Senior Project Manager at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

To provide advanced project management services and to develop, maintain and enhance operational business relationships.

Job Description

The Project Manager is accountable for: Managing relationships with the project stakeholders and customers Creating and maintaining a consistent, coherent project plan that can be used to guide project execution and project control

• Planning, defining the scope of the project and controlling changes
• Formalising acceptance of the scope by stakeholders
• Planning, defining the schedule of the project and controlling changes
• Planning resources, estimating cost, allocating project budget and controlling changes to the budget
• Maintain quality planning, quality assurance and quality control for the project Identifying, documenting and assigning project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships
• Ensuring timely and appropriate generation and dissemination of project information
• Identifying, analysing and managing project risks

Acquire & Implement

• Effectively conduct research into and make use of appropriate existing intellectual property as relevant to assigned project tasks
• Serve as primary interface with Procurement and Vendor Managers, for acquisition of necessary technology and services; provide input as to expected
• SLAs for inclusion in contracts

Deliver & Support

• Deliver projects in keeping with cost, quality, schedule and agreed criteria.
• Identify, assess and manage project risks, which could result in time or cost overruns or failure to deliver products which are fit for purpose.
• Optimise total utilisation for all project resources.
• Ensure the participation and commitment of project stakeholders to project activities / reviews as required.
• Ensure timely dissemination of appropriate project information to stakeholders.
• Control changes to project scope, schedule and budget.
• Collect and disseminate performance information - status reporting, progress measurement and forecasting.
• Manage responses to risks and changes to risks over the course of the project.
• Generate, gather and disseminate information to formalize project completion. Ensure that projects are formally closed and, where appropriate, subsequently reviewed, and that lessons learned are captured and published.
• Surface and escalate issues which may become impediments to delivery of projects on time, on-budget, and in keeping with business and technical guidance documents.
• Work effectively with Solution Delivery Manager to build a PM and technical team which delivers project on time, on-budget, and in keeping with business and technical guidance documents.
• Complete and file all required reports - especially those required by the PMO.
• Work with Line Managers to ensure that the skills of individuals (and of the team overall) are fit to the needs of the project.
• Provide effective leadership to the project team ensuring that team members are motivated and develop their skills and experience.
• Ensure completion and filing of all required reports - especially those required by the PMO.
• Act as an escalation point to ensure that projects can proceed according to plan, and that potential impediments are addressed as early as possible.

Monitor & Evaluate

• Monitor costs, timescales and resources used, and take appropriate action where these deviate from agreed tolerances.
• Evaluate overall project performance on a regular basis to ensure that the project will satisfy relevant quality requirements.
• Monitor specific project results to ensure compliance with relevant quality standards and identify ways to eliminate unsatisfactory performance.
• Participate in post-implementation reviews of projects; document and institutionalise lessons learnt for continuous improvement.
• Provide feedback on performance of all team members.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews of projects; document and institutionalise lessons learnt for continuous improvement.
• Embed lessons learned into project management approach for the team(s) and reflect to PMO leadership for general use.
• Provide feedback on performance of all team members, and work with relevant team leads to identify necessary development activities for individual(s), if necessary.

Plan & Organise 

• Define, communicate and gain agreement on the project scope.
• Estimate costs, schedule and resource requirements for the successful delivery of the project to an agreed scope.
• Assist the Business Analyst, as necessary, in the development of a Business
• Case for the project.
• Work with the Solution Architect, System Analyst, and Solution Delivery Manager to ensure that the project adheres to enterprise Architectural standards.
• Divide the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components.
• Identify the specific activities that must be performed to produce the project deliverables.
• Identify and document dependencies between activities.
• Analyse activity sequences, activity durations and resource requirements to prepare the project schedule.
• Allocate the overall cost to individual work items.
• Prepare a consistent and coherent project plan document.
• Identify which quality standards are relevant to the project and determine how to satisfy them.
• Identify, document and assign project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships of both internal and external resources.
• Determine the information and communication requirements of the stakeholders.
• Identify and document the risks that are likely to affect the project.
• Evaluate risks and risk interactions to assess the range of possible project outcomes.
• Identify procurement requirements.
• Build and manage project charters, schedules, quality plans, budgets, and communication and risk management plans for projects.
• Clearly specify the needs of individuals and of the team overall to meet the needs of the project.
• Identify and implement best practices/methodologies in areas of people, process, tools and organisation.
• Establish project management approach for the team of PMs under his/her control; maintain lead relationship with PMO
• Validate project charters, schedules, quality plans, budgets, and communication and risk management plans for projects.
• Work with Solution Architect(s), System Analyst(s),and Solution Delivery
• Manager(s) to ensure that all team projects adhere to enterprise Architectural standards.
• Develop risk responses - steps to enhance opportunities and mitigate threats. Validate costs, schedule and resource requirements for the successful delivery of the projects to agreed scope(s)
• Serve as the lead interface between project team(s) and business stakeholders.

Education and Experience Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems or related field, compulsory.
• Recognised project management qualification (PMP/ PRINCE2), compulsory.
• Minimum 7 years’ Project Management experience.
• Minimum 5 years’ Financial Services Industry experience.
• Minimum 7 years’ IT/ IT Consulting experience.
• Minimum 5 years’ Consulting/ Change Management experience, advantageous.
• Business Case Management experience, compulsory.
• Expertise in Benefits Management.
• Expertise in Change Management.
• Expertise in Project Management.
• Expertise in Stakeholder Management.
• Expertise and Knowledge of Banking and Financial Services business.

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

Closing Date: 16th, March 2022