Interviewer: Martin Härri, PMP^®, PMI-SP^®, PMI-ACP^®, Director Corporate Relationships PMI Switzerland Chapter

The PMI Swiss Corporate Networking Group (SCNG) is quite a unique organization within PMI, as very few chapters have a formal network which unites not project professionals, but company representatives. The SCNG was created back in 2010 and is bringing together representatives of over 20 organizations based in Switzerland to share best practices and experiences about project management topics of relevance to their companies. More about the PMI SCNG can be found here.

Starting with this edition, we will feature portraits of the SCNG members in the newsletter, with a focus on the points that matter most to PMI members. We hope you will enjoy this new series of articles, and we are looking forward to your feedback.

Company:    SIX         

SCNG member since: February 2018

Interview Partner: Klaus Christoph Wagener,

Head Project Portfolio Management

“Klaus Christoph, can you tell us a few words about yourself, and how you got into your current position?”

After completing my university studies in Business Administration and Management, I started as a branch manager in a German bank, then went into controlling and accounting, followed by operational risk control for a Bank in Switzerland. At the same time, I deepened my capabilities in change management and then gradually switched to project and program management roles. Finally, I got a call from a former colleague who motivated me to move to SIX in 2019. Independent of the assignment my goal has always been to contribute with my blended experience to the success of the company.

“What kind of projects does SIX have?”

To understand the characteristics of our projects and the dynamics in the portfolio let us briefly look at the company’s purpose: the shareholders of SIX are the banks in Switzerland, and we operate the infrastructure for the financial centers in Switzerland and Spain, thus ensuring the flow of information and money between financial market players. SIX offers exchange services, financial information, and banking services with the aim of increasing efficiency, quality and innovative capacity along the entire value chain. SIX is also building a digital infrastructure for the new millennium, called SDX. With around 4’000 employees and almost 80 nationalities in 19 countries, SIX is a truly international as well as diverse company.

The SIX change portfolio mirrors the business mix, and projects are one of the key means for implementing our strategy. On average, we invest the equivalent of a Swiss single-family home per day in projects for the future of the Swiss and Spanish financial centers. The range of our change activities spans from infrastructure, like networks and platforms, over new products and services to regulatory projects. With the international expansion of SIX, the project scope and the project teams became even more international, too.

“How do you govern projects at SIX?”

Our PRINCE2^®-based project management framework is called “PM@SIX”. Much like a highway with its guardrails, our project governance is intended to provide guidance and ensure that (project) goals can be achieved safely, quickly, and successfully – without major obstacles. PM@SIX defines the project lifecycle (stages and gates) for the whole of SIX, roles and responsibilities for the project members as well as the prioritization and authorization process. Due to their individual character every business unit might have complementary rules. The framework is supported by a company-wide project portfolio management tool and a set of mandatory and best-practice templates.

We established a “PM Circle” with management representatives from all business units to continuously improve our framework and keep it up to date. In addition, in 2020 we founded the “SIX PM Community” for project practitioners which is very active in sharing best practices and experiences – good and bad ones – and counts 270 members of which one third even without having the word “project” in their job title.

“Which methodology do you apply when implementing projects?”

We do not prescribe ‘the one approach’ for project implementation. As tailoring is one of the main principles, the implementation approach follows the purpose – means: if the nature of a project asks for a traditional / waterfall approach (e.g. infrastructure) the choice is given. In the majority of our development work agile approaches are applied with a trend towards scaled setups. But even with a waterfall approach we leverage some benefits of agile and e.g., use the same collaboration tools regardless of the approach.

“In the area of project management, what are the main strengths of SIX in your opinion?”

With PM@SIX we have a lean framework providing guidance and transparency. Not a guarantee for project success, but a good foundation. On that basis the advantage of SIX is that we have a great source of experienced, talented employees in change delivery and reliable partnerships with our external suppliers. That together are the ingredients for successful project management. This includes as well that from time to time we must take an informed decision to cease a project as viability might no longer be given. Important is that this does not come as a surprise. We anyhow go beyond project closings and track the realization of promised benefits for some years after the go live.

