Capabilities
Independent programme assurance exists to answer one question for the people accountable: will this programme deliver what it promised, and if not, what needs to change while there is still time. The word that matters is independent. Assurance is only worth having if the person giving it reports to.
PEF Consulting Partners provides independent programme assurance from people who have delivered at the scale they assure. On the BP Pulse recovery, the turning point was the first honest account of where the programme actually stood; that is what real assurance produces, and what we are engaged to find.
We provide that independent view on major programmes, and we report to you.
Whether the plan is achievable or aspirational. Where the assumptions are optimistic, where the critical path is fragile, and what happens to the end date when the inevitable slips occur.
Whether scope is genuinely controlled or quietly expanding, and whether the date has moved to reflect what has been added. A programme where scope grows and the date does not is telling you something.
Whether risks are being actively managed or logged and hoped away. The quality of a risk register is one of the clearest signals of programme health.
The state of the things that actually decide outcomes: data, testing, integration, resourcing and the engagement of the business that will have to use what is built.
Whether the reporting the board receives reflects reality, and whether the governance surfaces problems early enough to act on them.
Audit tests compliance against a standard, usually after the fact. Assurance tests whether a programme is likely to deliver, while there is still time to change the outcome. Its entire value is in what happens next, which is why it has to be forward looking and independent.
For most programmes, two to three weeks for a defensible independent position. Serious issues are usually visible within the first week.
Handled well, no. Good partners welcome an independent view that resolves disputes about scope and expectation they cannot resolve alone. Resistance to assurance is itself informative.
Yes. Many clients use periodic assurance across the life of a programme, at gates or on a regular cadence, rather than a single review.
Delivery excellence, project recovery, and our note on what an assurance review actually covers. Or get in touch.
We bring senior people who have delivered exactly this at scale. Honest advice, and accountability for the outcome.