Case study 2

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A bank preparing for a new currency - the Euro, in its branches in Slovakia, started a program, which is intended to prepare all necessary information systems for adoption of this currency with the maintenance of strict rules set by the European Union (the European Central Bank) and by internal directives of the bank. It is a regime of dual display in time before and after the conversion, data conversion with a fixed rate at the end of 2008, communication of information towards the clients and the bank employees, preparation for distribution of new bank notes and coins, and new definitions of terms and conditions for the clients. The program passed the preparatory stage, where the program range was specified, particular projects were defined, identical to particular information systems related to the Euro transformation, and a communication plan was defined together with a general plan of conversion and tests.

The management of the Euro program during the whole operation decided to ask for verification of its progress, ideally by a worker, who was not involved in previous stages, but has experience resulting from other Euro transformations. The worker's assignment was "The Support of the Quality Assurance Management EURO & SEPA" and "Administration and Risk Management".

The objective was to quickly determine the status of the whole program, provide a remedy in the case of deficiencies and maintain the quality level during the program. When I passed the selection procedure and took the role of QA and the risk manager, I focused on several areas:

. analysis of available project/program documentation in terms of real applicability
. definition of formal interface and application of instruments for integrated monitoring of the Euro program
. revision of the communication plan and its update
. improvement of communication between particular projects
. initiation of proper communication between IT, business section and marketing
. improvement of foreknowledge of the employees and the definition of the central storage of Euro knowledge (Euro portal)
. audit of the area of Euro testing (project, coverage of E2E tests, status of HW and SW purchasing, condition of sources)
. intensive participation of the Slovakian workers in preparation of Euro tests This task resulted in the stabilization of the whole Euro program, improvement of planning and overview of finances and sources, based on very good communication within the Euro program, which became immediately evident during the implementation of payments of SEPA standard in March 2008.