Case Study - Lisa West
Current position:
Project Manager, Business Projects Group
Biography:
Lisa joined Amlin in 1997 as an Information Analyst, having worked
in the Health Service in a similar role. She developed expertise,
part of which included sitting the Lloyds Insurance Exam, and
worked her way up to a contract management role having developed
and implemented Service Level Agreements when the Information
Systems Department was outsourced in 2001.
Her experience of managing multi-disciplined teams with a focus on enhancing business processes inspired her to become involved in project work. When Amlin decided to implement the 'Standard Slip' and 'General Underwriting Agreement' (one of the first Managing Agent's to do so), Lisa managed this intiative. She also re-engineered the business processes for month-end reporting to reduce the timeframe for Amlin's results to be reported to the market and successfully implemented the strategic Data Warehouse project.
Lisa's most recent and challenging project to date required close co-ordination between the business and external suppliers to replace Haven Knox-Johnston's underwriting system with the standard marine service company platform. The implementation enabled Haven to trade from the first day it went live and this project success is now benefitting both the business and our customers.
Skills required to be a successful Project Manager:
- Communication – building and maintaining relationships to
engage all stakeholders;
- Negotiation and expectation management – these are
essential skills that enable me to achieve project
milestones;
- Analysing and understanding business requirements – are
key to the Project Manager's role at Amlin;
- Ability to plan and deliver on time, to budget and at the right quality– this is a core skill for a Project Manager to ensure the impact of change upon Amlin operations is minimised.
A typical day
| Time | Activity | |||
| 09.00-10.30 | Preparation for the day |
"I use this time to catch up on my emails and prepare for the meetings scheduled for the day." | ||
| 10.30-11.30 | Project Team Meeting |
"It is important to maintain close contact with the project team in order to track progress, resolve issues and keep on top of any new risks that emerge." | ||
| 11.30-12.30 | Programme Office update |
"Produce and distribute decisions and actions, update the Issue and Risk Registers and analyse the impact of any issues upon the project plan." | ||
| 12.30-13.00 | Catch up with IS |
"I need to keep in contact with personnel who are not part of the core project team, to ensure the project requirements are understood, that they have the capacity to deliver and to identify any issues that may have an impact upon the overall project timetable." | ||
| 13.00-14.00 | Lunch |
"After a quick work-out at the gym and a short lunch, I feel energised to deal with the issues that arose this morning." | ||
| 14.00-15.00 | Conference call |
"Relevant staff from supplier and the business analyse current show-stopper issues. Solutions are either agreed or, if the preferred solution requires a change to the project scope, the decision is referred to the Project Sponsor." | ||
| 15.00-16.00 | Meeting with Project Sponsor |
"I approach the Project Sponsor to sanction the recommended option from the conference call. He agrees to my recommendation but there is now a budgetary impact that will need to be raised at the next Board meeting. | ||
| 16.00-18.00 | PM duties |
"Having agreed an approach for the issues, I update my weekly progress report and prepare the papers for the next Project Board to demonstrate why additional budget is required if the project deadline is to be met. I also catch up with my colleagues in the Business Projects Group to find out about any new business developments and the impact these may have on the teams' projects." |
