Quality Assurance jobs in South Africa

Specialist : Product Owner

Location: Johannesburg

Time Type: Full time

Posted On: 4 Days Ago

Let's Write Africa's Story Together! Old Mutual is a firm believer in the African opportunity and our diverse talent reflects this.

Job Description:

Old Mutual Insure is looking for a Specialist : Product Owner. The role will be based in the Parktown offices and will report to Executive : Strategic Projects and Change.

Job Purpose: Responsible for supervising, managing, or directing a project by applying industry experience and specialised knowledge. Define business requirements and prioritise deliverables to streamline the execution of program priorities.

1. Work with solutions analysts and engineers to ensure business needs are fully catered for in solutions being designed.
2. Represent business in strategic project teams.
3. Have sufficient knowledge of the business to make quick decisions in project teams and be able to prioritise the development work being requested of IT.
4. Develop a deep understanding of the processes, product features and systems in the areas of the business that allocated projects relate to.
5. Manage the prioritisation of requirements within a wider project.
6. Ensure proper consultation and communication with business around priorities.
7. Develop business specifications for features and defects.
8. Translate these requirements into stories that developers can execute on.
9. Provide any clarifications on requirements necessary to assist the team in their delivery.
10. Identify and facilitate the elimination of any bottlenecks or areas of concern within projects to ensure the execution of the strategy.
11. Feedback to business on project status throughout the lifetime of the project.
12. Quantify and report on the benefits of the delivered solution.
13. Coordinate dependencies with other POs to prioritise effectively and plot an achievable roadmap.
14. Demonstrate a passionate, innovative, and forward-thinking mindset which takes the organisation forward.
15. Advocate and enabler for business agility.

1. Bachelor's degree in Business, Commerce or Information Systems.
2. 2-5 years financial services experience.
3. Short term insurance advantageous.
4. Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Visio Etc.
5. Familiarity and experience in Agile / Scrum / Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
6. Certification in Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Product Management, Agile, Scrum, SAFe, Design thinking and Business Analysis or JIRA and Azure DevOps advantageous.
7. Good Stakeholder Management skills.
8. Good written and verbal communication skills and are comfortable presenting work to executives including large groups.
9. Attention to detail and problem-solving skills.
10. Accountable for one or more medium-sized projects of moderate complexity with a medium-sized team.

1. Project Planning: Produce workstream or project plans, ensuring that all activities are identified, are appropriately organized to deliver project objectives, and comply with the organization's project management framework.
2. Project Scope Definition: Manage the delivery of research, workshops, and other activities to support the specification and agreement of project deliverables.
3. Stakeholder Management: Plan and deliver stakeholder engagement activities to develop effective working relationships for projects and to ensure that stakeholder needs and concerns are identified and met.
4. Requirements Management: Coordinate the identification and elicitation of requirements; conduct analysis of those requirements for completion and alignment; document and manage requirements throughout the life of the project; and coordinate the verification of the end deliverable.
5. Project Risk and Issue Management: Identify and evaluate risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints associated with the project, escalating matters where appropriate.
6. Project Reporting and Review: Draft project review reports and presentations, including key information, commentary, and recommendations, to support the review process and enable stakeholders to evaluate progress and agree on change.
7. Project Team Management: Lead a small project team; communicate the necessary outcomes and the direction required to achieve them; coordinate team actions on project tasks; request additional team member support when needed; and identify areas of improvement to build the capability of the team through training, coaching, and mentoring.
8. Continuous Improvement: Contribute to reviewing existing operations in own area of work, and generate new ideas to assist in identifying continuous improvements.
9. Project Resource Management: Manage the deployment of project resources, proactively managing project costs, providing forecasts, and presenting variances with narrative at appropriate review points to ensure effective utilization.
10. Work Scheduling and Allocation: Assign short-term work schedules to a team of subordinates in order to achieve expectations while following established timelines.
11. Document Preparation: Prepare moderately complex documents using a variety of applications for technology devices, such as standard office software.
12. Project Closeout and Handover: Draft elements of product documentation and user training to support handover to business as usual.
13. Project Assurance: Conduct assurance reviews within the project, facilitate the delivery of assurance reviews by independent third parties, and take appropriate action to resolve any issues identified.
14. Personal Capability Building: Develop own capabilities by participating in assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching.

Agile Project Management, Change Management, Prioritization, Project Budget Management, Project Communications Management, Project Estimations, Project Management Governance, Project Organization, Project Quality Assurance, Project Quality Management, Project Reporting, Project Scope Management, Requirements Management

Action Oriented, Balances Stakeholders, Communicates Effectively, Cultivates Innovation, Customer Focus, Decision Quality, Directs Work, Drives Results

NQF Level 7 - Degree, Advance Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate or equivalent

Closing Date: 17 April , 23 : 59

The appointment will be made from the designated group in line with the Employment Equity Plan of Old Mutual South Africa and the specific business unit in question.

About Us: Old Mutual is a premium African financial services organisation that offers a broad spectrum of financial solutions to retail and corporate customers across key market segments in 14 countries.

The lines of business include Life and Savings, Property and Casualty, Asset Management and Banking and Lending.

We are rooted in our purpose of Championing Mutually Positive Futures Every Day and believe that a great customer experience is anchored in a great employee experience.