The service catalogue that outgrew its capacity
A public-sector P3O has 6 FTE and supports 4 business units, 22 projects and 2 programmes. Its catalogue lists 18 services, including template administration, weekly time-sheet chasing, 40 monthly reports, risk-register administration, benefits tracking, assurance reviews and ad hoc data requests. Customer satisfaction is 2.9/5. About 60% of P3O time goes on reporting and time-sheet chasing; assurance reviews are overdue; benefits tracking was added last year but no one uses it. The new sponsor wants to 'do more with less' and asks for a benefits dashboard, an assurance framework and a resource-management service, with no extra staff. The P3O manager has asked you to review the catalogue and recommend what to stop, reduce, retain and add.
1. Using a value-based categorisation, decide which services to stop, reduce, retain or add. Explain the criteria you use.
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Use criteria: strategic contribution, risk/regulatory need, customer demand, uniqueness (can the business do it itself), effort and cost.
Stop: weekly time-sheet chasing - move it to line managers or automate it; it consumes capacity without decision value.
Reduce: 40 monthly reports to a tiered by-exception pack of about 10 reports with a common data model; risk-register administration can be automated and owned by project managers.
Retain: risk-based assurance and core reporting; these are P3O value.
Add only if something stops: benefits tracking and resource management. Benefits tracking should be a service with benefit owners, not a dashboard nobody owns. Resource management should start with critical roles, not all staff.
The failed benefits launch shows that adding a service without owners, data and adoption fails. New services need a service owner, defined customers, a data source, a pilot, training and success measures. With 6 FTE, every new service must displace lower-value work.
2. Design a demand-management and service-tier approach that fits 6 FTE.
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Define three tiers: core (mandatory, funded centrally: portfolio reporting, risk/issue standards, assurance, change control), standard (requestable: benefits tracking, resource management for critical roles, project health checks) and advisory (chargeable or prioritised: facilitation, training, deep-dive reviews). Publish an intake form and run a weekly triage with the P3O manager and a customer representative. Capacity-plan against 6 FTE - for example 60% core, 30% standard, 10% advisory. Set service levels for response, delivery and quality. Say no explicitly when demand exceeds capacity, and escalate conflicts to the sponsor. Review the catalogue quarterly with customers. This protects the P3O from ad hoc requests and makes trade-offs visible.
3. How should the P3O introduce benefits tracking and assurance without repeating the failed benefits launch?
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Run a 6-week pilot on two projects with committed benefit owners. Define the benefit profile, baseline, data source and review cadence before building the dashboard. Train owners; the P3O assures data quality and challenges, but does not own the benefits. For assurance, use a risk-based plan: review the five highest-risk projects in the first quarter, not all 22. Publish findings to the sponsor and portfolio board. Measure adoption and decision actions, not report production. Stop the pilot if owners will not engage; do not roll out a service that has no demand.