02Strategy & Advisory
Programme and project management,
one point of accountability.
Data centre projects involve many teams, tight timelines and long chains of dependencies. Our project managers bring structure and control from scoping to close-out, with regular reporting and clear escalation routes.
- Planning
- Risk
- Change control
- Hold points
- Quality gates
01Overview
De-risking the critical path.
Complex data centre projects have a lot of moving parts: multiple teams, tight timelines, dependencies and things that can go wrong. We manage them from initial scoping through to handover and close-out, covering planning, scheduling, risk management, stakeholder coordination and quality control.
Our project managers are engineers first. They understand cabling standards, power chains and cooling, and they run work inside live data halls, not only on a Gantt chart. You get regular reporting, clear escalation routes and a single point of accountability for delivery.
What you get
- Delivery planned to time and budget
- Risks dealt with before they reach the critical path
- Stakeholders aligned and informed
- Quality assurance at every stage
- Clear reporting and communication
- Structured handover and documentation
- downtime to live services on a 50+ rack migration between two cities, run by a dedicated Optronix project manager
- 0
- cities built in parallel, each with an on-site manager reporting to one programme manager
- 4
The team at Optronix were great to work with, really organised, transparent, always on the ball. The migration went smoother than we expected, no disruption to live services.
02Programme
Hold points and gates, built into the plan.
An illustrative 16-week fit-out. A quality gate stops the programme until a phase is signed off; a hold point stops one activity until it has been inspected. Select any of them for detail.
- Scope and plan, week 1 to week 2
- Design and approvals, week 3 to week 5
- Procurement, long-lead items, week 6 to week 9
- Site preparation, week 7 to week 8
- Containment and racks, week 9 to week 12
- Cabling and testing, week 11 to week 14
- Commissioning, week 15 to week 16
- Handover and close-out, week 16 to week 16
Quality gate G1 / W05
Design sign-off
Drawings, specifications and the bill of materials are reviewed and signed off by the client and the design authority. Procurement does not start until this gate is passed.
03What's included
Structure and control,
from scoping to close-out.
Planning, risk, people and quality, run by one project manager who answers for delivery.
- 01
Project planning
Scoping, scheduling, resource planning and milestones: a realistic delivery plan that accounts for dependencies and constraints.
- 02
Risk management
Risks identified, tracked and mitigated early, so problems are dealt with before they reach the critical path.
- 03
Stakeholder coordination
Clear communication across contractors, vendors, internal teams and client representatives, keeping everyone aligned and informed.
- 04
Quality assurance
Inspections, hold points, testing and validation throughout, so work meets the standard before sign-off.
- 05
Change control
Changes raised, assessed and approved through a structured RFC process. Nothing moves that isn’t written down and approved.
- 06
Health, safety and RAMS
Risk assessments, method statements and on-site health and safety managed as part of the programme.
04How we deliver
One programme,
from scope to sign-off.
The same governance on a single fit-out or a multi-site programme, so reports read the same everywhere.
- 01
Scope
Requirements, constraints, interfaces and what done looks like, agreed in writing.
- 02
Plan
Programme, resources, risk register, communications plan, hold points and gates.
- 03
Mobilise
Teams, suppliers, site access, permits and RAMS in place before work starts.
- 04
Deliver and control
Regular reporting, change control, inspections at every hold point and sign-off at every gate.
- 05
Close out
Handover documentation, snags cleared, lessons recorded and formal sign-off.
05At a glance
Specification
- Stage
- Strategy & Advisory
- Scope
- Single projects and multi-site programmes
- Governance
- Quality gates, hold points, risk register, RFC change control
- Reporting
- Regular written reports, with risks, issues and decisions logged
- Stakeholders
- Contractors, vendors, internal teams and client representatives
- Health and safety
- RAMS and on-site health and safety managed within the programme
06Questions
Common questions
What is the difference between a hold point and a quality gate?
A hold point stops one activity until it has been inspected and released, for example containment checked before cable pulls start. A quality gate is a programme-level checkpoint: the evidence for a whole phase is reviewed and signed off before the next phase begins.
Can you manage contractors we have already appointed?
Yes. Stakeholder coordination covers contractors, vendors, internal teams and client representatives, whoever appointed them, with one programme and one set of reports.
How do you report progress?
In writing, against the programme, at an agreed cadence, with risks, issues and decisions logged and clear escalation routes. On migrations we run twice-weekly stakeholder meetings alongside a structured RFC process.
Can you run a programme across several sites?
Yes. We have delivered builds in four cities in parallel, with an on-site manager at each location reporting to one programme manager and one methodology throughout.
Programme & project management
Bring us the scope and the deadline.
Talk to our PM team about your next data centre project.