Removing technical debt from a government application estate

The challenge

The department and three of its agencies were running hundreds of applications in legacy data centres, with out-of-date software stacks and licences that urgently needed fixing. The department needed a programme to move them out and into the public cloud.

What I did

• Set up the programme team, governance and PMO, with resource planning and strategic goals.
• Wrote the business cases using the Five Case Model, from the Strategic Outline Case to three Full Business Cases.
• Presented the cases to the department's Executive Committee and secured approval through its Senior Investment Committee.
• Led the migration of 200+ applications to AWS and Azure, using the Gartner 6 Rs approach.
• Ran the benefits realisation plan and tracking, from the first workshops to documented savings, alongside monthly finance reporting against forecasts and actuals.
• Created a fast-track service design and transition process with Service Operations, and resolved supplier issues to bring delivery back on track.

The outcome

• A £96m multi-year programme covering 200+ applications, approved and running with governance, PMO and benefits tracking in place.
• Programme benefits totalling £124m of cash-releasing savings.