Project Manager, IT Innovation at Britam

Job Purpose

The jobholder will be responsible for designing and managing the technical delivery of all IT Innovation projects within Britam group ensuring the full scope is implemented to desired quality levels, on time and within budget.

Britam has adopted agile project management principles and expects all IT Innovation projects to be delivered using this methodology.

The role will report to the Head of IT Innovation and PMO

Key responsibilities

1. Project Initiation:

• Create a forum for receiving product ideas from various sources; this includes internal departments, current customers, and sales staff.
• Participate in business case development by advising the Business Analyst and other project stakeholders on the technical feasibility & viability of proposed solutions.
• On approval of the project’s business case, participate in the Business Requirements Document (BRD) development process as an interested party of the end solution. Actual BRD writing shall be done by the Business Analyst but the incumbent will be a major contributor to the requirements and key signatory/approver of the final requirements document.

2. Project Planning:

• Responsible for detailed solution designing, documentation and circulation for relevant approvals. Solution design document must incorporate both the functional business requirements as outlined in the BRD as well as technical non-functional requirements in conformance with the IT Security & Enterprise Architecture guidelines.
• Responsible for the development of a technical delivery plan and schedule covering all software development life cycle elements as well as specifying the human resourcing required at each stage of the technical delivery.
• Responsible for the technical solution delivery costing (in consultation with all relevant stakeholders) and commercial negotiations in a bid to ensure that the solution is delivered at the most competitive rates. Solution costing should incorporate both monetary and non-monetary resources.

3. Project Execution:

• Mobilise the technical delivery team members consisting of internal business users, IT experts, business partners and third party suppliers.
• Vendor and internal stakeholder management to ensure the technical solution is delivered on time, on scope and within budget.
• Act as the primary point of contact between external solution implementers/ vendors and Britam’s internal project teams.
• Design testing plans to guide the testing processes to be carried out on all new products prior to roll-out
• Lead the technical project team in execution of project activities ensuring required quality standards are adhered to in accordance with the project’s quality management strategy;
  • Unit, integration & non-functional testing is done and meets the stipulated quality thresholds.
  • Release planning and management is adequately done so that a working solution is handed over to the Business Analyst who will coordinate End User & Acceptance Testing.
  • Assist the various project business analysts to coordinate UAT issue resolution with respective external parties. Act as the technical liaison person for all system implementations.
• Provide periodic project status reports to key stakeholders throughout the technical solution delivery phase.
• Responsible for updating the technical and functional solution design documents at the end of UAT and formal handover of these artefacts to the production systems support analysts as part of the project’s technical solution delivery phase closure.

4. Project Closure:

• Participate in post go-live system stabilization efforts as one of the consulted parties.
• Develop a comprehensive end project report/ project closure report for the technical project deliverables and oversee its review and sign-off. 

5. Continuous Service Improvement:

• Assesses the effectiveness of existing digital platforms and processing systems in order to plan for improvements, growth and future changes within the organization
• Assists in the development of Technology innovation plans which ensure that new and existing technologies are utilized to create operational efficiencies and enable the achievement of Group goals
• Develops and maintains third-party vendor relationships to develop strengthen and support Information Systems and enterprise architecture

Knowledge, experience and qualifications required

1. Bachelors' degree in Computer Science or Information Technology
2. Certification in ITIL V3 foundation is a mandatory requirement.
3. Working knowledge of the Agile project management methodology. Professional SCRUM Masters and PMI Agile Certified Practitioners (PMI-ACP) have an added advantage.
4. Working knowledge of Business Analysis principles. Certified Business Analysis Professionals (CBAP) have an added advantage.
5. 5 years’ experience in IT Services and System Development, 3-4 years of which should be in a technical solutions implementation position.
6. Experience in implementing and operating DevOps processes and tools such as Bit Bucket/ GIT, Jenkins, Docker & Selenium.

Technical competencies

1. Demonstrate a strong understanding of and high regard for emerging mobile, web technologies and Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as well as project management processes and execution
2. Have expert knowledge of Mobile infrastructure, internet technologies, ecommerce and e-payment technologies
3. A sound understanding of portfolio, programme and project management and a track record of delivering and enabling large-scale complex change programmes
4. Exceptional inter-personal skills with an ability to influence decisions at all levels
5. Team leadership skills
6. Ability to set and manage priorities judiciously.
7. Excellent organisational and analytical skills
8. Excellent communicator.