How Delivery Assurance complements IT Project Management

Project Management has evolved into a well-established discipline, with the first PMBOK released in 1996 and subsequent editions integrating modern approaches such as Agile. However, in today’s fast-paced and competitive IT landscape, project managers are often challenged to follow by the book project management practices. This can lead to gaps in execution and result in suboptimal outcomes. This is where Delivery Assurance steps in—not as a replacement, but as a crucial complement to Project Management. By enhancing oversight, proactively identifying and mitigating risks, and driving alignment with business goals, Delivery Assurance ensures that projects deliver value effectively.

Here are five ways in which Delivery Assurance complements IT Project Management:

Delivery Assurance ensures ongoing alignment with project goals

A Delivery Assurance process acts as a bridge between project objectives and execution. While Project Management sets the initial plan and drives day-to-day execution, Delivery Assurance ensures that focus areas and deliverables are regularly aligned with the defined goals of stakeholders (which often evolve over the course of the project). This ensures that work being done on the ground is better aligned to deliver value to the Client.

Delivery Assurance enhances risk management

Traditional Project Management often focuses on execution level planning, sometimes overlooking nuanced risks that emerge during execution. A Delivery Assurance process, by providing an independent point of view, often helps identifying structural or environmental risks like governance issues or resource bottlenecks, thus complementing the standard risk management process. Delivery Assurance also helps bring such risks to the attention of stakeholders higher in the hierarchy, ensuring that recommended mitigation measures get the support needed.

Delivery Assurance helps mitigate quality assurance shortcomings 

In traditional project management approaches, quality assurance is usually treated as a late-stage activity, increasing the risk of defects or rework. Delivery Assurance as a process emphasizes the “shift left” philosophy and a focus on proactive measures and appropriate quality gates throughout any project. By emphasizing the need for deliverables to meet standards at every stage, the likelihood of late stage surprises is reduced, ensuring higher quality outcomes.

Delivery Assurance reinforces accountability in execution 

While performance management is a part of standard project management frameworks, the focus on day-to-day execution and challenges often results in a lack of attention to this aspect. In IT projects, individual performance is a key component that needs to be managed. A structured Delivery Assurance process brings the necessary attention and provides a focus on performance metrics that hold teams accountable for their commitments. This complements project management’s execution role and fosters a culture of responsibility in project teams.

Delivery Assurance improves stakeholder confidence

Typically project management owns the responsibility for planning, execution and reporting, including communication to stakeholders. In reality, stakeholders often encounter gaps in visibility and may lack clarity on the specifics of the project situation. Delivery Assurance by design is an independent view into the status of project execution, and provides and unbiased analysis of the situation and potential risks in the project. This approach helps build trust and reassures stakeholders that their expectations are being actively considered and any emerging risks are being addressed transparently.

For Offshore IT projects, where time-zone and distance gaps exist between stakeholders and execution teams, a Delivery Assurance process can serve as a useful complement to traditional project management, enabling organizations to improve the predictability and probability of successful project outcomes.