Position: Junior / Programme Advisor / Senior Programme Advisor

POSITION DESCRIPTION Position: Junior / Programme Advisor / Senior Programme Advisor Location: National Office Business Unit: People Capability and Resources Group: Information Technology Reporting to: Practice Leader Programme Management Issue Date: September 2013 Delegated Authority: Nil Staff Responsibility: Nil

The Ministry of Social Development The work of the Ministry of Social Development affects the lives of all New Zealanders.

Our social development leadership underpins everything we do. Through our policy, research and evaluation functions, the Ministry leads strategic policy development and research across the social sector, and has lead responsibility for social policy advice and research on individuals, children and young people, families and communities.

The Ministry delivers services to more than one-third of all New Zealanders from approximately 220 sites around New Zealand. We provide income support and employment assistance; help people access education or training, superannuation and affordable healthcare; lead and fund community-based services that support families; provide care and protection services for at-risk children, young people and families; and provide adoption services.

We provide an environment where diversity is welcomed and valued.

Our Vision An inclusive New Zealand where all people are able to participate in the social and economic life of their communities.

Our Purpose We Help New Zealanders to help themselves to be Safe, Strong and Independent

Our Principles MSD People: Take Responsibility for what we do | Navigate through ambiguity and the opportunity it brings to create better ways of doing things | All own what we all do | Understand our role in the big picture | Act with integrity, courage and transparency | Celebrate our achievements and those of our clients

Above all, we do the right thing for New Zealanders.

Position Description Approved By:

______Deputy Chief Executive, People Capability and Resources Date: ……/……/…… Group MSD uses a variety of channels to provide services to the public, including physical sites, contact centres, and services using the Internet. MSD staff use a large number of IT applications; many are business critical systems.

The IT Unit’s contribution is through:  Leadership in the development and delivery of business application solutions  The provision of robust and reliable systems to support the business and external clients  Total focus on serving internal customers

Business Unit: The IT Performance and Risk team provides a framework for measuring and improving IT performance and ensures active risk management is conducted. The team has the following responsibilities: programme /project practice leadership and management; workload portfolio reporting; IT Risk Management including Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery co- ordination; IT Information Security; IT Services Management; IT Audit Liaison; and IT Process Improvement.

MSD IT makes extensive use of Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) tools and acts as system owner.

Purpose of the Position: The purpose of this role is to support the efficient and effective management and delivery of IT projects and programmes. It also assists with providing visibility on the IT portfolio of work via monthly reporting to a range of governance boards.

This position ensures that programme/project approvals and governance requirements are met. It thereby enables programme/project managers to focus on the critical success factors of programme/project delivery.

The Programme Advisor utilises excellent writing, negotiation and facilitation skills to assist with the timely production of critical documents such as concept papers, business cases, risk registers, project closure reports and lessons learned reviews. The programme advisor ensures that all formal project governance documentation is completed to a high standard and approved in a timely manner.

The programme advisor may be dedicated to a specific programme for a period of time. Duties may include: management of risks and issues; financial forecasting, EPM set up and management, advising the project/programme manager on governance, and BSG secretariat.

The Programme Advisor ensures that all work within their portfolio is set up in EPM correctly, ensures ongoing maintenance of project data within the tools and promotes best practice use of the EPM tool.

The position ensures compliance with the mandatory requirements of programme and project execution as documented in the IT Work Management Process, PPG governance arrangements, finance, IT and HR policies and any external agency requirements (eg SSC and/or Treasury).

The Programme Advisor ensures that programme/project administration tasks add appropriate value for the time expended and unnecessary administrative overhead is removed from the programme/project life-cycle.

As required the programme advisor will facilitate risk management workshops and lessons learned reviews.

