Role Summary
The PMO Lead will be responsible for managing a team of experienced Programme and Project Support professionals, dedicated to the successful delivery of projects, and for the continuous improvement of the Vodafone Project Delivery Lifecycle (VPDL) process.
The role requires strong leadership and management skills, coupled with strong PMO/Programme planning skills, to ensure the integrity of the programmes and projects. The incumbent will need to develop and maintain robust relationships with all parts of the business as well as with the programmes and projects, to ensure that all initiatives meet the requirements of the organisation.
The individual will need to understand the wider objectives of the portfolio and programme, have credibility within the environment and be able to influence others. They must be able to develop and maintain effective working relationships with senior managers, the programme and project teams, and any third-party service providers.
If this sounds like your next career move, we want to hear from you.
Essence of Role
Methodology
To develop and maintain the project management methodology (VPDL) including document templates, identifying project phases, reporting and planning information for successful project delivery
Advise on tailoring the templates and procedures to achieve an appropriate project structure
Act as owner of programme and project frameworks, templates and procedures; be responsible for ensuring they are fit for purpose and continue to be best practice
Governance
Develop and implement the terms of reference for the IT Delivery PMO
Production and maintenance of the Programme Charter document
Responsible for ensuring appropriate project and programme controls and processes are in place to enable accurate progress monitoring and reporting
Administer Programme Governance
Planning
Ensure planning standards are defined, communicated and enforced
Hold and manage consolidated level 0 plan and dependencies, interfaces and critical path with clear linkage to project level 1-3 milestones
Define and run scenarios on impact of movement to level 0 milestones
Monitoring
Ensuring that deliveries from projects are within agreed tolerance levels of quality, time, and budget, in accordance with the programme plan and programme governance control processes and documentation
Acting as the point of escalation for project Issues, Risks and Changes that fall outside assigned project tolerances
Reporting
Define and agree report content, formats and frequency in conjunction with the IT Delivery Manager
Progress reports to the IT Delivery Manager in accordance with the Reporting Calendar
The chair of the monthly Programme Review Meeting (PRM)
Design, challenge and agree Management Dashboards
Risk management
Maintain and monitor a consolidated IT Delivery risk log on a monthly basis to ensure risks are being appropriately addressed and closed. Risks that cannot be mitigated within the Programme’s authority will be escalated in accordance with the risk and policy management strategy
Issue management
Maintain and monitor a consolidated IT Delivery issues log on a monthly basis to ensure issues are being appropriately addressed and closed. Issues that cannot be dealt with within the Programme’s authority will be escalated in accordance with the issue and policy management strategy
To have a good understanding of organisation-wide issues and be able to suggest solutions for resolution
Dependency Management
Maintain and monitor a consolidated IT Delivery dependencies log on a weekly basis to ensure dependencies are being appropriately captured and addressed
Ensure that cross project and programme dependencies are identified and managed
Change Management
Maintain a consolidated Change Register of change requests escalated from Projects and change requests initiated at Programme Level. The PMO will review the Change Request log on a monthly basis to ensure that all related decisions, communications and actions are being appropriately progressed
Knowledge Management
To be responsible for maintaining a document storage system that will contain all documentation for all projects and which can be readily and easily accessed by authorised personnel
Maintenance of programme library
Impact on the business
Accountable for the promotion and continuous improvement of the VPDL process and Knowledge Management Portal
Accountable for the Project Support for all IT projects. These projects vary in complexity but are all aligned with the transformation of Vodafone as part of the 100 week plan
Customers, supplier and third parties
Work effectively with customer-obsessed internal stakeholders
Manage stakeholder engagement across multiple organisational boundaries personally influencing key stakeholders
Leadership and teamwork
To be responsible for the recruitment, supervision, appraisal, induction, development and performance management of Project Support Analyst (PSA) and Programme Support Specialist (PSS) staff working in the PMO
Develop personal skills and team capabilities to enable effective support of IT Programmes and Projects
Proactively contribute to the development and maintenance of a high performing PMO team
Recruit, develop and retain the Portfolio Office, Programme Office or COE team
To work in a manner that facilitates inclusion
Innovation and change
Continue to check that the VPDL deliverables innovatively deliver business and technical change that drive forward Vodafone’s transformation
Challenge the broader team to think “outside of the box” about innovatively delivering the benefits required by all IT projects
Search for and agree with stakeholders the appropriate innovation variations to standard process
Comfortable when working in an ambiguous environment
Knowledge and experience
Promote learning across IT Delivery to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Programme and Project community
Have a knowledge of planning, resource management and project governance processes
Continue to build knowledge through:
o Maintaining relationships with peers and team
o Training
o Industry best practices
o Creating and maintaining relationships with suppliers, partners and customers
Understand and contribute to the current position and future strategies for project management
Understand the processes and other’s accountabilities related to project management
Have a working knowledge of effective project management methods
To research and remain up to date on developments in project management tools and techniques
Communication
Manages stakeholders at the various levels required by clear and meaningful written and verbal communications that effectively impart the required information or enable speedy and informed decisions
Communicates in an impactful manner that commands respect and confidence from the audience
Brings to bear in-depth knowledge of the subject and will uncover underlying issues by skilful questioning techniques which develop strong relationships with stakeholders
Role Dimension
Non-financial (customers/staff etc)
Ability to work effectively and influence all levels in Vodafone
Able to coach and manage members of the IT PMO team
Typical Outputs
This role will typically experience/manage:
Accountability for effective and timely programme and project support
Accountability for the line management of the PMO team
Numerous internal stakeholders
A responsibility for the continuous improvement of VPDL
The chair of the monthly Programme Review Meeting (PRM)
Technical/Professional Expertise
Essential
- Extensive track record in the management of successful PMOs for programme sizes >£45m
- Excellent understanding and knowledge of PMO tools and processes.
- Advanced Project Management (Prince 2) skills
- An ability to be able to establish rapport and communicate effectively to a wide range of people at all levels including Executives and middle management
- Experience of Team management and staff development
- Experience of financial control and budget management
- Experience of vendor management
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office including Outlook and MS Project
- Excellent analytical skills (listening, questioning, challenging etc.)
Desired
- Professional Qualification (Degree, PRINCE2 or similar project management methodologies), or significant industry experience
