Thought Leadership

With rising populations and the effects of climate change contributing to our rapidly evolving environment, the water sector is facing ongoing challenges critical to the prosperity of our communities. Combine these challenges with an ageing asset base, and we see water utility providers need to not only adapt but transform the way they plan and deliver vital community infrastructure to ensure the livability of our cities and regions.

These changing and challenging operating environments require increased focus on prudent and efficient delivery of capital infrastructure, vital to sustainably delivering services for their customers and communities. To do this, organisations need to transition from a project-based delivery model to a program management delivery model that optimises their expenditure and provides services that enrich the quality of life for communities into the future.

KBR is an industry leader in project and program management with over a decade collaboratively working with customers to deliver the most complex water strategies. We support our customers in building organizational maturity by co-designing integrated approaches to managing capital delivery programs that deliver optimised capital investment outcomes.

From project to program management approach

Since 2017, KBR has worked with Urban Utilities to co-design and implement the Program Management Approach (PMA) and transform the 5 year capital investment portfolio management approach. Now implemented across the 5 year $1.5B portfolio, the PMA has significantly improved Urban Utilities’ capital delivery time and cost performance far beyond the industry benchmark and helped to establish deeper supply chain relationships, driving singular accountabilities, reducing transactions and interfaces and increasing cost intelligence.

The implementation of the PMA has transformed the way Urban Utilities develops and delivers its capital investments with a fully integrated approach across the capital investment lifecycle. The contemporary, integrated and collaborative multi-year program management delivery model has enabled more than $100 million in savings through efficiency, performance and accountability improvements.

KBR has helped implement new business capabilities and governance structures, fostering greater integration and collaboration across our infrastructure planning and delivery teams, and a measurable culture shift that fosters innovation.

The PMA has also seen an uplift in delivery performance with 91% of projects completed on cost and time; and pre-market efficiency and effectiveness significantly reducing cost, saving $19M in FY21 compared to FY19.

KBR’s successful outcomes with Urban Utilities show that by re-evaluating how their capital delivery programs are delivered and implementing an integrated approach to the end-to-end planning and delivery across the Planning, Capital Delivery and Operations functions with a contemporary program management delivery model, organisations can achieve value-for-money outcomes that optimise their expenditure and keep services that enrich the quality of life for communities well into the future.

From a program to portfolio management approach

Following the implementation of the PMA, KBR is supporting Urban Utilities in evolving their organisational maturity through a transition to a portfolio-based lifecycle model, aiming to further strengthen the sustainability of the outcomes generated through the PMA. Key attributes of this model include the management of adaptive outcome pathways, adaptive governenance, business interface optimisation, and deeper and more effective leverage of partnerships.