Peter is available for hire
Hire PeterPeter Plaice
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Dublin, Ireland
Toptal member since January 25, 2022
Bio
Peter is an experienced Scrum Master, delivery lead, and Agile coach with over 14 years of experience across the regulatory, insurance, consulting, digital, funds, utilities, and financial services industries in both private and public sectors. Peter aims to use his experience and qualifications to facilitate the creation of a high-performing, self-organizing team focused on delivering value as frequently as possible.
Project Highlights
Public-facing Website for a Financial Services Company
Migrated amp.co.nz from the former parent company in Australia to a new standalone entity in New Zealand.
Broker Portal for an Insurance Company
Helped an insurance client transition to Agile ways of working while delivering a client Salesforce portal.
Instructor Portal for an International Fitness Class Brand
Upgraded the video submission and event booking functionality on the instructor portal of a global fitness brand.
Expertise
- Agile
- Communication
- IT Program Management
- IT Project Management
- Program Management
- Scrum Coaching
- Scrum Master
- Stakeholder Management
Work Experience
Agile Delivery Lead
2021 - 2022
Kainos
- Delivered a high-priority client portal to migrate insurance broker sales to Salesforce from a legacy system.
- Coached executives and project sponsors on how planning and budgeting need to change to align with Agile working methods.
- Promoted Agile ways of working across the business, including running "lunch and learn" sessions and setting up an Agile community within the organization.
- Ensured Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, stand-ups, reviews, refinement, and retrospectives, were completed and ran as efficiently as possible.
- Managed the delivery of two Scrum teams, including status reporting, planning, vendor management, and release planning.
- Upskilled the team on Scrum and Agile and how it can work within the team and organizational context.
Engagement Manager and Head of Project Management
2020 - 2021
Sogeti
- Improved Agile ways of working to align with the client's delivery methodology, SAFe.
- Managed the budget on the account with a €5.1 million revenue.
- Delivered improvements to internal project management practices, including creating a PM community, PM 101 training, and a PM learning and development roadmap.
- Coached teams in Agile ways of working within a traditional Waterfall environment.
- Managed the program and engagement on a high-priority client account consisting of 100+ staff members in three locations across Ireland, Spain, and India.
- Handled stakeholder interactions, planning, staffing, and status updates both internally and externally.
- Repaired damaged customer relationships using incremental trust-building through consistent delivery and quality improvements.
- Delivered a service improvement plan for an at-risk client with senior internal visibility within the utility sector engagement.
Senior Project Manager
2019 - 2020
IAG New Zealand
- Coached teams in Agile ways of working within a traditional Waterfall environment and coached senior stakeholders on the benefits of the Agile methodology.
- Transitioned a platform from project delivery through to operating in a product model using Agile working methods.
- Created and delivered status updates on progress to the senior leadership team.
- Repaired and maintained a strained relationship with an external broker partner.
- Delivered an organization-wide cheque elimination project, including call centers, branches, digital, and back-end systems.
Senior IT Project Manager and Product Owner
2018 - 2019
AMP New Zealand
- Migrated amp.co.nz from the AU Adobe Experience Manager instance to the NZ AEM instance.
- Managed an offshore vendor delivery team to complete the migration to tight timelines.
- Recruited and onboarded a vendor test team to perform QA on the new website.
- Oversaw the collaboration between the development vendor, the test vendor, internal AMP teams, and integration vendors to ensure goals were met.
- Collaborated with HR on identifying and recruiting an agile product team to manage the website once migrated.
Senior Project Manager
2017 - 2018
Les Mills International
- Acted as a Scrum Master and PM for a project to improve the online portal for Les Mills for fitness instructors around the world.
- Performed as a Scrum Master and PM for a 90-day squad to improve internal technology systems for finance and club support teams.
- Collaborated with product owners across multiple markets to iterate on the optimal solution to various problems.
- Promoted Agile ways of working and advocated Scrum best practices.
- Coordinated daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives.
- Reported the project's progress to the senior leadership team and the product owner.
- Coordinated the project delivery to the US, UK, China, Japan, and Nordic markets.
Senior IT Project Manager
2016 - 2017
Financial Markets Authority New Zealand
- Delivered a project to upgrade data link between the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment and the FMA.
- Provided new employee performance management and learning management software systems into the FMA.
- Created a process for an online submission platform blending Agile and Waterfall to meet the client's requirements.
- Reported the project progress to the executive steering committee each month.
- Completed project planning, financials, risk and issue tracking, change management, and stakeholder management for all projects.
Senior IT Project Manager
2015 - 2016
Vizor Software
- Managed projects through all phases within an Agile environment.
- Planned the project delivery, including working with internal development and analyst resources to estimate client deliverables.
