REMOTE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Managed offshore delivery teams based in Bangalore, New Jersey, Prague, Milan, Warsaw using Skype, Ms Office Tools, JIRA, e mail and video conferencing, enabling clear communication with delivery teams and reporting clear status to business stakeholders.

Co-Operative Bank, Remote                      Mar 2023 to present.

Programme Delivery Manager for Data Centre Exit

Programme leadership and delivery, tasked with creating delivery programme plan for Data Centre Exit.

Worked closely with architects to devise overall plan based on remediation activity for infrastructure systems. Worked with third parties Kyndryl, SCC & IBM to create RFS and manage Work Orders for decommissioning and Data Archiving activity.

Key contributions and successes:

  • Ran planning workshop to define end to end remediation plan (approved) for 20 systems.
  • Identified and managed 12 key dependencies with Mortgages platform migrations team. 
  • Implemented early deliverables of 10 remediated systems showing progress towards DC Exit.
  • Oversaw IBM delivery of data archiving of mortgage and savings systems.

 

Michael Page, London.                         Aug 2022 to Mar 2023

Programme Delivery Manager – Data Management                                

Programme leadership and delivery, tasked with creating ‘fit for purpose’ delivery plans for Data Strategy, Data Governance and Data Quality. End-to-end delivery of each plan through to fruition for final quarter of 2022, reporting directly to stakeholders, including Director of Data / Head of Global Programme Delivery.

Full remit for establishing programme and project management within the Data Management organisation.

Defined, articulated, and executed a programme plan for Data Management, including strategy, quality, and governance. Effectively and accurately documented individual project delivery plans for each to end of 2022.

Leadership, management & motivation of a team of 22+ staff, including team leads, analysts & developers.

Key contributions and successes:

  • Ran a ‘weekly campfire’ call (data management staff) using agile dashboard to document progress.
  • Created key deliverables delivery plan for strategy, governance, and quality teams for senior management for Q4 2022 and for H12023

Lloyds Banking Group – Remote   August 2020 – March 2022

Programme Manager for Digital Workplace

Enabled the delivery of application compatibility changes for Windows 10 to 20 client desktop LBG Mortgages applications & 20 web apps plus Sales and Trading applications (by 12) in Commercial division.

Held daily stand up’s (remote via Ms Teams) to progress remediation, packaging, technical and user acceptance testing , managed governance activities for sign off to Windows 10 compliance.

Reported twice weekly project status to Director level on getting apps live calls. Collaborated with application owners, developers, testers, Microsoft, business stakeholders, product owners. Enabled application compatibility to Windows 10 via planning with technical teams and third parties , monitoring status and managing stakeholder expectations reporting red, amber, green status throughout the delivery life cycle.

RBS – Edinburgh   July 2016 – Jan 2017 

SHA1 Security Certification PM

I managed technical team to define a deliverable plan for provision of new infrastructure to enable security certificate upgrades for web services, including TecMis, Mortgage Vison, and FMS. Took the project through Initiation, Requirements, and Design Quality gates to Implementation. Gained approval in gated process end stage meeting for Operational Readiness Plan. Delivered Change Request’s to enable production changes.

Managed senior stakeholders from web services and application support to gain agreement to de scope services no longer required by the business. Enabled build of environments for proving of technical infrastructure, provision of virtual servers and new connectivity. I worked in Edinburgh 3 days a week and managed the project remotely for 2 days of the week with direct remote access to all RBS systems.

Dovetail Payments Systems – 2011 – 2014

Senior Client Facing PM

Dovetail head office at this time was based in Moorgate whilst the developers and test team were in New Jersey

I used Skype and JIRA to manage workloads for developers and test team for product development and defect fix releases whilst on line working from home. Conference calls for project status , daily remote stand ups and fortnightly SPRINT planning were all managed remotely. Client interactions were performed on site at JP Morgan or at Intesa San Paulo in Italy.      

Managing Global Projects Remotely

Lessons Learnt

  • JIRA validity is entirely dependant upon how well staff enter data
  • Micro management required to ensure correct status of work products
  • Communication is key and need to use all relevant tools for such when managing project’s remotely
  • Twice weekly status meetings are useful especially with time zone differences
  • Common PM process can be enabled – Risk Workshops for example can be held over Skype or Ms Tools using screen sharing
  • Stand ups and fortnightly sprints can be managed remotely
  • Relationships have to be built and managed more formally as chats in an office environment are not possible
  • PM role for remote delivery centres around planning , acting as central point for facilitating activity plus reporting one clear transparent status to senior management, stakeholders and clients
  • Requires tenacity and drive to enable end to end delivery
  • Can mean longer working hours due to nature of project need, global time zone differences but you are working from home so there is no travelling time required
  • Key requirement is to keep on top of project status on a daily basis so clarity of reporting helps build confidence in delivery even more so when the project is dispersed across continents
  • DH has worked with remote teams based in New Jersey, Bangalore, Tokyo, Warsaw, Prague, Milan, Parma, Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh, London .