The Chief Project Officer goes far beyond the direct sponsorship of individual projects. They must push their organisation toward adopting a project-driven structure and foster a collaborative and empowering culture that reaches across silos. They must also collaborate with HR to ensure that project-management competencies are developed throughout the organisation.
Shoghik is our lead lady and Chief Project Officer, with an array of awards under her belt, including more than 12 years of experience in Project Management. Shoghik is an inspiring leader at Appello, the energizer and the motivator for all employees, and she would love to talk to anyone looking to turn their ideas into reality.
What are the main responsibilities of your role as Chief Project Officer?
I’m responsible for planning, organising, allocating resources for, budgeting, and successfully executing organisation specific IT goals, ensuring that project scope, plans and timelines, budgets, and project resources are allocated effectively.
What are the most important aspects of company culture?
The most important part of strong company culture is having a senior management team that truly cares about employees and consistently demonstrates that care, because every other aspect of company culture is improved when the senior management team consistently puts people first. A company can have the best strategy in the marketplace. However, if the people in the company don’t work well together to execute that strategy, it is of little value. All other things being equal, strong company culture will create the best conditions for high-level execution and thereby result in better performance. In a company culture where mistrust, anxiety, fear, burnout, and ambiguity are common, high levels of performance are not possible for long. However, in a company culture where people feel safe because trust, cooperation, service, and care are the norm, the synergistic effect of people working together is incredibly powerful.
What is the most essential aspect of managing a variety of projects?
The most important aspect of managing a variety of projects is “delivering business value to the customer.” As a means to realise this aspect, a project manager must foster a project environment that focuses on delivering the identified business value. Project management is the process of applying skills, knowledge, techniques, and tools to meet a project’s requirements. This includes the organising, monitoring, and delivering stages of a project. Project managers take part in a significant role during the project management process as they monitor the activities. Managing different types of projects is important in achieving better results for your organisation. Through the act of planning and organising, businesses are able to focus on what matters. This also helps team members all have the same understanding of what needs to be done. As a result, employees tend to be happier since they feel their work contributes to the company’s overall mission and they know what their expectations are. Other benefits here include higher risk tolerances, improved customer satisfaction, learning by retrospection, and effective resource allocation.
What is your biggest accomplishment?
I was promoted from Senior Project Manager role to Chief Project officer role 2 years ago. I consider this my greatest accomplishment because Appello values hard work and making people happy. I always do my work with a smile and a great attitude. I know our target customers and adapt our services to each customer’s needs. So I love my company and the company values me; it’s the best relationship.
What drives and motivates you?
Meeting deadlines, targets, or goals and as a result, having satisfied clients makes me happy. I also like mentoring and coaching others by being a true friend to each of them. Learning new things continuously also motivated me in my daily job.
What do you think are the biggest challenges organisations are facing regarding developing new technology solutions?
Data Protection and Privacy, The Skills Gap, and Cybersecurity are the biggest challenges companies are facing already.
How do you think companies should decide which technology partner to select?
Choosing the tech partner for your business is a strategic decision that should not be treated lightly. In many cases you are defining a long-term relationship, since changing a technological partner may be more expensive and complex than changing any other type of provider. It is essential to clearly understand your needs to determine the right solution. Check the trajectory, projects, clients, and solutions of the company, as well as its methodology and its team. The Company must prove to have long-term relationships with its clients: the validation of the company experience, professional trajectory, and quality are key factors; to do so, contact some companies that have worked with the supplier to know how their experience was and the final result. It should have abilities and excellence in software development: this will ensure that the final product will be of excellent quality. It must have support teams: groups such as the Quality Assurance Group as a guarantee of quality and excellence in software development. The company should demonstrate solid methodological training: knowledge of different software development methodologies. It should offer support throughout the entire cycle of the solution: from the conception of the solution to its deployment in the production environment and post-development support.
If you would like to have a consultation with any of our team members for a project, get in touch!
