Bridging the Gap at Pioneer Investments
The Challenge
Pioneer Investments, a Global investment management company, part of the Italian Unicredito banking group, has adopted a number of strategic IT initiatives to support its Business growth plans. One of the many challenges it had to meet was to meld the need for project and programme governance/control, while at the same time actively contributing to the “Agile” project approach required to meet ambitious 100 day timescales.
Brian O’Driscoll, Head of Pioneer Investments Programme Office said:
“This has been an exhilarating and exciting time for us all at Pioneer Investments. The thrill of the race to achieve our goal within incredibly tight timescales, tempered by the need for project control and governance, has made for interesting times. WPM has ably assisted me in developing a company wide Project Methodology and providing staff to work in the “front-line” with Pioneer’s project managers. WPM’s staff’s pragmatic approach and experience has helped to bridge the gap during the implementation of Pioneer Investments’ project methodology. The last eight months has been a mixture of incredibly hard work and great fun – I thank WPM for their assistance during this period.”
The Solution
WPM worked closely with the Programme Office in developing a Pioneer Investments’ project management methodology. WPM was able to draw on its experience of similar work within the IT industry and its expertise as PRINCE2 trainers to provide a tailored approach for Pioneer Investments. A key requirement was to develop and implement levels of project control appropriate to the size and importance of the project. WPM trained the staff on the new project management approach and provided experienced staff to support Pioneer project managers on behalf of the Programme Office.
WPM Delivered
- Pioneer’s Project Methodology document and templates
- Training for Pioneer’s Project Methodology
- Programme and Project support
Benefits
The benefits to Pioneer Investments of a company wide project methodology are those related to common and widely understood Business processes e.g. improved planning resulting in informed project choices and delivery, ability to compare the risks, benefits and costs across projects.
