1. Julie Swann
24 The Willows, Highworth, Wilts. SN6 7PG
Tel: 07717 293988, email: jools.swann@hotmail.com
Personal Profile
Over 25years experience in Financial Services IT, Business Strategy, Project and
People Management in a fast moving financial organisation, working with all
levels of staff from practitioners through to Senior Executives, to ensure effective
strategic deliveries.
A proven motivator and People Manager who is both supportive and challenging,
with a track record of helping people to achieve their potential.
Extensive experience of delivery across the whole Software Development
Lifecycle, within multi-million pound change programmes, including the
management of cross-geography deliveries involving taking technical teams
overseas.
Extensive experience of leading and implementing business and process change,
including the introduction of new development methodologies and processes.
Working with business stakeholders to understand and manage the implications
of changing working practices.
Accountable for Departmental and Project risk, identifying, expressing,
monitoring and mitigating those risks. Proactive in risk mitigation and able to
strategize to reduce and avoid future risk exposure.
Experienced in defining and monitoring KPIs and implementing Improvement
Plans measurable against those KPIs.
Responsible for departmental budgets, including training and resourcing.
Influential in process change, both from a technical, business and personnel
perspective.
Influential in the transition to working with a partner organization, recognizing
the benefits and coping with the challenges involved with such significant
change. Supporting the transition from a people and process perspective whilst
maintaining change delivery.
Particular strengths include Strategic, People and Project/Delivery Management,
Stakeholder Management, Influencing and Negotiating as well as Succession
Planning, Personal Coaching and Mentoring, with proven skills in Business and
Technical Analysis, Systems Design, Development and Test Support.
I worked for Nationwide Building Society for 28 years before taking voluntary
redundancy, and I have an excellent track record for delivering complex IT and
Business change across multiple high profile financial and fraud applications,
both back office and customer facing, as well as internal HR and other business
systems. My delivery experience covers both on shore and off shore technical
implementations as well as business change projects.
Since taking redundancy I have spent my time supporting my daughter on her
journey to university, extending my house and working with my partner on his
business improvement plan. I have now completed my personal list and am
looking for an opportunity to use my talents back in the workplace.
I look forward to being able to discuss my skills and experience with you in
detail.

2. Key Skills
Project Management Strategic Management
Line Management Performance Management
Budget Management Risk Management
Stakeholder Management Presentation Skills
Negotiating Skills Coaching and Mentoring
Interviewing and Selection Resource Planning and Management
Service Improvement Facilitation Skills
Statement of Work/Contract Negotiation
Technical Background (including database and low-level programming)
Microsoft Office Toolkit including Project and PowerPoint
Waterfall/Agile experience
Project Management and Business Change
Managing IT and Business Change projects, including project meetings and
production of all governance documentation (RAID, Gateway Handovers, RACI
Matrix, Project and Resource Plans, Change Log, Budgetary Spend etc.).
Experienced in all aspects of Project Management, from project kick-off
meetings, through planning and resourcing, budgeting, risk management,
tracking and reporting, to implementation and warranty support, following up
with benefit assessment and lessons learnt, for business and IT change.
Effective at the Project Initiation stage, ensuring that controls are in place from
the outset, to support the high quality of deliverables across the project lifecycle.
Experienced in facilitating Requirements Gathering and Defect Management
meetings and introducing strategies to improve the speed and effectiveness of
defect resolution to protect Project Delivery.
Extensive experience managing multiple Project Deliveries across a range of
financial systems in accordance with Prince II, in particular Fraud, Web Based,
SAP configurtation, HR, Workflow and Customer Relationship systems.
Controlling project change to prevent scope creep and assuring deliveries to time
cost and quality, whilst ensuring adherence to the Software Development
Lifecycle processes and controls.
Experienced in the management of on-shore and off-shore deliveries.
Risk aware and experienced at identifying, assessing, mitigating and explaining
project risks at a technical and non-technical level. Able to balance the needs of
Project Delivery and Live Support, expressing and mitigating the associated risks
effectively.
Leading the transition to Development Centre based delivery for five business
areas.
Introducing new handover documentation to streamline process and improve
control.

