Positiv Cohort helped strengthen project controls across a complex future combat air programme – introducing more structured approaches to risk, resource and schedule management while supporting the programme leadership team across changing priorities.
The Challenge
A defence organisation was delivering its contribution to a major future combat air programme involving multiple teams, organisations and delivery dependencies.
The scale and pace of the programme placed significant demands on its leadership. The programme manager needed additional support across a wide range of project management and project controls activities, including risk, scheduling, cost, resources and programme analysis.
As the programme developed, there was also a need to strengthen some of the processes supporting delivery. Risk information was maintained through spreadsheets without a regular cross-team review process. Resource requirements were estimated at a high level, making it difficult to explain how forecast demand related to individual activities and specialist skills.
Programme schedules also needed to provide greater detail and visibility as customer expectations evolved.
The organisation needed a partner with broad defence and project controls experience that could address immediate priorities while helping put stronger processes in place for the future.
The Positiv Cohort Solution
Positiv Cohort worked in partnership with the programme leadership and project controls teams, providing experienced support across project management, planning, risk, resources and analysis.
Our team operated across traditional role boundaries, taking ownership of the tasks needed to support the programme manager and maintain progress. This included providing scheduling capability for an extended period while the organisation established a longer-term arrangement.
The work drew on experience gained across defence research, operational simulation and wargaming, NATO training, aerospace, and programme delivery within the Ministry of Defence.
This breadth of experience meant we could respond quickly to demands, understand the expectations of different defence stakeholders and introduce relevant approaches from other complex programmes.
“Positiv Cohort’s team brought the experience to see what the programme would need next, put stronger controls in place and help the leadership team maintain progress as priorities evolved.”
Project Co-Ordinator | FCAS Programme
Strengthening Risk Management
We helped introduce a more structured and collaborative approach to programme risk. Monthly risk meetings were established across the relevant teams, creating a regular opportunity to identify, review and discuss risks and their potential implications.
Risk information was also moved from a standalone spreadsheet into a shared digital workspace. This made the information easier for teams to access, maintain and use as part of the wider programme management process.
The work did more than change where risks were recorded. It helped teams develop a clearer understanding of different types of risk, the information required and how risk management supported programme decisions.
Building More Robust Resource Plans
We also strengthened the programme’s approach to resource planning. Rather than relying principally on high-level estimates, we introduced a bottom-up methodology linking resource requirements to individual activities within the schedule.
The approach considered how many people would be required for each activity, when they would be needed and which skill categories the work demanded. This gave the programme a more structured basis for developing resource forecasts and responding to requests for supporting detail.
It also connected resource planning more closely with the programme schedule, helping create a clearer relationship between planned activity and the people required to deliver it.
Improving Programme Schedules
When the programme required additional scheduling capability, our team assumed responsibility for developing and maintaining plans using the client’s P6 scheduling environment.
Although the specific software was new to the specialist providing the support, their wider planning and project controls experience enabled them to learn it quickly and provide the required capability for approximately 18 months.
During this period, more detail was introduced into programme schedules to improve their value as delivery and reporting tools.
Experience of working with the programme’s end customer also helped us anticipate that greater schedule transparency and more formal approaches to demonstrating value were likely to be required. This allowed the leadership team to consider future requirements, including earned value management, before they became immediate delivery pressures.
Programme Value
Positiv Cohort helped the organisation:
- provide broader support to an overstretched programme leadership team;
- establish regular, cross-team risk reviews;
- make risk information easier to access and maintain;
- introduce bottom-up resource planning linked to activities and skills;
- strengthen the detail and usefulness of programme schedules;
- maintain scheduling capability over an extended period;
- anticipate emerging customer expectations around programme controls;
- transfer practical project management knowledge into the programme.
The value of the engagement came from combining immediate delivery support with a longer-term view of the controls and governance the programme would need as it matured.
Defence Pedigree in Practice
Major defence programmes require project controls that can keep pace with changing requirements, complex dependencies and increasing customer scrutiny.
Our team brought experience from across the defence ecosystem, including direct knowledge of Ministry of Defence processes and expectations. This provided insight into both the programme’s immediate delivery needs and the evidence, governance and controls likely to be required in the future.
Rather than delivering a fixed package of work, we responded to the programme’s priorities while introducing more structured approaches to risk, resources and scheduling.
For the client, this meant working with a partner that could take ownership of immediate challenges, strengthen programme discipline and help prepare for what came next.
How We Support Systems, Command & Assurance Programmes
This engagement demonstrates how Positiv Cohort can help defence organisations strengthen project controls, governance and delivery across complex system-of-systems programmes.
Our wider Systems, Command & Assurance pedigree spans FCAS system-of-systems, Command and Control, ISTAR and C6I systems, as well as cyber security and information assurance. We bring together specialists who understand the relationships between programme delivery, technology, assurance, users and the wider operational environment.
We work in partnership with client teams to understand the challenge, provide the right combination of expertise and establish proportionate controls that support delivery rather than obstruct it.
Whether strengthening programme governance, managing risk and resources, supporting assurance or addressing wider command and information challenges, we help clients maintain visibility, anticipate changing requirements and move complex programmes forward with confidence.