PROJECTS

DH has delivered payment systems, regulatory change, systems integration, digital change and global infrastructure change

Issues:

Resolutions:

Worked with product owner and BA to draw up realistic delivery plan
Created PM structure in Confluence to enable governance and management of delivery

Issues:

Regulatory reports being delivered by third party were not fit for purpose
Reports delivery not aligned to releases
Status reporting unclear
Lack of confidence at both project level and senior management level of delivery of work able reports

Resolutions:

Business Requirements were poorly defined I got new BA to re write them
Ensured third party got up front view of test cases before coding so inputs and outputs clearly defined for third party development
May 2019 release had 6 regulatory reports agreed by business for go live, previous release had 2
Reports delivery roadmap created in line with business priority this boosted senior management confidence in delivery
Established Regulatory Reporting Steering Committee to enable fortnightly clear reporting of delivery status

Issues:

Resolutions:

Managed client through using interpersonal skills via re assurance, empathy, listening, communicating understanding back to SME regularly plus clear status reporting and regular ad hoc communications to build confidence and show professional care for his genuine concern
Worked with Test Manager to ensure we had hold of the delivery of test cases via burndown statistics
Go live Run Book I helped to re write to ensure as PM on the day of go live, I would understand what is required and I ran 2 technical dress rehearsals pre go live using the run book to make sure no surprises on go live day – the go live completed ahead of schedule as a result with no negative business impacts

Issues

System Acceptance Test was key commercial milestone for Dovetail & Clint yet the presentation of the functionality developed was highly technical and difficult for clients to see what was actually going to be delivered for production
Many defects raised by clients were not actual defects but were raised as such by testing teams in order to comprehend the system better. This made the defect rate look higher than it actually was
A CR was raised by a client late into the release cycle. I was informed that it could not be completed within the timeframe by Dovetail senior technical design authority. Being client facing PM I had to find a way to deliver such

Resolutions

Improved System Acceptance Test process by focusing on business requirements, use cases through presentation to client enabling more understanding of what was being delivered for Intesa San Paulo business operations in Palma thus generating greater confidence in the product delivery
Gained buy-in to payments system training for JP Morgan test teams through showing evidence that a large percentage of defects raised were misunderstandings of how the Dovetail payments system actually worked. This resulted in test teams focusing on real defects which improved the s/w quality
Managed director level management in Dovetail to enable client to interact with Dovetail development and test teams on site to deliver SEPA IP this ensured a tight time frame could be hit by getting JP Morgan subject matter expert to work directly with development and test teams in New Jersey
SEPA IP was delivered within the release timeframe

Issues:

Lack of understanding by business and internal delivery team regarding the nature of the project – big issue!
Security issue as third party WeDo required direct access to live system to monitor performance and enable updates
Commercial contract not aligned to real delivery plan

Resolutions:

Moving high level thinking from simply placing a new product on a network to showing that this required systems integration work, third party needed to interact with both business owners and systems owners to produce a workable design and to configure the product for the client – gained buy in to larger budget requirement to do so
Ensure technical design allowed for a separation of revenue assurance product from the rest of production system – built a stand-alone live system for software including the design of system interfaces to billing, accounts, marketing which were secure via multi factor authentication as third party needed access to monitor and update system via system alerts to provide code releases and patches
Re wrote the contract regarding delivery milestones that aligned to the new plan and worked with third party to gain agreement to such which in some instances meant later payments but WeDo were okay re that as the delivery plan was realistic and they were relieved to be involved in the design regarding how they should configure the system and how the system interfaces could be developed

Issues:

Director wished to have a big bang approach to delivery of changes to network globally – high risk approach
Budget was predefined without any known delivery plan in place

Resolutions:

I managed upwards to the director to explain how a phased approach by geography based on a proof of concept which I managed in Prague with support from technical design and local engineers would de risk the separation by allowing controlled switch over to the new network
Clean separation and provision of new network to Acision delivered in UK, Europe, Middle East, India, Far East, USA and Brazil.
The proof of concept in Prague meant we knew the type of costs incurred and this could be cost modelled to fit the £850K budget