Using P3M3® best practice to mature Australia’s largest capital works portfolio.

Client

Industry

Transport and Rail, Capital Works and Infrastructure

Our Role

Measure, mature and support portfolio management capability

Services

P3M3® Maturity Assessment, Portfolio Management, Portfolio Management Framework,

Overview.

Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport transformation.

Sydney Metro is a fully automated rapid transit system operating in Sydney. It currently consists of Sydney Metro Northwest which opened for operations on the 26th of May 2019, running from Rouse Hill to Chatswood and consists of thirteen stations and 36 kilometres of ‘twin’ tracks. City and Northwest is currently in delivery with a target opening of 2024 and will extend SydneyMetro Northwest 30 kilometres from Chatswood on the North Shore, viaCentral in the CBD to Bankstown.

The centrepiece of the project is a new twin-tunnel rail crossing under SydneyHarbour. When Sydney Metro is extended into the CBD and beyond in 2024, there will be ultimate capacity for a Metro train every two minutes in each direction under the city, a level of service never before seen in Sydney.Sydney’s new metro railway will have a target capacity of about 40,000customers per hour, similar to other metro systems worldwide. Sydney’s current suburban system can reliably carry 24,000 people an hour per line.

Business need.

Determine areas of strength and improvement in relation to globally recognised good practice.

Following investment decisions, Sydney Metro is now responsible for a capital delivery portfolio of more than $50 billion, spanning over a decade of delivery. Having recently and rapidly evolved from a single Project Delivery Office to a statutory authority with an expansive delivery remit. Sydney Metro had a need to exploit opportunities to realise synergies and efficiencies associated with good practice portfolio management practices. As a foundational element to this portfolio management philosophy, Sydney Metro sought to progress a baseline portfolio, programme and project management maturity assessment in support of its portfolio management pursuits.

Sydney Metro sought a partner and method so as to better understand:

  • areas of strength and improvement in relation to globally recognised good practice
  • portfolio, programme and project priority areas needing improvement
  • a road map to progressively transition to a desired portfolio, programme and project management maturity levels
  • its current portfolio, programme and project management maturity, benchmarked against other similar organisations, and
  • recommendations to support the maturity of capabilities, people, process and tools as the delivery portfolio further grows and evolves.

Challenges.

Transforming to portfolio based delivery management and Sydney Metro ‘ways of working.’

As the largest capital works infrastructure portfolio in Australia’s transportation history, the organisation is challenged on a number of fronts, including its position as a statutory authority, which must ensures that Sydney metro operates within the policies, guidelines and legislation aligned to Transport for NSW.

As a mega infrastructure delivery organisation, Sydney Metro has a complex organisational structure, which must react rapidly to changes in business and the needs of NSW citizens, this challenged PM Solutions to ensure any portfolio management framework supported business-as-usual and critical delivery milestones whilst being focused on improving and sustaining portfolio maturity over the short, medium and longer horizons.

Results.

Transformation is necessary. It is also hard. Sydney Metro are well equipped to support its portfolio transformation.

P3M3® Maturity Assessment

The world’s largest and most complex P3M3® maturity model based assessment to date. It consisted of over 50 interviews andthe review and analysis of hundreds of supplied documents and artefacts, which enable a successful and detailed maturity assessment report to be delivered to the Chief Executive and Executive Management Team.

The detailed maturity assessment report included comprehensive findings, prioritised maturity roadmap and a reader friendly insight into the areas of strength in Sydney Metro portfolio, programme and project management, and the practices which would yield tangible benefits from targeted improvements.

Portfolio Maturity Improvement

Establishment of a portfolio management improvement programme, enabling short, medium and longer term maturity improvements – aligned to the Sydney Metro P3M3 ®maturity improvement report and roadmap. A dedicated PM Solutions specialist portfolio management consulting team, worked in partnership with the Portfolio PMO, to define, resources and establish a programme of work to realise portfolio management capabilities across the organisation. Blueprinting of the maturity journey enabled governance to be applied across a well resourced and define business owned programme.

Portfolio & Programme Management Frameworks

Development of portfolio and programme delivery frameworks, is a critical element to realising a more mature and repeatable approach to delivery management across the Sydney Metro portfolio. The PM Solutions Portfolio Management Framework Approach was applied to enable the business to rapid develop and deploy an overarching portfolio management framework and establish standardized and repeatable approaches for delivery planning across programmes and projects – while supporting 6 month, 12 month and 24 month portfolio,programme and project maturity improvement horizons and portfolio and programme best practices of MSP® and MoP®.