TOM – ‘Towards One Methodology’ at Westpac
After an extensive evaluation, in late 2005, Westpac purchased a new methodology and project and systems development tools to use as an integrated platform for all projects, both business and IT, for deployment across Australia, New Zealand and BT Financial Services.
Many areas within Westpac either had no tools or where there were tools there was no standardisation across the organisation. Another problem was that some of the tools did not share information with others. There was also no consistency around an overall process or methodology.
The methodology that was chosen was Australian-developed Process MeNtOR from Object Consulting. Tools for requirements gathering and documentation, system design, version control, configuration management and code change management were purchased from Telelogic. Testing tools were purchased from Mercury.
As overall Project Manager and Deployment Manager, Julian will highlight and discuss many of the challenges that have arisen during Project TOM:
- how all of the products, including Process MeNtOR have been integrated
- how TOM is being rolled out across the Bank – up to 3,000 people to be trained
- design and development of Practices to build internal support, skills, coaching and mentoring
- Maintaining consistency and quality in a diverse work environment
- an insight into the benefits that are sought and already being achieved
Julian Day
Julian has worked in the IT industry for over 27 years and has considerable experience in Project Management, having managed in excess of 100 projects across many industries including Banking, Finance, Manufacturing, Retail, Distribution, and Industry Development.
Julian has consulted to many large private and public organisations in areas of strategic planning, software design, software development, development standards and technology evaluation. This has included group facilitation, implementation of ISO standards, project management, quality assurance and software metrics.
He is currently at Westpac managing the overall deployment of a new methodology and productivity tools for both Business and IT projects in Australia, New Zealand and also within BT Financial Services. With 10 different internal streams he was also responsible for day-to-day liaison with the three external vendors to ensure integration and delivery of all components.
Julian is also Managing Director of Consensus, a company that specialises in the management of Awards and Recognition programs – www.consensus.com.au. The Consensus Software Awards are now in their 7th year and identify the most innovative solutions designed and developed in Australia and New Zealand.
Julian is a previous Chairman of the NSW Branch of the Australian Computer Society and has been actively involved running a vast range of IT related events. He was founder and President of the Australian Information Technology Society and organised and chaired many National and State events on all aspects of IT. He has presented papers at conferences in the UK, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. He has also chaired several CIO Conferences.
In 1995/6, Julian was editor of the IT magazine 'SoftWare' which covered a broad spectrum of articles on products, services, issues and future directions of the software industry. He has written many published articles for a variety of IT and business publications.
Julian also recently launched www.freelance-market.com in Australia, a meeting place for freelancers to find their next contract.
