Andy Back

I was appointed as the project manager; the project was delivered using Agile PM techniques to ensure delivery of the customer requirements to time and budget. My responsibilities included user requirements through specification, RFP, contract award and development, budget forecast and control, risk management, change control, and project delivery scheduling into a fully operational plant with minimal downtime to production. The project exceeded requirements and was delivered fully operational and documented, with personnel trained and a seamless transition.

Contracted to an automotive OEM directly as an Agile project manager to deliver a cross-platform (iOS, Android, and PC browser) application for warranty checking for a major automotive OEM. The app created allowed logging and tracing of defined warranty and potential warranty claims through the established service chain and the personnel at the head office.

I was responsible for the RFQ generation for software development teams to tender against, supplier selection, and supplier management post-award. I was also in charge of user story definition, analyzing, scoring, delivery to the development team, sprint definition meetings, user reviews and acceptance, budget management, timescale reporting, change management, and product delivery to the rollout team.

Ensured code quality, documentation, operability, and upgrade path definition from the outset greatly aided the success of the project, along with a strong hardware expectation standard at the early stage to ensure user expectations for performance were achieved.

The project was managed using fully Agile techniques for the software development but blending this into traditional Waterfall techniques for an overall program strategy, including a new facility design. Managed the user story definition, collation and filtering, RFP generation, and review for outsourced modules to integrate with in-house developed code, and contract negotiation. I also assisted the purchasing department with final order placement, budget control, change management, sprint definition, progress reviews, daily scrum meetings, and all of the project documentation monitoring and reviews to create a full audit trail of the project.

As the first major software development project run by the customer, updates to the procedures for the project back office were essential and allowed full lessons learned and benefits realization at the end of the project.

I was in charge of a small team of experienced engineers covering equipment specification, facility design, and operational readiness. The role had an engineering element but primarily entailed strong commercial management, management reporting, planning, and supplier management skills, along with market research to understand the current supply chain, solutions offering, and customer requirements of the EV market. My responsibilities included forecasting, concept design, detailed design, delivery, and acceptance of the new manufacturing facility.

The project was in its infancy when I joined the team of only six. Now at around 150 members and growing rapidly, the project platform has been defined and is ready to deliver. The project has been complex and includes researching the specification, supplier selection and management, IT system delivery, stakeholder engagement, risk management and mitigation, budget definition and updating cost cycles, and the contract management of the supply chain. Personnel management to assist with building the permanent team has been a key part of the role.