Project assurance

Business models are changing rapidly, and with this evolution comes the need to deliver technology-driven business change at pace. For many of our clients, transformation projects are vital to meet increasing customer and staff expectations, and the ever-changing regulatory requirements.

With independent project assurance, you can proceed with confidence knowing that you have stakeholder buy-in and the necessary groundwork in place. If you are managing a business-critical project or a key stakeholder in a programme, project assurance acts as an independent review of key decisions. It helps to highlight risks early so that management can effectively mitigate them, it gives an impartial view of third parties and their service, and it provides pragmatic advice to coach project leaders.

Transform and change – our approach

Through years of experience supporting clients in business transformation, we’ve learnt the key factors that lead to successful business change programmes. Drawing on these insights, we use our global programme assurance framework and tailor it to focus on your specific project risks. We will also match you with an experienced team, with people you can trust to advise you. 

Project health check

If you simply need an independent review of your project, we can provide a rapid, upfront assessment of the business case, planning, resourcing, risks, dependencies and governance to give you confidence that it’s set up for success. 

Deep dive assessments

With our more thorough assurance, we target the review to support your key decisions and focus on giving your stakeholders confidence. This assessment covers the following areas:

• business case – does the business case stack up and are the appropriate options fully considered and assessed?;
• third-party contracts – what opportunities exist to reduce risk and improve commercial terms?;
• design - does the solution design meet your future business and architectural requirements, including that of the regulator(s)?; 
• business readiness – do you have effective communication channels and cultural change requirements to ensure the business adoption will be successful?;
• testing – is the approach risk-based and proportionate?;
• data migration – will the business leverage data insights and reporting? Is there a clear data strategy? Will the planned data migration be successful?;
• go-live readiness – is the criteria met to mitigate risks and enable a safe go-live?; and 
• post implementation – were the outcomes achieved? What further steps could be taken to maximise the benefits?

Continuous assurance

We provide continuing assurance throughout the project. Our subject matter experts can attend programme boards, steering groups or committees to offer insight and challenge the approach. We use data driven insight tools such as cost and risk benchmarking, and third-party data to help quantify risk exposure and prioritise our recommendations. 

'RSM were engaged to perform ongoing assurance over our supplier and platform replacement programme. They partnered effectively with our programme team and key business stakeholders to provide confidence that risks were identified and mitigated early. They acted as a critical friend when we needed another point of view.'

Rob Pheasey, CEO, Marsden Building Society 

For more information about project assurance support, please contact Sheila Pancholi, Steve Snaith, and Paul O’Leary.