Microfocus Case Study.

>> Executive Summary

PL Projects partnered with Micro Focus to stabilise and advance the Stack C programme, a complex global transformation initiative designed to consolidate multiple application stacks into a single, unified platform. The programme was critical to Micro Focus’s strategic objectives but had experienced delays, fragmented governance, and reduced delivery confidence prior to PL Projects’ engagement.

PL Projects implemented a structured, end-to-end programme planning approach to restore control and alignment. This included assessing existing planning and reporting practices, developing an integrated programme plan across business and technical workstreams, and introducing a formal weekly planning and reporting cadence.

Collaborative planning workshops improved visibility of milestones, dependencies, and risks, enabling proactive management and more reliable delivery forecasting.
Strong governance and senior stakeholder engagement were established to support informed decision-making and timely issue resolution. Clear escalation routes and tailored reporting provided executive leaders with confidence and assurance over programme progress.

Through pragmatic change enablement and the introduction of best-practice planning standards, PL Projects helped rebuild collaboration across global teams and stabilise the delivery environment. As a result, the Stack C programme achieved improved predictability, stronger cross-team alignment, and a scalable planning and governance framework to support future phases of transformation.

The client.

Micro Focus is a globally recognised enterprise software company, renowned for delivering a broad range of products, support, and professional services to diverse markets. Their solutions span across key areas such as analytics and big data, application delivery management, application modernisation and connectivity, business continuity, collaboration, information management and governance, IT operations management, and security. With a commitment to helping organisations navigate complex digital transformations, Micro Focus is a leader in providing innovative, scalable, and secure IT solutions that empower businesses worldwide.

The challenge.

The Stack C programme was instigated to consolidate all products and services supplied by the organisation from two current application stacks, along with transforming the business to enable it to function with the new unified stack solution, using a big bang delivery approach across all global locations, working in different time zones. The programme had already suffered considerable delays, promoting a trough in delivery confidence and escalating pressure to implement the proposed solution.  

With this level of change required, and the level of risk associated with transformation of this magnitude, a structured and efficient project planning approach was required to regain control, accelerate delivery pace, reinstate collaborative working, and align all stakeholders to the common delivery goal.

The solution.

Our team provided a solid, end-to-end project planning approach: 

• Detailed Assessment: A detailed assessment of prior planning practices revealed systemic weaknesses that hindered programme efficiency. Planning was largely reactive, with limited visibility of risks, dependencies, and resource constraints. Inconsistent approaches across workstreams fragmented data, reducing transparency and central oversight. Reporting focused on individual team status updates, offering little insight into emerging issues across the programme. The lack of structured escalation delayed decisions, allowing minor problems to escalate. These shortcomings weakened coordination, accountability, and the ability to manage programme-level delivery effectively. This assessment shined light on how we would approach and enhance the planning and reporting process moving forwards.  

• Integrated Programme Plan Development: Through structured workshops with each team, and as a consolidated group, an integrated plan was constructed, coordinating multiple project and business team activities toward common objectives. It provided a comprehensive framework that aligned timelines, resources, risks, and dependencies, ensuring that all elements of the programme progressed cohesively. By consolidating information across all workstreams, the integrated plan enhanced visibility and enabled proactive management and decision-making, helping to identify and address potential conflicts or bottlenecks before they impact delivery. It supported consistent communication with stakeholders, strengthened accountability, and facilitated effective collaboration amongst workstreams, to aid in achieving programme goals on time and within scope. 

• Weekly Planning and Reporting Cycle: A formalised weekly planning and reporting cycle was implemented, incorporating milestone and critical path reviews, risk, issue and dependency reviews across all workstreams. Weekly outputs provided concise visual summaries of progress and emerging constraints, enabling early intervention and preventing issue escalation. This cadence ensured alignment and accountability across all teams. Reporting formats were tailored to stakeholder groups to effectively support informed decision-making at all workstream levels and programme stages. 

