Project Portfolio Analyst at Santam Insurance

JOB DESCRIPTION

The person will work in the PMC supporting the enterprise-wide Portfolio Management team. The Project Portfolio Analyst will provide support in the planning, prioritization, management, and reporting of an optimized portfolio of change initiatives that lead to the fulfillment of strategic objectives. 
Analysis and coordination activities span across multiple businesses in the Group (Specialist Business, C&P, Corporate functions and Santam-Re) and across several portfolio management disciplines. 

Key areas of responsibility:

• Consolidation, analysis and reporting of project portfolio information for visibility, insights and decision making. [PORTFOLIO REPORTIG AND INSIGHTS]
• Provide an assurance role regarding the quality of information and portfolio management controls. Offers support in the definition, implementation and governance of Agile Project and Portfolio management methods, standards, best practices, and tools. [PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT CONTROLS]
• Coordinates and offers support in the definition of portfolio interdependency views and assist with the maintenance of portfolio risks. [PORTFOLIO INTERDEPENDENCIES AND RISKS]
• Assists the Portfolio Management team with the portfolio planning and prioritization process. [PORTFOLIO PLANNING]
• Provide PMC office support in terms of the coordination and administration of internal processes and information. [PMC OFFICE SUPPORT]

RESPONSIBILITIES:

PORTFOLIO REPORTING and INSIGHTS

• Maintain and report project/initiative information through management dashboards.
• Review and consolidate portfolio information. Disseminate insights and trends across the portfolio(s).
• Advice on consistent interpretation and reporting of RAG statuses.
• Prepare information, metrics and reports for governance forums and committees to enable meaningful decision making.
• Facilitate portfolio review meetings and raise/highlight variances.
• Facilitate debrief meetings with other stakeholder groups and provide portfolio management reports as required.

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT CONTROLS

• Control and govern registration and closure of initiatives according to the agreed governance cycle.
• Review and govern quality of data captured in tools such as JIRA and Confluence (Atlassian). Provide an Assurance role and ensure alignment of information across reports and tools.
• Support and maintain the measures of success framework and health check questionnaire. Facilitate reviews and assessments. Consolidate results and outcomes including lessons learned. Analyze and report progress, status and highlight deviations.
• Develop and maintain repository of best-case examples
• Source, collate and report project ratings (Mid-year and Full-year) across all portfolios.
• Support Portfolio managers to ensure on-going alignment of PMC practice with the agreed Scaled scrum framework and Agile way of working.
• Maintain project/initiative and portfolio management procedures and templates (governance).

PORTFOLIO RISKS

• Support and assist the Portfolio managers to maintain portfolio interdependency views.
• Support and assist to maintain the Portfolio Risk registers. Derive insights and report deviations.

PORTFOLIO PLANNING AND PRIORITISATION

• Assist the Portfolio Managers with:
• 1-Yr, 3-Yr and 5-Yr Portfolio planning.
• Regular planning and prioritization meetings and forums.
• Develop portfolio views linked to strategy and capacity.

PORTFOLIO OFFICE MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

• Provide administrative support to governance forums (currently SIIC, PIC, DPF).
• Schedule portfolio meetings, capture minutes and follow up on actions.
• Maintain and communicate the annual and quarterly portfolio schedule and calendar. Ensure alignment to the corporate calendar.
• Maintain an internal and external community of practice (network).
• Maintain the central PMC repository via Confluence and OneDrive.
• Maintain mailing lists and Teams channels.
• Assist with the preparation and presentation of the collaboration session(s).
• Provide input to the PMC Induction for new joiners and assist to on-board, educate and mentor new starters.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Relevant Tertiary Qualification or Qualification through experience.
• Project Management Training. Agile and Scrum qualifications recommended.
• 4+ years Project Office Coordination experience and/or 6+ years Project/ Programme coordination experience.
• Demonstrate experience in the application of industry standard project management methodologies and processes; and working in an Agile environment with Scrum method knowledge strongly preferred.
• Experience using the Tools and Techniques in alignment with the agreed Santam ways of working. Including but not limited to, Teams, OneDrive, PPO, JIRA, Confluence, JIRA Planview and SharePoint.
• Possess a deep understanding of Project administration/coordination processes across all the knowledge areas.
• Possess familiarity with methods, techniques and tools.
• Possess familiarity with the system development lifecycle as well as the Scrum at scale framework, Agile and Kanban.
• Possess expertise in inter programme and project dependency coordination. 
• Able to identify and report on/or highlight anomalies and insights through the review and consolidation of information across the Portfolio.
• Possess a deep understanding of portfolio, programme and project management processes, methods, techniques, and tools across all the portfolio, programme and project management knowledge areas.

SKILLS

• Well-honed MS Office skills (Word, Excel, PPT, MS Proj, MS Outlook).
• Agile and Scrum Method and Tool experience (JIRA, JIRA Portfolio/Planview and Confluence suggested).
• MS Project skills and Project Management Tool experience (PPO suggested).
• Financial and business acumen.
• Foster and support the Agile approach. Demonstrate a growth mindset in support of the Agile values and Santam culture: Trust, Respect, Collaborative, Self-organisation, Adapt, Transparent, Courage, Focus, Openness, Servant Leadership.
• Strong analytical, coordination and administration skills.
• Presentation and reporting skills. 
• Critical thinking and argumentation skills. Probing and collaboration skills.
• Business acumen.
• Strong communication both verbal and written.
• Personal: Assertive, Problem solving, Strong influencing skills.
• Application of industry standard methodologies and processes.
• Self-sufficient to find information. Works independently and consults with relevant stakeholders at all levels when required.
• Determines a course of action and co-ordinates as required to resolve portfolio challenges and assist with resolution.
• Forms productive relationships with internal partners by listening, clarifying, and responding effectively.  
• Prepares portfolio status reports for consumption at executive level (Internal and Group level).
• Coordinates and facilitates portfolio review discussions with internal stakeholders to validate information, extract insights and identify portfolio dependencies and risks.
• Demonstrates effective presentation and facilitation skills.
• Able to offer training, consultancy and advisory services to the PM community within Santam through active engagement with best practices.
• Core thinking competencies: analytical, information seeking, problem solving.
• Strong interpersonal skills; action orientated to drive for results yet remaining flexible to the context; emotional self-control; good communication skills at all levels of management; ability to leverage relationships and target messages to different audiences effectively; sound interpersonal skills.

KNOWLEDGE

• Deep understanding of project management methods, techniques and tools.
• Deep understanding of agile ways of working, techniques and tools.
• Deep understanding of the system development lifecycle and frameworks for business solution delivery. Incudes waterfall, iterative and agile methods.
• Understands architectural considerations in order to effectively factor them into planning, decisions and recommendations and effectively communicate.
• Familiarity with change management disciplines including stakeholder management, communication and business readiness.
• Ability to identify project implications based on an understanding of systems, processes and business.
• Project Oversight, Planning, Project Management Tools, Project Tracking and Reporting, Project Portfolio Management

COMPETENCIES

• Drives results
• Client Focus
• Collaborates
• Flexible and adaptable
• Relating and networking
• Strong stakeholder management expertise
• Analysing
• Applying expertise and technology
• Organisational Savvy
• Decision Quality
• Plan and Aligns