Job Description
Group Head of Programme Assurance - Leading Industry Client Senior Leadership Role & Package - Consulting background is a key requirment for this role.
Group Head of Programme Assurance - Leading Industry Client
Senior Leadership Role & Package on offer
A Consulting background is a key requirment for this role.
The primary purpose of this role is to ensure that adequate governance processes are in place for all Programmes. The objective is to ensure that every stage of a project, or programme, is set up for success, resulting in on-time and on-budget delivery with minimal deployment impacts on normal business operations. In addition, the role is the focal point for project managers within the Group companies, and the development of their capability is part of the function of the role.
In this role you will work with the local businesses, in an advisory and consultative capacity, to guide the formation and execution of their projects, across all dimensions of a project, to best ensure success. At any given time, there may be a portfolio of active projects in different stages of their lifecycles that need input from the role. Once active, an on-going focus on reviewing and validating progress will be required for each project.
Responsibilities of the Role
Active project engagement
1. Ensure governance standards are in place, and continually reviewed, that cover all aspects of the project lifecycle from initial consideration through to budgeting, contracting, delivery and deployment.
2. Engage with all Group companies to ensure that all projects are assessed for risk and where a certain risk threshold is reached the Group Programme Governance Manager must be involved.
3. Continually refine that risk assessment approach.
4. All projects need to get to the stage of budget approval before they can kick off. Defining that budget properly requires a level of scoping and engagement both internally and with potential third-party vendors. A high degree of confidence in any budget is required before proceeding. Ensuring that this step is carried out appropriately is an important part of the role and is done through close liaison with the local business.
5. Support the businesses in the project scoping and third-party selection processes.
6. Support the businesses in the contracting stage with external third parties for project services.
7. Outside of the objective to build a high-quality solution, there is the challenge of deploying it successfully with minimal disruption to the business operations. The area of Change Management is important to ensure that the business is ready to deploy the solution. Engaging with the local business to assess their approach to readiness, as well as ensuring they address any gaps, is critical to success. Defining and monitoring this work-stream is as important as any other and scoping appropriate third-party assistance, where required, can often be important.
8. Define the governance approach for the various stages of the project and ensure this is put in place.
9. Devise the appropriate review and validation approach for each project stage and work-stream with a priority focus being applied to areas of highest risk. This is an important responsibility of the role and validation of progress, independently of the local project team, needs to happen.
10. Review, with the local business, the resourcing and skillsets of the team engaged in the critical work-streams of a project, and ensure they are adequately resourced.
11. Devise, with the local business, the appropriate KPIs for monitoring the health of the project and ensure the cadence and audience for review are appropriately defined. Early warning of pending issues is important, as is the assessment and identification of poor-quality standards within any work-stream.
Developing the project management capabilities
12. Responsible for developing the governance templates that should be used at various stages of a project.
13. Sharing best-practice and case studies with the project managers around the Group.
14. Assisting in the development of the skill set of the project managers through potential shared training / webinars.
15. Developing the peer community of project managers across the Group and facilitating internal networking.
Capabilities Required for the Role
16. At least ten years' experience at project/programme manager level with demonstrable accountability for major ERP project delivery
17. Degree level education
18. A professional project/programme management qualification (e.g., PRINCE2)
19. A background in ERP project management in a Consulting / Systems Integrator environment
20. Tier 1 ERP experience is preferable (e.g., SAP, Oracle)
Functional capabilities
21. Experience of the core elements of project governance and delivery:
22. Opportunity Assessment
23. Feasibility Study
24. Scope definition
25. Business Case Development
26. Stakeholder Management
27. Project Planning
28. Cost & Benefit Management
29. Risks & Issues Management
30. Resource Planning & Management
31. Test strategies and methodologies
32. Data migration
33. Integration approaches
34. Project health status KPIs and reporting
35. Project budgeting
36. Contract Management
37. Skilled in Change Management and a clear understanding of the methodologies for assessing and mitigating deployment risk
Personal characteristics
38. For any individual business, major IT projects occur infrequently and quite often the expertise is not available within the business to ensure success. An ability to operate and influence at senior level is very important to ensure buy-in to the correct course of action.
39. A high level of credibility is required to succeed in this role. Programme governance experience aside, the role can only be effective if the local IT leaders and related partners (e.g., System Integrators) see the advice and direction as credible and underlines the importance of having that breadth of experience that comes from years of delivering projects.
40. The executive ownership for IT sits within the businesses so a consultative and persuasive style is important to get buy-in when seeking to influence direction and approach.
41. An innate appetite to ensure and encourage delivery excellence is important.
42. All major IT initiatives have a cost implication and being financially literate in relation to investment proposals and on-going cost management is important.
43. The candidate must be highly self-motivated and be capable and confident in driving the broad agenda of the role on their own initiative.
All interested candidates should send CVs so / 087 9074597
Morgan McKinley is acting as an Employment Agency and references to pay rates are indicative.
BY APPLYING FOR THIS ROLE YOU ARE AGREEING TO OUR TERMS OF SERVICE WHICH TOGETHER WITH OUR PRIVACY STATEMENT GOVERN YOUR USE OF MORGAN MCKINLEY SERVICES.
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