• Introduction of Best Practises and Reporting: The introduction of best practices and standards in programme planning ensures consistency, efficiency, and quality across all projects and teams. They provide a clear framework for decision-making, risk management, and performance measurement, reducing errors and enabling reliable, repeatable outcomes. This approach supported effective local planning while maintaining central governance, consistency, and comparability across the programme. 

• Strategic Programme Planning: In addition to workstream scheduling, integrated programme-level roadmaps were produced to present key milestones, cross-site dependencies, and a unified critical path. This enabled proactive risk anticipation, optimised resource allocation, and prioritisation of high-impact activities, ensuring the programme stabilised rapidly and remained on schedule. 

• Senior Stakeholder Engagement and Governance: Structured engagement forums were established for executive sponsors, regional leadership, and workstream managers. These sessions focused on strategic progress updates, risk mitigation, and decision-making, providing senior stakeholders with clarity and assurance. Transparent communication channels and clear reporting, coupled with formal escalation mechanisms ensured sustained alignment on programme objectives and outcomes.

The outcome.

The project-planning service quickly provided stability and a positive impact to all teams: 

• Improved Delivery Predictability 
  The programme achieved significantly greater delivery predictability, with clearer visibility of milestones, dependencies, and critical paths enabling more reliable forecasting and reduced schedule slippage. 

• Earlier Risk Identification and Reduced Impact 
  Risks, issues, and inter-team dependencies were identified earlier and managed proactively, preventing escalation and materially reducing the impact of defects, rework, and late-stage surprises. 

• Stronger Cross-Team Alignment and Collaboration 
  Business and IT teams operated with improved alignment around shared priorities and outcomes, reducing fragmentation and enabling more coordinated delivery across systems, vendors, and regions. 

• Optimised and Better-Informed Decision-Making 
  Senior stakeholders received timely, consistent, and actionable insights, accelerating decision-making and enabling rapid resolution of blockers that previously delayed progress. This regular engagement with senior executives and workstream leads created transparency and trust, ensuring critical decisions were informed and timely. 

• Stabilisation of a Complex Transformation Environment 
  The introduction of structured planning, governance, and reporting stabilised the transformation, improved delivery confidence, and created a scalable foundation for ongoing phases of the IT programme.

Key obstacles.

Several critical challenges had to be overcome to achieve the successful delivery of the programme: 

• Fragmented Governance and Decision-Making: Unclear ownership, inconsistent escalation paths, and competing priorities across business units and IT teams often slowed decisions, created misalignment, and allowed risks to persist unresolved. 

• Poor Visibility of Dependencies and Risks: Interdependencies across systems, vendors, and workstreams were frequently underestimated or poorly documented, resulting in late discovery of conflicts, integration issues, and critical path impacts. 

• Resistance to Change: Due to previous delays, mounting pressure and stress levels, and reduction in delivery confidence, initial resistance to adopting new planning and governance processes hindered consistency, transparency, team cohesion and decision-making. Teams were concerned that adoption would create more work that prevented them from focussing on delivery.

Strategic Solutions.

To overcome these obstacles, our team implemented targeted, practical strategies: 

• Enhancement of Planning and Governance Practices: A single, integrated planning and governance model was established with clearly defined decision rights, accountability, and escalation paths across business and IT. Role-based forums and standardised reporting enabled faster, more consistent decisions aligned to programme priorities. 
  The integrated programme planning and dependency management framework was implemented, consolidating risks, issues, and dependencies across all workstreams and vendors. Regular cross-workstream reviews and a unified critical path enabled proactive identification and resolution of conflicts before they impacted delivery. 

• Resistance to Change 
  A targeted change and engagement strategy was executed, demonstrating how new planning and governance processes reduced effort, improved focus, and supported teams under pressure. Training, leadership sponsorship, and early quick wins-built confidence, drove adoption, and reinforced consistent ways of working. 

