Project Manager

Overview

This a long term contract opportunity with the State of PA. You must be in the Harrisburg PA area.


This project manager position will assist in the planning and management of IT projects associated with PDA's Bureau of Protective Services (BPS) federally funded grants being used to modernize its operations, improve data capture and analysis and enhance monitoring of the services provided throughout the commonwealth. This position plays a critical role in ensuring that the IT-related deliverables associated with these grants meet the program use cases and are administered in accordance with contract terms, reporting requirements are met, and all deliverables are completed in accordance with the terms of the grant(s). Four grants are currently assigned to this area, with a fifth grant awaiting award.


OBJECTIVES OF ENGAGEMENT:
The primary objective of this engagement is for the selected candidate to serve as a PM focused on performing the below activities:
• Serve as project manager and coordinate efforts of BPS and QA teams within PDA and OA/OIT, as required, to coordinate and implement the grant deliverables according to established project plan.
• Review existing project documentation to understand the scope and uses cases for the project.
• Ensure ongoing and appropriate documentation of workflows and guidance to ensure successful deployment.
• Develop relationships and understanding of the different functional teams within PDA, the BPS program and business area(s), and the OA/IT enterprise areas (if necessary).
• Coordinate and lead routine meetings necessary to complete the project and identify issues and/or risks that can compromise timely completion of the project.
• Conduct a risk assessment on the project
• Develop project schedules with milestones and tasks to ensure ongoing progress and that the project is successfully completed.
• Document any workflow processes and key decision points that are made and share with leadership and appropriate team members to ensure follow-up action steps are taken.
• Develop relationships with business teams and functional teams.
• Identify and document appropriate resources to form an effective project governance structure.
• Assist with deployment efforts to end users of the system and support coordination of remediation efforts of any technical issues identified by end users.
• Provide presentations on status of the project to PDA and stakeholders to ensure alignment of efforts needed for successful transition.
OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
The selected contractor must be familiar with the five (5) phases along with inputs/outputs identified by the Project Management Institute (PMI) that combine to turn a project idea into a working product. The PM will need to rely on their proven experience leading projects to a successful implementation, and their judgment, to plan and accomplish goals. Strong interpersonal skills are required when consulting with the program area and various IT teams to define requirements and to analyze and resolve problems, ensuring collaboration and agreement with recommended solutions. The role description is outlined below:
• Direct, administer, manage, and facilitate an enhancement, business process reengineering or development of a high priority, high profile, and commonwealth enterprise - wide information technology project of strategic importance.
• Manage, coordinate, and establish priorities for complete life cycle of projects including the planning, design, programming, testing, and implementation of business solutions designed to meet requirements of PDA.
• Responsible for the development of estimates for the enhancement, business process re-engineering or development effort in planning, analysis, design, construction, testing, and implementation, if applicable.
• Works with team leads to adjust and revise project estimates when necessary.
• Ensure new project estimates are approved by the client and agreed upon.
• Develop a detailed Project Management Plan for the enhancement, business process re-engineering or development effort.
• Accountable for the approval and sign-off of the Project Management Plan with customer representatives, and all affected project stakeholders.
• Accountable for delivery of all work tasks identified in the Project Management Plan and Project Schedule.
• Design project plans, which identify needs and define major tasks and milestones, based on scope, resources, budget, and personnel.
• Ensure that tasks provide value and support the strategic direction of the project and meet service commitments.
• Manage, and track the project progress against the project schedule.
• Monitor project milestones and phases and take corrective action as needed to ensure the project is on schedule.
• Monitor and track the project budget and advise necessary stakeholders.
• Plan, organize, prioritize, and manage multiple work efforts across the project team.
• Notify team members of project timelines, milestones, phases, work requests, target dates, and approved executable work packages.
• Responsible to schedule or monitor status reviews, project management inspections, and software quality assurance work product and process reviews with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Responsible for the capture and reporting of required project management metrics.
• Analyze and distribute reports on project metrics associated with work items related to improvement measures.
• Ensure all changes to scope follow processes outlined in the Change Management Plan and are documented.
• Create, review, and obtain approval of the Communication Plan and Deliverables Matrix to ensure effective communication with all stakeholders and management.
• Prepare status reports on a periodic basis for the project team, team leads, group leads, Sponsor, and appropriate stakeholders.
• Report status and recommendations to senior leadership as needed.
• Follow HHS DC IT PMO methodology to ensure consistency throughout the various IT and program areas by reviewing the project standards and procedures with project team members.
• Provide input and support for continual improvement within PDA to better service the supported program areas.
• Work closely with HHS DC IT Application, Data Warehouse, Informatics, Solution Management, Networking, Security and Service Management teams, as required, identifying tasks for the project schedule to support the implementation.
• Facilitate discussions between IT areas and vendors with focus on solution(s) to ensure the needs/requirements of the program area are achieved.
• Anticipate issues and proactively address them. Identify and manage project risks and issues, through the use of a RAID+ Log. Develop risk mitigation strategies tracking to closure and engage management in a proactive manner.
• Identify and track issues in the RAID+ Log.
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders and customer representatives.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for all project-related issues and the resolution of issues.
• Communicate effectively with customers and software / hardware suppliers supporting the commonwealth as appropriate.
• Communicate to team members how their work assignments relate to and help achieve project objectives.
• Accountable for the final project management evaluation review with stakeholders. Manage and track the project status against the project schedule.
• Following the HHS DC Daptiv guidelines, provide weekly project updates.
• Coordinate system testing with appropriate staff resources.
• Deliver presentations, as necessary.
• Ensure project compliance with HHS DC standards and procedures.
• Develop and facilitate the achievement of project service commitments.
• Ensure that tasks provide value and support the strategic direction of the project.
• Balance workload with project members' capacity. Engaging management in a proactive manner.
• Plan, coordinate, and conduct training and orientation sessions.
• Accountable for peer reviews with the appropriate project team resources.
• Coordinate and present proposals, as necessary.
• Identify and manage project risk, and develop risk mitigation strategies, and track to closure.
• Plan project specific training and orientation needs.
• Complete weekly timesheet reporting in PeopleFluent/VectorVMS by COB Friday.
• Provide weekly personal status reporting by COB Friday submitted on SharePoint.
• Set-up a project SharePoint site and utilize Microsoft Teams for key documentation.

Qualifications

CONTRACTOR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:
• Seven (7) to nine (9) years of relevant experience directly managing technical initiatives with a large complement of project team members throughout the various IT areas, technical complexity, and vendor involvement.
• This position requires a high degree of skills ... budgeting, communication (verbal and written), leadership, negotiation and influencing, organizational, problem-solving, teambuilding, human resource, and soft interpersonal skills.
• The ability for the contractor to ramp up quickly and perform independently is essential.
• Project management professional (PMP) certification through the PMI is preferred.
• A four (4) year college degree or equivalent technical study is preferred.
• Familiarity with programs and issues relative to health and human services is preferred.