Project Management

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Essence

The role of an exceptional IT Project Manager is to orchestrate the successful execution of IT projects, blending technical proficiency with effective leadership. They play a pivotal role in aligning project objectives with the broader organisational strategy, ensuring that each project contributes to overarching goals. These managers are skilled in strategic planning, adeptly navigating project complexities, and demonstrating flexibility to adapt to evolving technological landscapes.

Exceptional IT Project Managers excel in risk management, proactively identifying and addressing potential challenges to keep projects on track. They foster collaboration and clear communication within their teams and across stakeholders, creating an environment conducive to innovation and problem-solving. With a keen eye on resource optimisation, adherence to timelines, and a commitment to quality, these managers are instrumental in driving successful project outcomes and enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of IT initiatives.

Experience

I first cut my teeth on Project Management working on the millennium bug when I was at the Financial Times in London. I was the Integration Manager, responsible for a small team that supported the FT Profile search engine and the fledgling ft.com website. My project was to make the legacy mainframe Y2K compliant and like all projects it involved planning, scope management, risk management, stakeholder communications, resource management and a good deal of technical proficiency in the domain (Assembler/CICS).

It was this first exposure to Project Management that taught me the value of great management skills. Project Management is not a easy path for technology enthusiasts. It's an entirely different mindset and the experience, although successful, prompted me to pursue an MBA.

I then landed a role at the Daily Mail and worked as a Project Manager on their family of websites. I gained a reputation for my people skills and management ability, but found myself increasingly out of my depth on the web technologies and the requisite domain expertise. I had to quickly learn how to delegate effectively in areas without the deep technical understanding.

I formalised my role as a Project Manager by joining the Project Management Institute. I also joined PITO (Police IT Organisation), a division of the UK Home Office, and became a PRINCE2 Practitioner. It's here I cemented my understanding of the theory and provided Project Assurance to project boards, including oversight to an EU funded project in Croatia. In parallel, I managed integration projects including exposing web services for the first time on the UK's Police National Computer (PNC).

In 2007 armed with some solid PRINCE2 experience and exposure to middleware technologies and integration, I migrated to Australia and began to contract out my Project Management services. My first engagement was with Woolworths as the Project Manager for their new venture into Service Oriented Architecture. This was a success especially in creating reusable integration components, and I brought about a significant change in the way IT thought about solutions, placing more value on re-usability, and creating integration design patterns that brought about more agility.

I then took a contract at NSW Rural Fire Service. They were keen to bolster their PRINCE2 capabilities and I ran a couple of projects to upgrade their volunteer's website and an internal application to manage planning applications in bushfire prone areas.

I then secured a permanent role at Lloyds International as the Integration Project Manager on their coveted Catalyst program. Lloyds had acquired the collapsed HBOS (a deal struck by the UK government as part of a bailout package) but needed to raise capital and sell the retail business to Bankwest. The program had to quickly separate the remaining banking functions, largely asset finance and treasury to be stand-alone. There was a significant amount of integration work to perform the separation, including bringing in new middleware components and a batch scheduler. I then moved onto a project to create a web portal into their LLAS asset management platform, with a comprehensive security and access management capability.

I've continued to utilise my Project Management skills in the programs since leaving Lloyds, and modes of delivery have transitioned into hybrid and agile. Most notably as a Senior Project Manager at Rabobank where I was responsible for an agile migration of RaboDirect's deposit products from Thalar to Temenos T24. This was my first introduction to scaled agile, with a scrum-of-scrums and planning increments.

More recently, I rolled up my sleeves to project manage the introduction of a new SaaS subscription engine at Greencross, and associated data migration.

Credentials
  1. 2001 MBA Project Management unit
  2. 2003 Project Management Institute (PMI) - UK Chapter member
  3. 2004 PRINCE 2 Practitioner - v2001
  4. 2005 Open University PMBOK® Project Management module M865
  5. 2010 PRINCE2 Practitioner - refresh to v2009
  6. 2016 Certified Scrum Master
  7. 2024 Certified SAFe™ 6.0 Agilist