Client Achievements

• Successfully managed the enterprise-wide program for rolling out IBM® Rational® best practices for software development throughout the entire organization (including both the Information Systems and Business Optimization divisions of MTN)

• Appointed, guided and mentored more subject matter experts for each of the IBM® Rational® best practices for software development which were deployed – mentoring these SME’s on the people, process and technology aspects of all the respective best practices which had to be deployed

• Continuously measured and improved the organization in terms of maturity and capability growth on each of the IBM® Rational® best practices for software development. Done across 18 deployment areas / teams over a period of 16 months

• Coached and mentored project managers in the organization to plan and control their respective application development projects, compliant with agile practices and IBM® Rational® best practices for software development

• Performed IBM® Rational® toolsmithing – mentoring and guiding the appointed IBM® Rational® tools technicians and configuring and setting up IBM® Rational® tools to support all of the client’s projects environments

• As EPMO Director, headed up and guided the definition of the ISPO (Information Systems Projects Office) methodologies, standards and guidelines

• Successfully managed a J2EE software development project and at the same time establishing a software development process for the systems integration division responsible for all middleware software development on the project, based on the IBM® RUP® (this work also included JAD facilitation, and would later form the basis for an enterprise-wide programme, rolling out IBM® Rational® best practices for software development throughout the entire organization)

• Ensured that, through quantitative measurement, valuable project experience was harvested and fed back into the software development process for 3 different teams on the project, amongst them a team of external vendors

• Assisted other project managers from the business side in planning and controlling their respective projects, based on some of the IBM® RUP® principles with a “business focus”

• Successfully recovered a highly troubled project (MTNActive) by assessing pain points and subsequently applying best practices for software development and project, program and portfolio management. The recovery of this project had been so successful within 2 months that it led to a request from Mobile Telephone Networks to deploy the same best practices for software development and project, program and portfolio management across the entire IT enterprise (four portfolios comprised of almost twenty application teams). This request resulted in new business which André successfully directed as a multi-stream program across 4 portfolios with a total workforce of 500 people and it was successfully executed over an 18-month period with multiple vendors across geographies.

• Successfully internalized principles and concepts in the EPMO in order to institutionalize all 18 CMMi® process areas required for CMMi® Level 3 compliance. André led the institutionalization of all those process areas, but he’d also been actively involved in and directly responsible for defining the details behind some of those for Mobile Telephone Networks, namely Project Planning, Project Monitoring and Control, Integrated Project Management, Risk Management, Decision Analysis and Resolution, Supplier Agreement Management, Configuration Management, Requirements Management, Requirements Development and Process and Product Quality Assurance. The institutionalization of these process areas was done across multiple work streams and led to an estimated project delivery capability increase of 25% in terms of delivered scope, cost savings, increased quality and reduced time-to-market.

• Successfully designed, built and applied complex process institutionalization trackers in order to track and manage the institutionalization of the above mentioned process areas / disciplines on all programs and projects in the EPMO. These institutionalization trackers were first of its sort and were all presented at various international conferences where André appeared as a guest speaker on the subject matter of identifying, adopting and embedding best practices for software development and project, program and portfolio management in EPMO’s or PMO’s.

• Successfully provided 1-on-1 coaching and mentoring to the portfolio, program and project managers in the EPMO whilst institutionalizing all of the above mentioned processes / disciplines.

• Successfully designed and compiled training material of a very high standard and provided training and on-the-job mentoring / coaching to all of the portfolio, program and project managers in the EPMO, covering best practice principles for portfolio, program and project management from PMBOK, CMMi®, Agile and IBM® Rational Unified Process®.

• Successfully compiled and embedded the following organizational level plans in the EPMO: Organizational Level Risk Management Plan, Organizational Level Requirements Management Plan, Organizational Level Configuration Management Plan and Organizational Level Communications Management Plan.

• Successfully compiled and embedded the following in the EPMO:

1. Organizational Level Estimation Processes.

2. Organizational Level Project Management System Summary (EPMO Charter).

• Successfully compiled and embedded the templates for all the required program and project management work products in the EPMO, spanning Mobile Telephone Networks’ Information Systems Division employing approximately 500 people and delivering in excess of 100 projects per annum.

• Successfully defined and applied a custom-developed PIP (Program/Project Initiation Process), which resulted in an ability to set up projects and programs for success at an increased tempo (of approximately 50 %+) – introduced this mainly to bridge the gap which existed between Mobile Telephone Networks’ Business and IT divisions.

• Successfully defined and applied a "Work product examples identification and submission" process, which resulted in the promotion and reuse of work products / artefacts in the EPMO.

• Successfully built and deployed a framework for SLA (Service Level Agreement) reporting and collected, processed and provided service management data for monthly SLA reports.

• Successfully architected and promoted the use of a standard project management lifecycle process in the EPMO. Those lifecycle process incorporated aspects from PMBOK, CMMi®, Agile Manifesto, Scrum, IBM® Rational Unified Process® and IBM® Technical Review Board (TRB) Process, and resulted in a far higher success rate of program and project delivery.

