes, covering target operating model design, sourcing, and implementation. Prior to Deloitte, Chanelle was a Lead Consultant at Morse Consulting Pty Limited, where she led various engagements that covered target operating model design, sourcing of custodians/systems, and implementations with investment managers and superannuation clients.

Jun 19, 2024

What Is Project Assurance?

Project assurance is a critical governance function aimed at providing stakeholders with confidence that a project will deliver within the defined scope, time, cost, and quality constraints. The project assurance function operates independently of the project management team to ensure project objectives align with business goals, risks are effectively managed, and resources are appropriately utilized.

Project assurance acts as both a safeguard and facilitator for project success. It involves evaluating project processes, governance, and performance, thereby reinforcing accountability and supporting informed decision-making. It’s a vital component in the project oversight arsenal and integral to the strategic execution of projects.

Benefits of Project Assurance

Independent project assurance on a multi-year change program supports program leaders in providing confidence to the executives and board throughout the delivery life cycle. Validation of the optimal approach in these areas is crucial for several reasons, particularly the following:

Risk mitigation: Multi-year projects inherently carry a higher risk factor due to their extended time periods, complexity, and stakeholder expectations. Integrating regular independent reviews in tandem with your project team helps to instill confidence in the project, acts as an early warning mechanism in identifying and assessing risks and issues, and highlights areas where the program team might require support.

Cost: The program team is often resource-constrained and time poor, making it easy to lose track of the bigger picture (including financial management). Are the finances clearly understood? Is there a clear picture on the budget and actuals? Effective financial management helps control costs and prevents overspending. Project assurance provides clarity on project finances, including budget and actuals.

Stakeholder management: Validate the level of engagement and understanding of impacted stakeholders of program outcomes versus delivery. Executives and governance bodies gain confidence when independent assurance validates that the project is on track and supports stakeholders to develop an aligned understanding of change impacts on their workflows and amended scope managing delivery outcomes and required program decisions.

Resource optimization: By assessing program progress, assurance helps ensure that resources are allocated efficiently and assists the program in identifying where additional resources would guarantee successful delivery.

Scope management: Recognition and tracking of technical debt due to tactical delivery approaches due to limitations within the program to achieve the strategic solution.

Project Assurance Challenges to Avoid

If not introduced properly, project assurance can be viewed as a negative by program teams and introduce unnecessary challenges for the project team in the following ways:

Feeling judged on its competence and capabilities
Acting as an unnecessary distraction to the program when the project team is trying to get on with the work.
Perceived interference from an external team that may already have an agenda to criticise the program delivery.

Ensuring Engagement and Good Communication

To overcome these issues, it’s critical that subject matter experts (SMEs) perform these reviews, ensuring engagement is scheduled in advance as part of the initial implementation planning effort and that SMEs have clear terms of reference covering their scope and objectives.

Program stakeholders and governance bodies should clearly communicate and fully support the benefits of independent assurance. This should allow the program team to see these exercises as beneficial to the program.

For information on how to organise and schedule independent project assurance exercises, including creating a framework for completing assurance activities, reach out to the Cutter Consulting team at [email protected].