Clarisse Kent

My recent role at Westpac as a Portfolio Analyst involved working closely and providing governance, guidance and support to the Program Manager, Project Managers, Business Sponsors, Scrum teams and key stakeholders within the Payments Portfolio. It is a Transformation Program with a $70M spent for FY24. Some of my main duties:

Coordination

• Program/Project communications support, including organising workshops, induction sessions, training sessions, onboarding sessions, and development of presentation documents.
• Management of Program’s/Project’s weekly / monthly operating schedule / timeline (including Forward planning) for the PMO team and the PMO Manager.
• Coordinating the Clarity assignment of program/project resources to tasks including the set-up/establishment of individuals in Clarity.
• Building and developing effective internal and external stakeholder relationships.

Governance

• Providing support throughout the lifecycle of the Projects and Programs in adhering to the Governance Framework.
• Assisting the PMO in meetings with Project Managers to ensure that documents are being generated and signed-off as per Deliverables List.
• Keeping abreast of any changes to templates and assisting the PMO Manager with the related. communication of these changes to the Project Management community within the program.
• Ensuring that all of the program’s procedural documents are kept current.
• Managing the project funding and change control submissions forward agenda.
• Conducting RAID review sessions and ensuring it is updated for Portfolio Level reporting.
• Proactively managing Risk and Issues Registers along with mitigation plans.
• Assisting with program tracking (deliverables & milestones) and maintenance of project plans.
• Documenting processes required by the PMO.

Reporting

• Assisting the PMO and Project Managers in maintaining/improving the accuracy, timeliness and quality of reporting across the program.
• Assisting the PMO and Project Managers in ensuring timely and quality generation of Monthly Project status reports from the Clarity system.
• Supporting the development of monthly reporting and Steering Committee packs.
• Assisting with the reporting on the Progress against project timeframes, milestones and budget.

Risk Management

• Identifying and documenting potential project risks through various methods, including risk assessments, brainstorming sessions, and review of project documentation.
• Continuously monitoring and tracking identified risks, updating risk registers and providing regular risk reports to project stakeholders.
• Running Monthly Portfolio RAID reviews where the PMs had the opportunity to discuss common risks between project and review the RAID dashboards.
• Setting up Jira Dashboard in conjunction with Confluence to provide visibility of all RAID items at Project and Portfolio levels.

Financials

• Reporting and tracking of Monthly Forecast x Actuals and providing commentaries for the variances.
• Creating and Managing requisitions and purchase orders.
• Payment of invoices and reconciliation, obtaining approval for Service Requests and SOWs.
• Working closely with Finance on accruals, forecasts, and reconciliations, ensuring the Portfolio is kept under budget.
• Month End, Year End and End to End reporting.

Scheduling

• Using Microsoft Project to build Gantt charts to visualise the project timeline and track progress
• Identifying the critical path in the project schedule, understanding which tasks directly impact the project completion date.
• Managing task dependencies to avoid delays and ensure timely project completion.
• Regularly updating stakeholders on the project schedule status by providing clear and concise schedule reports

Secretariat and Administration

• Management of working groups and Steering Committees via minutes, chasing progress on actions and booking meetings. Also updating and maintaining Key Decision Register based on meeting minutes.
• Setting up program/projects in Clarity and ensure the completion of Clarity timesheets (where applicable)
• Onboarding and offboarding of employees.

• Portfolio Governance - Coordinating governance routines for programs and prepare timely and accurate packs. Ensure program adherence to project disciplines and required documentation. Challenging project managers in their status reports to ensure clarity of progress, action required, and project data is up to date.
• Resource Management - Coordinating program’s resource requirements, including vendors, and work with line managers to ensure clarity of timings. Ensure resource profiles and schedules are maintained in program baseline. Providing support on onboarding/ offboarding of team members.
• Risk Management - Maintaining and coordinate resolution of program’s risks, assumptions and issues. Ensuring regular reviews are undertaken and reporting is in accordance with expected standards and agreed frameworks. Providing initial contact point for projects, together with information, advice and escalation where necessary to appropriate program and person.
• Cost Management – Reporting and tracking on Monthly Forecast x Actuals and EAC x Approved Budget. Providing procurement support by creating purchase orders and processing invoices in Ariba and updating Invoice Register. Proactively raising risk and issues relating to financial performance and tracking.
• Schedule Management – Using Microsoft Project to build Gantt charts to visualise project timeline and track progress. Collaborating with project managers and cross-functional teams to gather project requirements and align project schedule. Providing regular status reports and updates to stakeholders, highlighting key milestones, risks, and issues. Allocating resources efficiently and effectively within Microsoft Project to optimize project timelines and deliverables.

