Project Portfolio Manager

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Job Summary

The purpose for this role is to have a dedicated resource with the appropriate skills and knowledge to manage projects as per organization strategy. To ensure projects are delivered as per Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) framework which enables effective Change delivery that focuses on methodology which is an adequate for both Agile & Waterfall, adaptable controls, in-line with the product scope definition and changes.
• Ensure adherence to the framework and its associated controls
• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Absa Policies Policy Standards
• Understand and manage risks and risk events (incidents) relevant to the role.
• Responsible for coordination with business to ensure changes aligns with the business procedures and process manuals
• Responsible for production and maintenance of plans.
• Conduct assessment against projects governance framework & develop plan to close project risks and gaps
• Drive change initiatives
• Responsible for maintaining workflow, budget and planning standards.
• Accountable to work with business to define its requirements in order to meet its strategic objectives, including the development or assistance in the development of Stage 1 and Stage 2 business cases for the related projects

Job Description

Main accountabilities and approximate time split

PROJECT CONTROL , GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk and Issue tracking, Providing an overview of work stream interdependencies

Weighting 15%

• Ensures projects are managed and controlled according to Absa Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) framework
• Ensure correct associated impact and probability scoring is given to each Risk and Issue within the project and a clearly articulated change risk culture is embedded
• Identify, manage and ensure remediation of all execution operational risks and issues. Report to appropriate oversight and governance committees. Ensure a defined and recommend change risk tolerances in place with the right approvals. monitor and report throughout the project life cycle 
• Ensure that CRAIDs (Constraints, Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies) is clearly defined and discussed on the respective forums. Make sure that an associated mitigating actions are identified and tracked appropriately
• Responsible for project/programme Change Control.
• Responsible for monitoring activities and ensure compliance with laid down Programme standards and procedures.
• Drive projects 1st line assurance (compliance, health checks, quality reviews)
• Ensure proper alignment with Operational Risks, Compliance and Project policies
• Responsible for Board and Regulatory approvals

PROJECTS FINANCE APPRAISAL

Tracking and reporting overall project budget and associated cost.

Weighting 10%

• Ownership and accountability of overall budget for the project/programme
• Responsible for knowing what is in the actuals and who is processing costs to their project code
• Basic knowledge of SAP , WBS , IN numbers and finance cost related system/process in order to manage well project/programme  financials
• Competent knowledge in project tools related to cost tracking and budget management. e.g Planex
• Management of purchase orders, offshore charges, FOO sign-off, timely goods receipting, statement of work and payments. With very minimal escalations from vendors and other stakeholders
• Ensure timely preparation of business cases and timely submission to Change Approval Meeting (CAM) for funds release
• Flag financial issues as soon as they are discovered rather than when budget is exhausted
• Forecasting of project spend to address any budget or accrual issues at year end
• Reach out to finance in the event when financial issues can’t be resolved at a project level
• Accrual information and associated invoices to be sourced and provided to finance team as per agreed standard
• Ensure that Benefits Realization is actively managed throughout the life cycle of the project and post-project until the completion of the benefits review process
• Report to the project/programme Executives on the financial status monthly
• Basic knowledge on Transfer Pricing guidelines

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS (BRD) TRACKING,ANALYSIS AND REPORTING

Ensure requirements meet its strategic objectives

Weighting 10%

• Coordinate with business to define requirements in order to meet its strategic objectives, including the development or assistance in the development of Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the BRD
• Validate requirements by cross-referencing them with business stakeholders. Ensuring a consensus against the requirements before actual start of building or developing the solution.
• Ensure the BRD is analysed and clearly interprets requirements for tech viability against the business objectives in order to develop the expected solution with zero /minimal defects. Ensure it carter for the original business problem
• Recommend workarounds, value additions and remove solution bottlenecks for the stakeholders.
• Document requirements to support business in design of use cases, functional and requirement specifications documents. Categorize requirements as functional (contains the features required by the end-users), non-functional (requirements for the performance and usability of the project) operational (operations that are carried out in the background) and technical and accordingly segregate them in different types of documents
• Gain requirements sign-off from the key stakeholders by making sure all of them are on the same level of understanding against the requirements and the proposed solution.

PROJECT DEFINITION, PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Define, scope and plan project as per agreed budget & Time.

Agree project structure & deliverables according to the Absa Change framework.