“Where do you see the challenges/opportunities and trends for project managers at SIX in the coming years?”

There is no difference to other places in the industry: PM / PMO get challenged with the question if the roles are really needed in the future! Here at SIX our current assessment is that the combination of traditional project setups with agile delivery approaches is quite beneficiary, if not crucial to successfully deliver change. We have a legacy and are not a greenfield startup. We operate in an environment which in significant parts of the business is highly regulated and determined by strong dependencies to the development cycles of our clients. Here PM and PMO can prove their added value.

“Why should talented project managers and officers work for SIX?”

First of all: our projects are cutting-edge and challenging in an international environment. They make the Future of Finance happen – now! The day-to-day work in the project space is characterized by a collaborative environment and trust.

Secondly, and evenly important, we believe in the enablement of our employees. Thus, we work with a PM training landscape and provide access to a wide range of internal and external PM trainings and e-learnings. These do not only cover traditional or agile PM methodologies, but as well leadership development and work-life balance / personal development topics. Every employee can pursue an individualized training and development path.

Interested? Figure out openings in SIX project management on SIX-Group.com.

Interviewer: Martin Härri, PMP^®, PMI-SP^®, PMI-ACP^®, Director Corporate Relationships PMI Switzerland Chapter

The PMI Swiss Corporate Networking Group (SCNG) is quite a unique organization within PMI, as very few chapters have a formal network which unites not project professionals, but company representatives. The SCNG was created back in 2010 and is bringing together representatives of over 20 organizations based in Switzerland to share best practices and experiences about project management topics of relevance to their companies. More about the PMI SCNG can be found here.

We are publishing portraits of the SCNG members in the newsletter, with a focus on the points that matter most to PMI members. We hope you will enjoy this new series of articles, and we are looking forward to your feedback.

Company: PostFinance Ltd. 

SCNG member since: February 2020

“Stefan and Didier, can you tell us a few words about yourself, and how you got into your current position?”

Stefan: Working as a Service and Project Manager in the banking and IT industry for large transformation projects, I took over the responsibility for the Innovation and Agile Delivery Team at PostFinance in 2019. Additionally, I am lecturer for economics and project management in higher technical courses and postgraduate studies.

Didier: I am working at PostFinance since 2007. After a couple of years as a team leader, I initiated the largest transformation initiative of PostFinance, the replacement of the Core Banking System, in the role of project/program manager. After the successful introduction of the new system, I took the role of Head of Project Portfolio Management, which was then a new role in the company. 

“What kind of projects does PostFinance have?”

We have an average of 180 running projects of different sizes at all times. The goal of these projects is manyfold:

• We want to ensure that our customers are getting the best service and offers possible. We therefore continuously increase our product palette and improve the customer experience (e.g., through Digital Transformations). 
• Some other projects ensure Business Continuity, such as system upgrades.
• Being in a highly regulated environment, we also have many projects fulfilling these external requirements.

“How do you govern projects at PostFinance?”

Projects can be started at any time but need to go through quarterly gates to get the approval of the resources. This is done centrally by the portfolio management to ensure that the projects with the highest business values get implemented. Processes are defined for the execution, still leaving some freedom to the project managers.

“Which methodology do you apply when implementing projects?”

We apply an agile framework based on SAFe, but tailored to the needs of PostFinance, the "Enterprise Agile Delivery" framework. It covers processes, practices, roles, and methodological guardrails to scale agility in our large company and within the different programs. This said, it does not limit to classic project management tasks and roles but comprises the complete journey from solution ideation to rollout and maintenance.

“In the area of project management, what are the main strengths of PostFinance in your opinion?”

With the lift-and-shift of PostFinance's project management from a classic to an agile framework, we are continuously enhancing the framework to the new business units and stakeholder needs. We also permanently explore improvements in our way of working (e.g., closer alignment with strategy, data driven initiatives or financing processes).

“Where do you see the challenges/opportunities and trends for project managers at PostFinance in the coming years?”

With the agile change, the role of the projects manager is changing from a process administrator to a servant leader with a higher need of know-how in IT and Business.

