ANNEX B RELATIONSHIP WITH TLB HOLDERS AND PROCESS OWNERS

1.  The roles of TLB holder, Process Owner and SRO are distinct and complementary. A TLB holder is responsible for output delivery. A Process Owner is responsible for ensuring that key cross-cutting enabling business activities are carried out on a coherent and consistent basis across Defence, where this is necessary to maintain or improve overall effectiveness, efficiency and/or compliance with legislation and other external requirements. An SRO is responsible for the delivery of a specific, time-bounded programme and the realisation of its expected benefits.

2.  Unless specifically authorised by the Defence Board, the establishment of an SRO for a major programme will not interfere with established lines of accountability, either for day-to-day output delivery or process ownership. However, most major change and capability programmes cross TLB and other organisational boundaries and require the orchestration of various Defence Lines of Development. An individual performing the SRO role must be able to exercise influence and authority across these areas to enable him or her to ensure the success of the programme for which he or she is responsible. Project Team Leaders and others, while remaining accountable to their TLB holders, will answer to the SRO role for delivery of the specific equipment and non-equipment lines of development required by a programme. TLB holders must ensure that, in exercising their responsibilities for the delivery of outputs, they operate within the agreed framework of Departmental processes and corporate standards, which includes giving all necessary support to SROs to enable them to meet their objectives.

3.  An individual in the SRO role will need to exercise his or her influence and authority in a variety of ways. These may include programme governance arrangements, customer supplier agreements or management plans. An individual in the SRO role will also need to be able to persuade, negotiate and influence across boundaries, outside his or her normal management or command chain. A key part of the role will be to resolve conflicting priorities and demands in order to achieve the required objectives and benefits. This will include conflicting priorities where a project contributes to more than one programme. Where a project contributes to more than one programme, the project's governance arrangements need to identify which programme is its "lead". The lead programme should co-ordinate the negotiations with other programmes: the objective being to identify the optimal way forward for Defence (not necessarily for the lead programme). Once agreement (or Sponsoring Group direction) has been achieved, the lead programme should produce/amend the Project Mandate and approve the Project Brief (in consultation with the other programmes as necessary).

4.  The Defence Board is the ultimate authority on behalf of which the roles of TLB holder, Process Owner and SRO are exercised, and will hold those responsible for them to account. In cases where it is not possible to reconcile the respective priorities of designated SRO for a major programme, Process Owners and TLB holders, referral to the Defence Board may therefore ultimately be necessary. However, other mechanisms exist to resolve such issues below Defence Board level, for example: the DOB for business change programmes and projects; and the JCB for military capability programmes. The Chiefs of Staff can also help to support the SRO role, especially within their areas of responsibility for generating integrated military capability and for the effectiveness, ethos and morale of their Service.

14 December 2011

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