Manage and track progress through Information Management by developing presentation, decks accurately and timely

Weighting: 50%

• Ensures that Projects/programme are aligned to overall company Strategic Objectives
• Participate on defining the Business problem and the identified solution in order to ensure an agreed scope , budget and Time is clearly defined and approved
• Produce reports to the Product Director, Account Executive, Sponsor, Steerco and Business Committee to highlight the status of the project in terms of milestones, key achievements and key risks
• Prepare project forums as per required standards including Working Groups (WG) Team meetings and Steerco. Ensure approved meeting Frame work and Terms of Reference are in place at the initiation stage
• Take and distribute minutes from the design authority forum on an agreed frequency
• Take and distribute minutes from the Steerco and Business Committees at the end of each stage
• Responsible for assessing the impacts of new change against the existing planning portfolio
• File Master Project documentation- project folders should be up to date and accessible at a project level. Ensure that documents saved have used the correct naming conventions and version control
• Maintain and update the project library regularly and ensure all documentation is accurately organised
• Prepare the quality project Plan in line with Prince 2 Methodology/PMP by using the Microsoft project
• Responsible for consolidation /coordination of all l in-country project activities and issuing reports to key stakeholders and all staff involved.
• Responsible for reporting deviance in cost and time against the established project baseline.
• Responsible for the adherence and definition where required of best practice change standards, tools and processes to optimize the delivery of governance of change. Responsible for production of Programme level plans run locally.

PEOPLE CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Design Projects communicational and training plans effectively.

Identify knowledge and skills gap timely and proactively address them with clear mitigating plan

Weighting: 10%

• Establishing effective project communication plans and ensuring their execution.
• Plan for training and knowledge embedment’s of the projects deliverables
• Identification of knowledge gaps and missing skills of the implementation solution /product by proactively collaborating with the SMEs and Product Owners. Address and gap and arrange effective trainings
• Coordinating with cross discipline team members to make sure that all parties are on track with the projects milestones
• Assisting business with tracking people related benefits from beginning to end of the change
• Meeting with project team members to identify and resolve issues.
• Preparing status reports by gathering, analysing and summarizing relevant information.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE

Weighting: 5%

• Ensure Office equipment and facilities are available and in a good working order
• Ensure that the roll-on and –off procedures for staff are adhered to
• Communicate to the team on relevant topics
• General administration for the project
• Well managed project office with easily accessible information
• Joint responsibility for the smooth running of the Programme Office in terms of maintenance of office records, servicing of equipment and machines, snap checks and mandatory security checks

Risk and Controls Objectives

Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Absa Operational Risk Framework and internal Absa Policies and Standards

Manage risk and control effectively by applying applicable risk frameworks and embedding a positive risk culture

• Understanding of own role in the end to end processes in which you play a part, including applicable risks and controls.
• Adhere to Absa’s policies and procedures applicable to own role, demonstrating sound judgement and responsible risk management.
• Report all risk events / incidents / issues using the defined process for your business area and help to understand why these happened and how to prevent them in future.
• Proactively look for ways to improve the control environment by considering what could go wrong in the processes you operate and how errors could be prevented.
• Continuous and proactive engagement with regulatory bodies, unions where applicable
• All mandatory training completed to deadline

Technical skills / Competencies

• A learning mind-set to rapidly assimilate complex business issues and quickly solve problems in a structured manner or pre-empting issues that may arise where there is limited precedence.
• Effective negotiating skills to secure both internal and external resources and deal with external service providers.
• Able to adopt and/or coach the use of a variety of methods to keep projects on schedule and within budget
• PRINCE2/PMP Foundation level accreditation
• Quality, high standards and controls
• Drive for results
• Service Excellence
• Good understanding of project governance processes
• Understanding of project management principles
• Accuracy
• Problem Solving skill
• Technological understanding (tools – Microsoft Project Plan, Planex etc)
• Time Management
• Communication skill
• Stakeholders management
• Problem Solving
• Analytical

Knowledge, Expertise and Experience

Essential

• Expert knowledge of the Absa Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) framework, governance and other change policies
• Projects management experience
• Some experience of managing activity across the whole of a project lifecycle, using current technology, structured methods and a quality process
• Exposure to governance, control and risk management
• Proven ability to effectively work across teams

Preferred

• Knowledge and application of project/programmes management and systems development techniques e.g.PRINCE2, MSP/PMP will be an added advantage,
• Practical experience of appropriate change/programme management software.
• Knowledge of the Bank’s policies, standards, procedures covering premises, equipment, security procedures/controls and snap checks.
• Ability to effectively work across teams

Absa Values

Absa’s Values and Behaviours represent the set of standards which governs the actions of all of us who work for the bank and against which the performance of every one of us in Absa are being assessed and rewarded:

• Trust
• Resourceful
• Inclusion
• Courage
• Stewardship

Education

National Diplomas and Advanced Certificates: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)