Malibongwe Mkela

Thought Leadership and Oversight

• Facilitated the formation of a bank-specific hybrid Project Management Methodology which incorporates waterfall principles from PMBOK, PRINCE II and well as agile methodologies such asn SAFE and DAD.
• Successfully unified over 20 PMOs into a cohesive and efficient project management framework across the bank.
• Function as an SME by designing processes and facilitate workshops aimed at streamlining operational interfaces among IT, Business, and PMO, resolving cross-departmental challenges and foster seamless cooperation.
• Fostered cross-segment collaborations be forming various leadership forums and leverage existing ones.

Formation and Rollout of an Optimized MIS and Data Strategy

• Overhauled Jira to seamlessly harmonize Business and IT PMOs, while enhancing enterprise-wide adoption deliver significant business value.
• Developed a robust PowerBI reporting framework utilizing data ETL processes.
• Led the development of various project management SaaS products (End to End Timesheet Tool, Governance Tailoring, POPIA, etc) on the Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps)

Enterprise Reporting Ownership

• Designated as the capability lead for project management reporting within the FirstRand Enterprise, covering FNB, RMB, Wesbank, Ashburton, and DirectAxis.
• Responsible for proving strategic direction and guidance to the FirstRand enterprise on Reporting and Data capability and incorporation into the platform design, the groups future operating model

Project onboarding Capability Ownership

• Responsible for streamlining the onboarding processes to increase speed in project uptake and improve resource allocation efficiency.
• Managed Business-PMO interfaces to ensure smoother transitions for both business and PMOs

My primary function was to build a fit-for-purpose PMO designed to cater to the distinct needs of various business areas within the Points of Presence. I established a hybrid (waterfall/agile) methodology that aligns seamlessly with the FirstRand Project Framework, and I put in place a robust governance framework to ensure that projects zero to insignificant audit findings.

Key Achievement:

• I led the successful implementation of the hybrid framework, which significantly enhanced the PPPM maturity from Level 1 to Level 3 within my second year, confirmed by independent assessment results.

Product Owner and Manager (Jira, CAPPM, EPM, SharePoint)

• Strategic Direction: Set the vision and strategic direction for product development ofAtlassian Jira, CA PPM, Microsoft EPM, and SharePoint.
• Responsible for feature development and roadmap rollout, which includes business onboarding and training
  
  

• Responsible for structuring and planning programme components into relevant projects and respective value items. Assist business managers leverage technology to address their respective challenges

• PPM Methodology development, PPM maturity assessment, Junior PM mentoring, EPM 2013 training and support, project governance standard, project audits & health checks

• Identify improvement needs to methodologies, processes, tools, templates, guidelines and governance
• Provide front-end and back-end support for Excel Tools, InfoPath, SharePoint, MSP, EPM, PMT & AAT
• Produce various reports (Exco, trend analysis, adhoc, etc)

• Project management and coordination, managing enhancement and small to medium budget projects
• Project governance coaching and mentoring for business resources

• Project management and coordination, managing enhancement and medium to large budget projects
• Project governance coaching and mentoring for business resources and junior PMs

• Project management and coordination, managing enhancement and medium to large budget projects
• Project governance coaching and mentoring for business resources and junior PMs

• From tertiary, trained in various aspects of engineering within the ICT industry