As new technologies, such as AI, are incorporated into our processes and services, project leads must be able to successfully deal with both the tools and agile exploration of new business opportunities.

“Why should talented project managers and officers work for PostFinance?”

The financial industry is at the forefront when it comes to the application of new technologies. PostFinance lives an agile, daring, and independent working culture at eye level with management and customers.

Interested? Figure out openings in PostFinance project management on link.

Author: Philip Springuel, PMP 

Newsletter Copy Editor

Dear readers,

This month your newsletter opens with a Message from Ala Lutz, VP Membership, placing deserved importance on the next edition of the Project Management Conference, set for 18 October. Also this month, we revisit the April event in Geneva that brought you PwC’s Michka Guerrier on resilient project leadership; the SIX ConventionPoint workshop in May on facilitating strategy planning; and a look into how PMI Switzerland’s own running team did at a recent 20k in Lausanne.

Essays this month include a third installment in a series, focused on equity this time, and an outlook on AI impact for project managers. Five new members are also profiled this month.

Don’t forget to check the website and your social media for upcoming events, and do consider the Board’s message calling for speakers at the PM Conference.

With best wishes,

Philip SPRINGUEL

Author: Ganesh Gopalan, PMP

A seasoned Project Manager is one who by now would have hit middle age, going through mid-life crisis - or has seen one, and or contemplating his/her plans for retirement and thinking about his/her future financial security. In my several meetings and Aperos with Project Managers, the constant conversation the last 6 to 8 months revolves around how Artificial Intelligence is going to rule the world or ruin the life of a Project Manager :)  Most of these managers have handled Risk Management of the projects, but the real Risk Management is going to be NOW, on how they are going to manage themselves in the fast-racing world of AI, Generative AI, Bard, ChatGPT and the like!

Though not sounding too pessimistic, the real challenge now is the way forward on how to cope with the emerging technologies and ensure a steady career ahead. I recently met a few veterans in the field of AI and Project Management, and would like to enumerate on some of the best pointers they conveyed:

Nothing to panic - AI is not going to take away the Project Management role or PMO office overnight. We are still in the nascent stage, and it would take years before the PMO might or could be replaced by AI. Maybe by that time, we might as well have retired : )

Sustainability – While AI may replace a few jobs in near future, it's always smart for a Project Manager to learn the basics of AI, ML etc., and understand some of the jargon with a bit of technological summary on what these are about. Happy news is, they are not expected to learn programming, coding, or any software architecture. The key tip here is to learn some amount of AI as it would become easier to talk to clients and navigate this sudden tide and keenly understand how the AI industry would shape up, down the years.

Knowledge Management – It is observed that certain sections of Project Managers immediately rushed to join high level AI courses from reputed educational institutes by spending a good amount of money, with the hope to secure their future in the IT industry. The practical answer to this is, such a gush is not at all needed. While it may benefit a minority of Project Managers coming from a technical background, it need not hold good for any Project Managers, taking up such a course. There are a lot of free YouTube, Online courses which are sufficient to go through and get the nuances of AI, rather than spending heavily on such courses. In other words, understanding a decent level of AI knowledge is enough for a Project Manager.

Getting into best fitment – As much as none can predict the future of the industry, we have spent considerable years in IT. Thus we need to ensure we enable ourselves to become the correct fitment in the correct team and technology. Since the entire world would revolve around AI in the years to roll by, it's time the Project Managers of today slowly move out of their comfort zone: Start liaising with the AI teams within their companies; connect with friends and professionals who are already into AI, to gain insight on the required specific skills of the future. Once we get a rough idea, we need to find such teams or companies and see the possibilities of getting inducted there, to not only foolproof our future, but also to be a forerunner in such skills and be the first generation that would deal with the latest technologies. It would surely be a matter of pride that we are a part of the winning team that’s going to decide how humanity would run its course based on our ideas and technologies we are developing well in advance!

Thus, to sum up, it always pays to grasp, learn new technologies, be slightly ahead than our counterparts, to ensure we are scaled up and be at par in this “technological inflation” and enjoy doing the role of a Project Manager but with better equipped AI knowledge!!!