Project & Program Management

Project management focuses on planning, monitoring, and controlling individual regulatory initiatives — such as implementing DORA or a specific MaRisk requirement. Program management coordinates multiple related projects as a portfolio: it manages dependencies, prioritizes resources, and ensures parallel initiatives like DORA, BCBS 239, and MaRisk do not block each other. At ADVISORI, we combine both levels so individual projects are delivered on time while the overall program remains strategically aligned.

Studies show that over 60% of regulatory projects experience budget or timeline overruns. The most common causes include unclear governance structures and missing escalation paths, poor coordination of parallel regulatory initiatives, underestimated complexity of cross-functional dependencies, lack of regulatory domain expertise in the project team, and rigid methodologies that cannot adapt to new supervisory developments. Professional program management systematically addresses these risk factors through clear roles, integrated reporting, and agile governance.

DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) requires coordinated implementation across IT, risk management, compliance, and third-party management. Effective management includes a central program structure with clear responsibilities per DORA chapter, a gap analysis as the basis for the project plan, regular alignment with supervisory expectations, integration of existing BAIT and MaRisk measures to avoid duplication, and a risk dashboard with traffic-light status for all DORA workstreams. ADVISORI has developed proven frameworks for DORA program management that we tailor to your organization.

Investment in professional program management typically amounts to 8‑15% of the total project budget. This cost pays for itself through avoidance of project delays (averaging 30‑40% time savings versus unmanaged programs), more efficient resource allocation across parallel regulatory initiatives, reduction of rework through early quality assurance, and lower risk of supervisory findings. In practice, banks with professional program management achieve an ROI of 3:1 to 5:1 relative to management costs.

Regulatory projects benefit from a hybrid approach. Classical elements like milestone planning, formalized reporting, and clear governance are essential because supervisory authorities set fixed deadlines and documentation requirements. Agile methods like sprints, iterative implementation, and regular retrospectives enable flexible adaptation to new regulatory interpretations or audit findings. ADVISORI uses a regulation-specific hybrid framework that combines the planning reliability of classical methods with the adaptability of agile approaches.

Simultaneous implementation of multiple regulatory requirements demands integrated portfolio management. Core elements include a regulatory roadmap visualizing all initiatives with deadlines and dependencies, a central Regulatory Office as the coordination hub, synergy mapping to identify overlaps (e.g., data quality affects both BCBS 239 and DORA), shared governance bodies for prioritization during resource conflicts, and consolidated reporting to the board and supervisory board. This approach prevents duplication and leverages synergies across regulations.

The most common mistake is treating regulatory implementation as a one-time project task. Sustainable embedding requires early planning of the transition from project to line organization, documentation and training on new processes and controls, establishment of a continuous monitoring and improvement process, clear responsibilities for ongoing compliance in daily operations, and regular effectiveness reviews and adaptation to regulatory developments. ADVISORI supports you from project initiation through to complete operational handover.