- Collaborated with HR to recruit and onboard two senior project managers.
- Managed all aspects of the delivery, including project budget control, project plans, RAID logs, status reports, and change control.
- Delivered a FATCA solution to allow international tax authorities to report US persons with non-US bank accounts to the IRS.
- Recovered a failing relationship with prime consultancy on the FATCA project through effective conflict resolution.
- Improved morale on the FATCA team through collaborative planning and communication.
- Ran resource management meetings across all company projects and updated the resource management software to allow for appropriate planning.
- Coordinated internal bid work and communicated with project teams and company executives around the internal impact of bid resourcing.
- Documented a new project governance process to be rolled out across the organization.
IT Project Manager
2014 - 2015
Sogeti
- Completed work orders, purchase orders, and all aspects of the procurement process for my projects.
- Worked closely with third-party development vendors, internal and external business analysts, and IT and business test teams to coordinate timely delivery of multiple projects.
- Reviewed and approved vendor estimates and challenged estimates where appropriate.
- Applied a highly-regulated gated project management process on all assigned projects while on the client site.
- Created a blended Agile and Waterfall project delivery model to facilitate rapid delivery of digital projects within stage gated environments.
- Delivered weekly communication of project status and fortnightly project board reviews to the senior business management.
- Coordinated the delivery of several high-profile bids across various industries while in Sogeti's head office.
- Coached and mentored junior consultants on other client sites.
IT Project Manager
2012 - 2014
BNY Mellon
- Delivered reporting solutions from various fund accounting systems to serve clients’ needs.
- Collaborated with business analysts, development resources, and operations resources to deliver projects.
- Managed projects through estimation, planning, development, testing, and implementation.
- Recovered failing relationships between IT and business departments through effective communication and consistent delivery.
- Delivered a client-focused program of 14 projects with a $900,000 budget and provided 12 individual projects with a combined budget of over $2,000,000.
- Created and managed project plans, CAIR logs, status reports, budget tracking, change control, and project documentation.
Business Analyst
2011 - 2012
Citi
- Worked in the business transformations department to deliver an online front-end solution to the company's transfer agency clients.
- Analyzed, agreed, and documented business requirements, test plans, and test cases.
- Delivered status updates to the project manager and managed the project action log.
- Worked with an external vendor to deliver and test the solution.
IT Project Manager
2010 - 2011
Speedwell eBusiness Solutions
- Managed projects through estimation, planning, development, testing, and implementation.
- Delivered projects for high-profile clients such as Smirnoff, Coca-Cola, Harvey Norman, and Suncorp Insurance.
- Worked on an internal project to deliver an iPhone credit card reader called Instapay.
- Worked with iPhone, Android, online marketing tools, content management systems, flash, and .NET websites.
IT Project Manager
2007 - 2010
BNY Mellon
- Managed projects through estimation, planning, development, testing, and implementation.
- Handled all new client FTP links for Ireland and delivered a variety of reporting solutions for fund accounting and transfer agency clients.
- Created and managed MS project plans, CAIR logs, status reports, budget tracking, change control, and project documentation.
- Performed business analysis on smaller items and worked directly with clients to clarify requirements and test deliverables.
Project History
Public-facing Website for a Financial Services Company
http://amp.co.nzMigrated amp.co.nz from the former parent company in Australia to a new standalone entity in New Zealand.
This project involved the migration of amp.co.nz to New Zealand AEM instance as part of the separation of AMP NZ from AMP Australia.
This project included the technical work of standing up the new instance, including analysis, development, testing, and implementation. Since this was the first time the website was owned and managed locally within New Zealand, the project was also required to recruit a small team of developers to handle ongoing support and changes.
This project enabled AMP New Zealand to take ownership of the technology, staffing, and vision for their customer-facing website, which formed a crucial part of their strategy for separating themselves from their parent company in Australia.
The project also left AMP New Zealand with a detailed vision of how the support model would work on an ongoing basis, based around a product model using Agile and Scrum as the delivery methodology for future change.
This project included the technical work of standing up the new instance, including analysis, development, testing, and implementation. Since this was the first time the website was owned and managed locally within New Zealand, the project was also required to recruit a small team of developers to handle ongoing support and changes.
This project enabled AMP New Zealand to take ownership of the technology, staffing, and vision for their customer-facing website, which formed a crucial part of their strategy for separating themselves from their parent company in Australia.
The project also left AMP New Zealand with a detailed vision of how the support model would work on an ongoing basis, based around a product model using Agile and Scrum as the delivery methodology for future change.
Broker Portal for an Insurance Company
Helped an insurance client transition to Agile ways of working while delivering a client Salesforce portal.