Conclusion:

The Stack C programme successfully delivered a complex, global IT transformation through a structured, end-to-end planning approach. By evaluating previous practices, adopting best practices, and developing an integrated programme plan with a formal weekly reporting cadence, the programme regained stability, enhanced predictability, and bolstered cross-team collaboration.

The development of strategic roadmaps and structured stakeholder engagement facilitated proactive risk management, optimised resource allocation, and supported informed, timely decision-making at all levels. Critical obstacles, such as fragmented governance, limited visibility of dependencies, and resistance to change, were effectively addressed through a single, integrated planning model, consolidated dependency management, and a targeted change engagement strategy.

Consequently, the programme stabilised rapidly, delivery confidence was restored, and teams worked cohesively towards shared objectives. The success of this approach has provided a scalable foundation for future phases, demonstrating that structured governance, clear reporting, and proactive engagement are essential for delivering complex, high-impact IT transformations on a global scale. 

Why PL Projects: A Trusted Partner in Transformation.

PL Projects is a trusted transformation partner for organisations delivering complex, high-risk change at global scale. Our engagement with Micro Focus on the Stack C programme demonstrates our ability to stabilise challenged initiatives, restore delivery confidence, and implement structured, scalable approaches that enable successful transformation across geographically distributed teams.

Experts in Large-Scale, Complex Programme Planning

The Stack C programme involved consolidating multiple technology stacks and transforming ways of working across global locations and time zones. PL Projects brought deep expertise in end-to-end programme planning, enabling Micro Focus to regain control of a programme that had previously suffered delays and fragmented oversight.
By introducing integrated planning, clear critical paths, and consistent dependency management, we transformed a reactive delivery environment into a coordinated, predictable programme.

Structured, Integrated Approaches that Restore Control

PL Projects implemented a single, integrated programme planning framework that aligned business and IT workstreams around common objectives. Through collaborative workshops and detailed assessment, we identified systemic weaknesses in existing practices and replaced them with robust, repeatable planning and reporting standards.
This approach provided clear visibility of milestones, risks, dependencies, and resource constraints, enabling proactive management and reducing late-stage surprises.

Proactive Governance and Executive-Level Assurance

Strong governance and senior stakeholder engagement were central to restoring confidence in the Stack C programme. PL Projects established structured forums, clear escalation paths, and tailored reporting for different stakeholder groups.
This ensured that executive sponsors and regional leaders received timely, actionable insights to support informed decision-making, accelerate issue resolution, and maintain alignment on strategic priorities.

Driving Alignment Across Global, Cross-Functional Teams

Operating across multiple regions, vendors, and time zones required a delivery partner capable of unifying diverse teams. PL Projects strengthened cross-team collaboration by embedding consistent planning disciplines, shared milestones, and a unified critical path.
This improved coordination between business and IT teams, reduced fragmentation, and enabled delivery to progress cohesively despite the scale and complexity of the transformation.

Pragmatic Change Enablement and Sustainable Ways of Working

Recognising the pressure and fatigue caused by earlier delays, PL Projects adopted a pragmatic, people-focused approach to change. We demonstrated how improved planning and governance reduced effort, improved focus, and supported teams rather than adding overhead.
Through targeted engagement, early quick wins, and leadership sponsorship, we built confidence, increased adoption, and embedded sustainable ways of working that extended beyond the immediate programme.

A Partner Focused on Stability, Predictability, and Long-Term Value

The success of the Stack C programme reflects PL Projects’ commitment to delivering transformation that is stable, predictable, and built to last. By combining structured governance, integrated planning, and proactive stakeholder engagement, we enabled Micro Focus to stabilise a complex global programme and establish a scalable foundation for future phases.

PL Projects’ work with Micro Focus demonstrates our ability to turn challenged transformations into controlled, collaborative, and confidently delivered programmes – making us a trusted partner for organisations navigating large-scale, high-impact change.