• Communicating to stakeholders, Collection, consolidation, and analysis of project data.
• Assisting on creation of processes.
• Updating project records and tracking project budget, Conducting project status review meetings, Resource management.
• Overseeing contracts and ensuring vendors meet their cybersecurity obligations.
• Collection, consolidation, and analysis of project data to provide insights that will support effective decision making.
• Assisting on creation of processes according to bank policies.
• Updating project records and tracking project budget. Processing invoices and purchase orders using Ariba.
• Keeping Project Risk Register and Issues Log updated, ensuring that project risks are identified, communicated, mitigated, and closed.
• Conducting project status review meetings with all Project managers.
• Resource management (onboarding, contract management).
• Overseeing contracts and ensuring vendors meet their cybersecurity obligations.

• Providing project administrative support to Digital Program /Project Managers.
• Reviewing and submitting Project Monthly Status Report.
• Ensuring Optus Project management framework, governance and processes were adapted by Project Managers and Project team.
• Supporting maintaining Project schedule, Onboarding new resources to Projects.

• Conducting project status review meetings with all Project managers.
• Managing Infrastructure projects and implementation of new technologies across the business.
• Ensuring project’s objectives and requirements are clear and agreed upon by all team members.
• Ensuring that risks and issues are identified, communicated, and mitigated.

• Preparing all project documentation including issue register, change requests, closing reports, and status reports.
• Assisting the Project Manager to develop project plans, goals, and budgets: identify resources needed, develop schedules and measure results in MS Project Office
• Providing support to the Project Manager and manage all phases of the project to ensure on-time completion with budgetary requirements.
• Communicating with customers: keeping them informed of progress, notifying them of impending changes or agreed outages, etc.
• Ensuring that risks are identified, communicated, and mitigated and that projects are delivered successfully through to production.
• Escalating project issues that cannot be completed within agreed service levels.

• Coordination of all aspects of project, interacting with warehouse, account managers, products managers and programme managers.
• Allocation, scheduling and invoicing of technical resources in an IT Service Delivery environment.
• Following up all phases of project and making sure activities were according to schedule.
• Communicating with 3rd party suppliers.
• Assessing and evaluating risks and understand the implications of the financial requirements of IS Projects.
• Liaising with internal and external customers and stakeholders to determine appropriate solutions.
• Managing time in a manner to ensure all tasks are completed within specified time frames to meet role utilization target set as part of a work plan.
• Creating technical documentation and project plan for Project managers and engineers.

• Technical Team lead for network infrastructure project (Schools ICT Progression Strategy: SIPS) for Department of Education in Victoria. Team lead support engineer for HP Desktop/Server/Printer refresh project for Department of Justice. Also updated documentation for procedures and configurations during project work. Maintained constant communication with project team manager to report progress, identify issues, and allocate resources.
• Responsible for routine visits to customers, checking through event logs, monitor DNS and DHCP services, maintained updates and patches, installed and decommissioned systems, and supported desktop/network hardware and peripherals.

• Responsible for basic network administration and site visits for SMB clients to ensure their network was maintained.
• Checked through event logs, monitor DNS and DHCP services, cleaned up viruses/spyware, maintained updates and patches, installed, and decommission systems, and supported the desktop/network hardware and peripherals.
• Monitored backups and changed tape media.
• Resolved end user’s issues via remote connection, email, telephone, and desk side assistance.

• Responsible for ensuring customers with HP/IBM desktop and server hardware failures were back up and running with minimal downtime.
• Supporting users for deployment project of new HP/Acer desktop PCs for Department of Justice.

• Preparation of monthly reports for Fujitsu and Toshiba warranty jobs.
• Development of systems and procedures on handling administrative activities efficiently, including customer service, processing orders, stock control levels and relationship with vendors.