3. Leading the first phase of outsourcing transition, including overseas visit to
assess and recommend strategies for delivery of major change.
Organising and facilitation of workshops and Q&A sessions for PMO and
Business stakeholders, to answer questions and gather risks/concerns related to
change, sharing my findings with peers to effect a smoother transition across all
areas of change.
Identifying Key Performance Indicators and Service Improvement Plans, and
working with internal and external stakeholders to deliver measurable results.
Comfortable working with senior stakeholders to understand business needs,
processes and controls, compliance requirements and risks associated with
significant change.
A confident and eloquent communicator, able to work effectively with
Technicians, Business Users and Senior Management, building productive and
lasting relationships and ensuring all parties are communicated with effectively
and appropriately.
Strong negotiating skills, adept at managing multiple workstreams at a cross-
portfolio level. Comfortable bringing together Senior Stakeholders to resolve
resourcing issues and changing priorities in order to achieve the most effective
delivery strategies.
Confident user of Microsoft tools, including Project, PowerPoint, Word and Excel.
Career History: Nationwide Building Society - 1986 to July 2014
Job Role: Systems Development Manager - Jan 2009 to Jul 2014
Main aspects of role:
Defining and implementing departmental and divisional strategy
Management of multiple project workstreams across multiple development
teams, delivering complex change across a large estate of critical financial and
fraud applications.
Full line management responsibility for extended reporting line, including
performance management, 1-1s, departmental calibration, succession planning
and coaching/mentoring.
Supporting the transition to partner development, ensuring effective
collaboration and long term capability.
Defining and sourcing internal and external training courses.
Working across the business, managing expectations for delivery of business
critical change.
Service Delivery assurance, including 24x7 cover.
Management of Service Improvement Plans.
Creation and maintenance of internal, cross practice and partner KPIs and SLAs.
Facilitation of workshops to validate and approve Business and Technical
requirements, including accountability for requirements sign-off.

4. Identification and management of delivery and financial risk.
Identification and management of technical and operational risk.
Achievements:
Leading and implementing departmental improvement initiatives, working with
projects to deliver generic and reusable handover control documents and
standardising the defect management process.
Quality Assurance of Business and Technical artefacts across the Software
Development Lifecycle.
Managing multiple project deliveries to time, cost and quality, including
mitigation and resolution of delivery risk.
Representing Nationwide’s interests at partner sites in India, being instrumental
in taking technical teams overseas to assess partner capability and negotiating
additional deliveries and training.
Building effective relationships across the business and using those relationships
to reduce conflict and improve speed and quality of change delivery.
Introduction of new methods to manage SLAs with overseas partners.
Review and approval of Business and Technical Requirements for complex
financial systems.
Promotion of requirements control methodology, ensuring that requirements
are validated and confirmed early in the project lifecycle, to support timely and
cost efficient delivery and effective testing strategies.
Supportive and effective performance management, helping reports to improve
their performance in a demonstrable way and promoting the use of performance
management tools across the department. This resulted in improved
engagement with the performance management process and higher levels of
capability and achievement within my extended reporting line and across the
department.
Job Role: Development Team Leader - Jun 2002 to Dec 2008
Main aspects of role:
Managing various Development Teams, delivering technical solutions to time,
cost and quality, in accordance with agreed standards, whilst protecting the live
service.
Accountable for business and technical requirements approval and high level
design approval.
Responsible for performance management of direct reports, helping them to
achieve their potential and take advantage of progression opportunities.
Achievements:
Specified, developed and implemented a new process to support layered
development, allowing multiple parallel developments whilst protecting the
integrity of the applications.
Worked with 3rd parties to develop and agree a joint process improvement plan,
combining existing Nationwide initiatives with external experience to create a
best practice framework.
Specified, sourced and implemented a new document management system,
improving and updating the offering to deliver a robust and future-proof system.

5. Defined and sourced tailored training courses to meet the needs of the changing
portfolio and to aid departmental succession planning.
Job role: Database Administrator – Mar 1998 to May 2002
Main aspects of role:
Responsible for all aspects of technical Database Administration and
consultancy, including performance tuning, defining and promoting best
practice, introducing Service Level Agreements across departments and
assessing, sourcing and implementing database management and reporting
tools.
Job role: Application Developer – Jun 1986 to Feb 1998
Main aspects of role:
Design and build of financial systems applications in Assembly Language and
Cobol.
Design and implement new Standing Orders Database system
Education and Training
Prince 2
Managing through Change
Leading High Performance Teams
Customer Focussed Leader
Strategic Thinking
Influencing Skills
Challenging Conversations
Building Personal and Team Resilience
Performance Management
HND Computer Studies with Business (Pass with Merit) – Gloucester College of
Art and Technology (GlosCAT) now know as the University of Gloucester.
3 A Levels, 9 O Levels
Other Relevant Information
Warranted Scout Leader, running a troupe of 30 children, providing a
challenging programme of activities to support learning and growth in a
structured and safe environment.
References available on request