Building a trusted portfolio reporting model
A major UK higher education institution’s change function reports a portfolio of strategic programmes to a governance committee monthly. An early draft data model existed, but it was fragmented: unclear structure, disconnected tooling and no confidence it could produce reliable reporting. Barrington took stock rather than starting over.
The challenge
Different teams captured project information in different systems, and none of it integrated cleanly. The model also had to serve a second department reporting into the same monthly governance cycle. Without a shared, coherent model, reliable reporting from disconnected sources was not going to work.
What we did
We started by understanding what already existed, then worked directly with stakeholders on what data was actually collected and why.
- Reviewed the draft implementation to see where it broke down.
- Mapped data collection and use with stakeholders across the portfolio.
- Set out the data architecture in a single, clear document mapped onto systems already in use — taken through to formal sign-off.
- Built a bespoke Jira workflow with validated custom fields, and ran a full month of structured data collection to prove the approach end to end.
The outcome
A clear, agreed portfolio data model integrated across departments; a proven collection method; and confidence that monthly governance reporting can be produced from structured, trustworthy data. More than a document — a working foundation.
We took a fragmented, early-stage data model and turned it into a clear, agreed architecture — one that worked across departments and produced the reporting the committee needed, every month.