I managed and coached two scrum teams to deliver high-priority migration of an insurance broker portal from a legacy system to a Salesforce-based portal.
Working for a large insurer in the Irish market, the project aimed to migrate to Salesforce to reduce costs for maintaining the portal and allow more flexibility for future enhancements.
The project was run using an Agile and Scrum model within teams, including working daily with product owners, business analysts, developers, and test analysts. The project had an international team spanning three different countries and multiple vendors.
This project enabled the client to reduce their system costs, reduce their time to market for new product sales through brokers, and reduce the FTE required to process a new application.
This project provided strong stakeholder management and coaching opportunities as we implemented Agile ways of working within a traditionally Waterfall environment.
Working for a large insurer in the Irish market, the project aimed to migrate to Salesforce to reduce costs for maintaining the portal and allow more flexibility for future enhancements.
The project was run using an Agile and Scrum model within teams, including working daily with product owners, business analysts, developers, and test analysts. The project had an international team spanning three different countries and multiple vendors.
This project enabled the client to reduce their system costs, reduce their time to market for new product sales through brokers, and reduce the FTE required to process a new application.
This project provided strong stakeholder management and coaching opportunities as we implemented Agile ways of working within a traditionally Waterfall environment.
Instructor Portal for an International Fitness Class Brand
Upgraded the video submission and event booking functionality on the instructor portal of a global fitness brand.
This project delivered video upload and event booking enhancements to an existing instructor portal for Les Mills International. Les Mills is a global fitness brand headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, with offices in the UK, Germany, Japan, China, Sweden, USA, and Dubai, distributing group fitness classes taught in over 18,000 clubs in 105 countries.
This project aimed to improve the portal's end-user experience, focusing on two major pain points—video submission and event booking—highlighted by feedback from instructors and internal staff.
The project was delivered on Salesforce using a Scrum model for delivery in collaboration with an external vendor based in Canada and business SMEs in the US, UK, Sweden, and Germany.
The project was a high priority for the company and had senior leadership focus on delivering to budger and providing the expected value. The project provided significant improvements moving the video upload from a cumbersome link-sharing process to a streamlined in-app upload using AWS, providing system stability around popular high-demand events where previously the system crashed, and manual workarounds were required.
This project aimed to improve the portal's end-user experience, focusing on two major pain points—video submission and event booking—highlighted by feedback from instructors and internal staff.
The project was delivered on Salesforce using a Scrum model for delivery in collaboration with an external vendor based in Canada and business SMEs in the US, UK, Sweden, and Germany.
The project was a high priority for the company and had senior leadership focus on delivering to budger and providing the expected value. The project provided significant improvements moving the video upload from a cumbersome link-sharing process to a streamlined in-app upload using AWS, providing system stability around popular high-demand events where previously the system crashed, and manual workarounds were required.
Certifications
FEBRUARY 2022 - PRESENT
Agile Certified Coach (ICP-ACC)
ICAgile
DECEMBER 2020 - PRESENT
Agile Delivery Leadership
ICAgile
JUNE 2016 - PRESENT
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum.org
Skills
Tools
Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Confluence, Jira, Slack, Miro
Paradigms
Agile, Scrum, Agile Project Management, Agile Delivery, Agile Leadership, Kanban, PRINCE2, Requirements Analysis, Software Testing
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance
Other
Scrum Master, Scrum Coaching, Agile Coaching, IT Program Management, Stakeholder Management, Communication, Project Management, IT Project Management, Consulting, Budgeting, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), PRINCE2 Project Management, Status Updates, Offshore Team Management, Agile Product Delivery, Product Management, Agile Sprints, Remote Team Leadership, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Team Leadership, Scope of Work (SOW), Project Scoping, Cost Estimation, Planning, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Project Timelines, Waterfall Methodology, Estimation & Planning, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Requirements, Software Project Management, Technical Project Management, Facilitation, Client Delivery Management, Agile Transformation, Process Improvement Project Management, Stakeholder Mapping, Teams, Agile Program Management, People Management, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Program Management, PMO Development, Product Roadmaps, Discovery Workshops, User Stories, Web Project Management, Digital Project Management, Investment Banking, Investment Banking Technology, Structured Facilitation, Discovery, Project Discovery, Discovery Management, Requirements & Specifications, Process Flows, Process Improvement, Project Management Office (PMO), PMO, Team Building, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Vendor Management, Vendor Selection, Coaching, IT Projects, Partner Management, New Business Development, IT Business Analysis, Project Planning, Business Analysis, Fintech, Compliance, User Experience (UX), Request for Proposal (RFP), Web & Mobile Applications, Mobile Apps, Website Migration, Website Redesign
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