Job Summary

The purpose for this role is to have a dedicated resource with an 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.

Job Description

PROJECT DEFINITION, PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

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

• Agree project structure & deliverable according to the Absa Change framework.

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

• Ensures that Projects/program   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 Program level plans run locally.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS (BRD) TRACKING,ANALYSIS AND REPORTING

• Ensure requirements meet its strategic objectives

• 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 CONTROL , GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT

• Risk and Issue tracking, Providing an overview of work stream inter dependencies

• Ensure 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/program Change Control.
• Responsible for monitoring activities and ensure compliance with laid down Program 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

• Ownership and accountability of  overall budget for the project/program
• Responsible for knowing what is in the actual 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/program  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/program Executives on the financial status monthly
• Basic knowledge on Transfer Pricing guidelines

PEOPLE CHANGE MANAGEMENT

• Design Projects communication and training plans effectively.

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

• Establishing effective project communication plans and ensuring their execution.
• Plan for training for any knowledge gap identified for better projects deliverable
• 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 training
• 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, analyzing and summarizing relevant information.

Education

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