A New Register of Overseas Entities - Adapting to Changing Circumstances and Environments

Adapting to Change

New legislation was introduced requiring a public register to be maintained for all individuals wanting to buy, sell or transfer property or land in the UK who are based overseas.

I was tasked to resource the project and ensure the discovery phase produced tangible, achievable outcomes. This was to be done to tight timescales as legal requirements were still being agreed and policy was evolving. Working closely with governing boards and policy holders I set the scene, outlining what was needed to ensure we could derive options for a solution.

Part way through the initial stages additional requirements were introduced, stating the need for a new complex digital journey in addition to the existing scope that had been agreed. Ratifying the details with policy teams to make sure I clearly understood the ask, I mapped out the new journey and identified where in the current road map we could add elements that would allow us to incorporate the additional work.

I formed a focus group of key stakeholders within the project and external teams from the policy and legal areas of the business. Developing a risk profile, I used this group to validate risks against assumptions and develop progress reports against the road map, enabling me to present these to governance boards ensuring openness and transparency, developing confidences in our approach.

Entering the beta (development) phase of the work technical teams needed assurance that the ask would stabilize, and a clear scope of work established. As this process was continually evolving, working with the SRO and senior program leads, I carried out a prioritization workshop to gain agreement on what was needed when. This would ensure that teams were only working on the agreed, established items and changes to scope could be managed. I approached this using a “MOSCOW” technique, directing discussion to define what requirements were crucial and what could be done as part of subsequent releases. To inform the discussion, at each phase I outlined why teams needed to focus on specific work items, and the impact of continual change on scope and efficiency. Building the big picture, I could set the scene and encourage people to consider the crucial priorities, against what was achievable.

Key to this was clear, concise communication, empathy with everyone’s objectives, agreeing a common goal and enabling stakeholders to understand the process and have confidence in the approach.

Iterating on this, conducting workshops fortnightly, change was better managed, and external stakeholders to the organisation had a well-formed picture of what to expect, and when. This process informed a release plan, which provided transparency and as scope continued to evolve, teams felt more in control of a changing picture.