• Successfully embedded the use of Organizational Level Project Schedule Templates on all projects in the EPMO, which incorporated best practice concepts from PMBOK, IBM® Rational Unified Process® (Iterative / Incremental) and Agile Software Delivery (Agile Manifesto and Disciplined Agile Delivery).

• Successfully designed and deployed customized Earned-Value-Analysis and Management utilities, tools, methods and processes.

 

 

Referrals

“As IBM Process Consultant, I worked with Andre on a CMMI-based process improvement project at a large telecommunications company from 2008 to 2012. Andre led and managed the entire project to customer sign-off. He is a skilled and effective project manager, but also has a deep and thorough understanding of all aspects of application development from requirements to implementation, and associated methodologies. His passion is for process improvement; harnessing people, process and technology to that end. But above all, Andre is not a theorist, he is practical and gets things done!”

 

“Andre can from the outset be described as a professional and expert in the way he conducts his work and his person. Andre is a problem solver with exceptional insight and depth of knowledge when faced with problems. He is always open for discussion and on numerous occasions I turned to him for assistance and advice. Andre's analytical skills made him an essential member of the team. In the high pressure and dynamic environment we worked in, his level headed approach to challenges, was always an asset to the team. Andre is passionate about his job and do not shy away from ownership or responsibility. It was a privilege to know and have worked with Andre.”

 

“Andre is a seasoned, result oriented professional. He has extensive knowledge in development methodologies. He is an excellent role model and mentor. Through Andre's direct involvement, the productivity and quality of my organization's deliverables increased. Andre is an asset to any organization. I highly recommend Andre for a Project Management or PMO role.”

 

“Andre is a focused and detailed individual with a wealth of experience in project management and IT governance. In my dealings with Andre, he is very disciplined in driving deliverables and keeping all stakeholders accountable. Driving quality is his passion and he has always delivered on time. He championed the delivery of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) at MTN and his knowledge of the Rational toolset enabled him to position the tools capability into an agile methodology approach. There was never a task that was too big or too difficult. I would highly recommend Andre as a seasoned project manager that will deliver to stakeholder's expectations.”

 

“Andre is an extremely versatile project manager who's developed a large knowledge base and extensive skills over the years. Andre is well structured and deals well with management and project resources. He has a good ability to encourage and get quality delivery on tasks. Andre is an asset to any company he works for with his experience and skill to plan and manages delivery and financials to completion with quality.”

 

“André has supported me with several process transformation aspects with the objective of "delivering excellence" … ranging from providing Project Management subject matter expertise, SDLC subject matter expertise, process & methodology definition and tailoring, tools implementation & support, quality assurance, coaching & training (and this is to name just a few). His contribution to us meeting our objectives and the objectives of our client are undoubted. André is an extremely knowledgeable, focused individual. He is results orientated and has proved his delivery capabilities in extremely dynamic and challenging environments without compromising the quality of his work. His deep knowledge and experience gives him the ability to command the respect of his teams … he sets extremely high standards and leads by example. I have witnessed a great sense of integrity in his engagements and this contributes to him being a great trusted advisor.”

 

“Andre is a dedicated professional who sets high standards and upholds them in delivering the best outcome possible.”

 

“Andre has the following qualities and skills, making him a definite asset to any organization: He is one of the few people I have met who I truly regard as a Professional Project Manager. The combination of his knowledge on PMO principles and methodologies (and especially the institutionalization thereof) is exceptional and unparalleled. On top of his knowledge, he also boasts exceptional practical skills (as end user as well as administrator) on various PMO and configuration management tools, with an extremely exceptional ability to implement the methodologies of the PMO into the toolsets. I can without doubt recommend Andre for any Professional P3 Services role."

 

“Andre is an exceptional manager and a pleasure to work with. He has the right attitude to get the job done no-matter how complex the task. I highly recommend Andre and look forward to working with him in the future.”

 

“I worked with Andre at MTN where Andre was responsible for the middleware component of the project that I was delivering. I found Andre to be a pragmatic and hard working project manager who was always focused on achieving the project's goals. The project needed to accommodate frequent changes - Andre was able apply the RUP in an agile way to implement those changes cost effectively and efficiently. As the middleware team PM, Andre also needed to play a mediation role between the front end and back end development teams - Andre performed admirably! On top of his excellent project management skills, Andre was also able to understand and communicate the most intricate technical details in such a way that the audience was able to act in the manner needed to resolve the issue. I enjoyed Andre and would recommend him to any position that is similar to the role described, without hesitation.”

 

“André and I met when he was project managing the RUP implementation at MTN. He was also part of my internal RUP for MTN user group. André is a true advocate of RUP and Rational and passionate about helping team members understand and use the processes and tools. He is a persistent project manager, determined to achieve results, ensuring commitment is given and met at all levels - a critical success factor in process implementation. He is not afraid to confront issues. André presented at our ACOSM conference in Melbourne in 2010 on a real-world topic with actual results.”