Inception, foundation and mobilisation
In ‘Where we started’ you can see the first critical steps we took during the inception phase of the Inland Revenue’s transformation. These were:
- ensuring we had the right capability at the top to lead the transformation
- setting up reference groups to provide an external perspective
- growing support for the transformation across government
- preparing a compelling business case to ensure funding
- developing a governance structure which could support us to deliver the transformation while keeping the department running smoothly.
Laying down the foundations
With a strong leadership team in place and recruitment of an experienced team underway, we set up a Programme Management Office to establish the deliverables, structure and planning process, using a Business Transformation Methodology (BTM). The first iteration included the first view of our roadmap and was created ahead of mobilisation.
The key principle behind our Business Transformation Methodology was there would only be 1 methodology which would be applied to all programme, stage and work packages. It would be tailored to meet the needs of each stage-specific work package. However this would be discussed and refined and agreed by all parties involved before any variations were made. This discussion would include business, technical and advisory partners.
Other principles behind the methodology were that it would:
- align to the Managing Successful Programme (MSP™) framework and Better Business Case (BBC™) guidance
- drawing on existing Inland Revenue methodologies
- maintaining agility using a combination of waterfall and agile methodology as appropriate to the specific work package.
At the early inception stage of the programme, activity was focused on 3 main areas:
As we moved through our foundation and into mobilisation stages, the programme team expanded to include: