Throughout the programme I had endless opportunities to develop key competencies such as leadership, team working and Communication. I won a leader of the Year Business Excellence Award in 2007, during this year I also won an Overall Community Project of Year Award, for delivering a 3 month renovation project in Scholes, Cleckheaton.
The first project that I undertook within my new role was an asset replacement programme dedicated to renewing the IT infrastructure used to authenticate over 2800 external connections a day.
I assumed the position of Project Manager and Technical Leader on the programme, and became responsible for implementing new servers, a new operating system and a new authentication platform. The role meant that I was responsible for the overall running of the project, including budgets, timelines, communication plans etc., but it also meant that I was responsible for implementing the changes.
I took the project though all of the Project Governance cycles in place within Yorkshire Waters IT department and ultimately, using the technical skills that I had developed on my various placements, designed, procured, configured and installed the entire infrastructure.
I was then responsible, post go live, for support and integration of this system.
The upgrade was never going to be easy, and the impact on the business as a whole was high. I had to understand the overall architecture in place and respond to issues promptly if they occurred. This meant that I needed to fully understand the bigger picture and how the authentication platform interfaced with the existing infrastructure.
Through this exposure I was able to not only deliver the programme but also make suggestions and efficiencies that could reduce any future issues.
Throughout the project I had the support of my team and manager. I was able to develop very strong technical skills within the subject area and further developed my project management skills.
These are real world skills that I can now apply to my role and future career ambitions here at Yorkshire Water.