Junior/Programme Advisor/Senior Programme Advisor 2 Working Relationships

Internal:  Manager IT Performance and Risk  Practice Leader Programme Manager  IT Managers  IT Project and Programme Managers and project administrators  Business Programme Managers, Business Analysts and PMO staff  Team Leader, Project Management

External:  Service Providers & Third Party Vendors  Central Agencies staff (as required)

Advisor Levels

The table below outlines the expectations of the different levels of advisor:

Junior Programme  Attend BSGs Advisor  Produce PMO reports  Review project artefacts  Participate in Risk workshops and Lessons Learned Reviews  Are supported in developing PMO skills  Work with one or two projects Programme Advisor  Work independently  Work across a range of projects and programmes  As required work intensively with a single programme  Be an SME in the use of Planview  Facilitate Risk Workshops and Lessons Learned Reviews  Provide advice and guidance to PMs on MSD processes, policies and standards Senior Programme  Deputise for the Practice Lead Advisor  Mentor other advisors  Proactively contribute to the PMO strategy and Vision  Chair the ITCAT  Contribute to PMO process improvement and ITWM development  Provide training for PMs and RMs  Hold professional PM certifications

Junior/Programme Advisor/Senior Programme Advisor 3 Key Accountabilities:

Key Result Area Accountabilities  Provide advice and quality assurance for the key documents required Governance for programme/project approvals and governance

Advisors and Senior Advisors will also:  Assist with document preparation including: o Concept Paper o MSD Business Case o Treasury Better Business Case o Project Guide o Project Execution Plan o Variation Requests o Risk & Issues Registers o Request to Release Funds (RTRF)  Advise and monitor adherence to MSD project standards and provide advice on best practice including use of EPM tools  Ensure that documents and deliverables arising from a project are of Quality the required quality Management Advisors and Senior Advisors will also:  Provide an evaluation of the purpose and target audience of a document so that the correct level of detail is provided  Work with project accountants from the finance department, and Financial programme/project managers to ensure that project costs are tracked Management against budget in a timely fashion

Advisors and Senior Advisors will also:  Assist with the use of EPM for financial tracking (including earned value)  Monitor the quality of data within the EPM tool EPM  Add new requests into the EPM tool

Advisors will also:  Act as a subject matter expert in the use of the EPM tool for project managers Senior Advisors will also:  Provide advice and training in the best use of the EPM tool for scheduling, financial forecasts, reporting and resource planning  Assist the Practice Leader Programme Management with developing, Programme articulating and communicating the practices of programme Practice and management and project management Process  Provide induction training for new project managers, working with the Improvement Team Leader, Project Management  Assist or undertake project health checks  Advise on appropriate methodologies, practices, techniques, and templates for how programmes and projects are managed in the Ministry. These practices must be “fit for purpose” in that they allow the efficient and predictable delivery of IT programmes and projects with active risk management, full transparency, and clear reporting  Work with the process improvement team to tune processes and

Junior/Programme Advisor/Senior Programme Advisor 4 templates  Assist with lessons learned reviews and implementing any actions or recommendations  Assist the Practice Leader Programme Management with reporting to Portfolio governance boards. This includes: Reporting o Significant project status reporting o Portfolio Dashboard o Pipeline o IT Performance Reporting

Advisors and Senior Advisors will also:  Assist with responses to OIAs, media requests, select committee questions, BASS reporting etc.  Respond to questions or requests from the CE, DCE PCaR or CIO offices  Provide administrative support for key elements of programme and Administrative project execution. This includes Steering Group minutes and action Support item follow up (note that the position is not intended to conduct all aspects of programme/project administration. All programme/project team members will share the lower level administrative duties as directed by the Practice Leader, Programme Management)

Advisors will also:  Support the effective running of the IT Concept Advisory Team (ITCAT) by attending meetings, advising on concept paper development, and following through actions from the meeting Senior Advisors will also:  Chair ITCAT and manage the agenda

Junior/Programme Advisor/Senior Programme Advisor 5 Technical/Professional Knowledge and Experience

 Sound working knowledge of programme and project methodologies  Excellent communication skills, both written and oral  Proven record in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships  High level of technical computer knowledge especially in using MS Office products  Knowledge of MSD products and services preferable

Advisors will also have:  A sound working knowledge of programme and project methodologies

Senior Advisors will also:  Possess relevant PM or PMO certifications (Prince II, MsP, P3O, PMI)

Attributes/Success Factors  Excellent communication skills - able to adjust methods (eg facilitation vs confrontational) dependant upon audience’s responses.  Excellent interpersonal skills – able to adjust to meet the needs of an audience  Effective business relationship skills – able to build working relationships with the business  Strong organisational skills - able to multi-task, prioritise and escalate where necessary.  Good relationship management skills – able to establish and maintain effective working relationships  Sound analytical skills - able to analyse data and develop effective solutions

Other Requirements  Willing to travel to fulfil job requirements

Junior/Programme Advisor/Senior Programme Advisor 6