Summary
The new Technology leadership at a top hedge fund decided to run its Technology division “like a business”. The CTO and other senior leadership aimed to create a robust PMO and design and implement a structured project management framework for the Technology division.
Situation
The CTO and COO of Technology engaged us to help build a PMO from scratch. This effort involved putting in place a new and complete Technology PMO team as well as the tools and processes that would enable greater program and project management coordination and oversight across the division.
Satori Solution
The primary challenge for the division was managing and addressing a high volume of outstanding internal audit findings, requiring resolution of additional new internal audit items. Without a coordinated, organized framework to approach internal audits, many issues had not met expected timeframes for resolution. In order to efficiently address the outstanding issues in the short-term and provide a structured approach to effectively manage internal audits in the long-term, we created an internal audit tracking tool and resolution management process. Our team conducted training sessions with members of the PMO team to enable smooth adoption.
Additionally, the client lacked a comprehensive and consistent set of Technology metrics as well as a data reporting dashboard to provide the CTO and senior leadership insight into the division’s operations and activities. We designed the strategy and implementation plan for a metrics framework and monthly reporting dashboard. This included determining and defining a list of key performance metrics across factors including project management pipeline, budget and financing, risk and governance, and resource allocation.
Results
The new internal audit tool and resolution management process facilitated rapid resolution of audit items past due date and resulted in increased average rates of meeting new resolution deadlines. The new framework provided transparency around open item requirements, management responses and resolution status, increased management accountability, and facilitated resolution implementation. As a result, the structured methodology contributed to the standardization of project management across the division and helped fulfill leadership’s objective of “running the division like a business”.
The Technology metrics implementation plan provided the strategy and timeline to create a data reporting dashboard to enable senior leadership visibility into the divisional operations and guide decision making. As a result, the provisioned dashboard helped equip the Technology leadership team with the data and insight to effectively prioritize and manage ongoing and future projects.