Context
The Bretagne–Pays de la Loire high-speed line runs some 180 km of new track between Le Mans and Rennes, bringing Paris within about an hour and a half of the Breton capital. A programme on that scale is not one project but many, delivered in parallel by different teams: infrastructure, rail systems, stations, operations. The risks that decide a commissioning date rarely sit inside any one of them — they sit at the interfaces between them, where a slippage on one lot lands on another. SNCF Réseau set out to hold those interfaces under a single, shared reading, so that the commissioning date planned for 2017 could be secured on evidence rather than defended project by project.
Our solution
- 01 Identify and value the interfaces Identify, assess and define treatment plans for the risks carried at the interfaces between the programme's projects, rather than inside each project alone.
- 02 Agree in workshops Facilitate and coordinate workshops with the project owner, the delegated project owner and the project management teams, to reach a shared understanding of each interface risk and of its valuation.
- 03 One dashboard for the programme Maintain a single interface risk dashboard, so the programme reads one consolidated picture instead of reconciling separate registers.
- 04 Leave the practice behind Train and support the SNCF Réseau team in project risk management, so the method continues to be applied once the mission ends.
What Oxand delivered
Prioritised action plans
Objective, prioritised action plans on the interface risks that actually bear on the commissioning date.
One shared reading of the risk
Project owner, delegated project owner and project management teams working from the same assessment and the same valuation, agreed in workshop rather than argued after the fact.
Monitoring and knowledge capitalised
Monitoring and communication tools that keep the programme's risk picture current, and capitalise what was learned for the next one.
Questions about this reference
What was Oxand's role on the LGV Bretagne–Pays de la Loire?
Project owner assistance on interface risk. Oxand identified, assessed and valued the risks carried at the interfaces between the programme's parallel projects, built the assessment in workshops with the project owner, the delegated project owner and the project management teams, maintained the single interface risk dashboard, and trained the SNCF Réseau team in project risk management.
Why focus on interface risk rather than project risk?
Because each project already manages its own risks. On a programme delivered in parallel lots, what threatens the commissioning date is usually the dependency between two lots — a slippage on one landing on another. Those risks belong to no single project register, which is why they need a shared reading and a single dashboard.
What does the LGV Bretagne–Pays de la Loire cover?
Around 180 km of new high-speed line between Le Mans and Rennes, commissioned in 2017, bringing Paris within about an hour and a half of Rennes and serving the Bretagne and Pays de la Loire regions.
How was the shared assessment reached?
In facilitated workshops that put the project owner, the delegated project owner and the project management teams in the same room. The point was for the parties on either side of an interface to agree on the risk and on its valuation before a treatment plan was written, so the plan was not contested later.
Does Oxand work with other parts of SNCF Réseau?
Yes. This mission was project owner assistance on a new-line programme. Oxand also supports SNCF Gares & Connexions on its station estate, where the multi-year investment programme was audited and modelled in Simeo to compare risk-prioritised investment strategies.