10 Things I learned from my company’s GDPR programme.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that my role within my current company is a specialist role that deals exclusively with Data Subject Rights which lead to my primary function in regards to my company’s GDPR programme was to provide support from an operational perspective.
I wont get too specific into the who, what, where, when and whys about how we tackled what is probably the biggest regulatory change to subject rights in the last 20 years. However, for clarity and perspective, I will mention that the company I work for provides “Business Process Outsourcing and Operational Transformation” to clients within the financial services sector of the UK market covering lending, investments and savings.
1. Scope
During my time(thus far) on this project I’ve had to deal with significant changes to the overall scope of the project as a whole but more specifically, my personal scope, in terms of how to prioritise my responsibilities that are required for a successful delivery. It’s easy to get lost when there is a big change to a solution or if a significant risk is blocking the completion of another task. Knowing what needs to be done and what doesn’t will prove to be critical when it comes to keeping yourself on track.
2. Language
My background in project management, business analysis and solution architecture was little to none. I arrived into this project during the later stage of it’s delivery and as you can imagine I was immediately immersed into a world packed with project managers, business analysts and stakeholders all too quickly. I felt like getting up-to speed with the terms, methods and practices that these colleagues communicated was the key to my success in providing support for the overall business.
3. Communication
To build on my previous point, speaking with business analysts is not the same as speaking to stakeholders. Same goes for project managers, operational staff, software developers, test leads, the list goes on and on. It’s important to make sure that you’re all able to communicate your point without the jargon. When assigned a task such as analysing a risk, providing a solution or deploying new software, you have to be able to communicate your thoughts in a way that your audience is on the same page. I found that there is no shoe that fits all in this situation. When dealing with technical staff, I made a point to provide in-depth, precise information that would assist them in troubleshooting or aid in development. The same goes with stakeholders and operational staff, not everyone is a techie, so if you can’t explain the impact, feature or strategy clearly then you might need to dwell on it a bit longer until you fully understand.
4. Visualise
There were occasions on this project that I can confidently say “I wasn’t expecting that”. When a roadmap is set and finalised I think it’s important to get sight of what everyone thinks the goal posts look like. I found success in physically drawing out my perspective for others, be it on a notepad, a whiteboard or even just a handful of sticky notes. This practice might sound old fashioned or daft but in the age of rapid prototyping it was easy for me to make amendments and see improvements when everybody in the room can see the path in the same way I see it.
5. Value
Every task I picked up so far during this project can clear positive value. What I mean by this is that, I learned very early on that no matter how small the task, if it provided positive benefits to the project then it was worth picking up. I think it was important for my to understand what was the overall benefit of the project delivery and from there pick up anything that contributed to achieving that goal overall.
6. Risk
It goes without saying but every project should have it’s own strategy around how it manages risks ideally with a plan on how to do this effectively. I think this has got to be one of the highest priorities for everybody involved in a project not just the project managers. I found that having the ability to identify, assess and mitigate risks prevented so many headaches not just for myself but for everybody involved. I caused me to think creatively and truly tested me on my knowledge of the relevant subject area.
7. Showstoppers
Showstoppers are problems that will prevent your project from achieving its objectives.
Straight off the back of risk, it’s important to deal with every issue and learn what impact it has on the overall deliverables. There has been issues I’ve ran into that aren’t the end off the world and realistically I can deal with post-delivery. Other occasions however there has been issues that have proven to be a much and will block the project from achieving it’s goals successfully. Knowing which is which is a learning curve that shouldn’t be trekked alone, when I was new to the project it was easy for me to doubt my own ability and make this type of call. When encountering an issue like this it was critical that I sought advice from the programme leads and project managers. In most cases when I was worried, they were worried too!
8. Resilience
As you can imagine not everything goes as planned. With everything mentioned above there will be times where you find yourself off-track or faced with failures. Dealing with failure isn’t everyones cup-of-tea and I found being able to deal with failure calmly and professionally really helped me give the impression that everything was under control (even when it wasn’t!). I don’t yet see myself as a leader but being able to set the tone for my surrounding colleagues when the going got tough was milestone in my professional development that I will be proud to look back on.
9. Review
No matter what activity I am participating in be it work, sports, social life, I’ve always been a data person, I guess it’s the way I’m wired. I found it important that I constantly reviewed my progress and took pride in my success or focus on my development. I think it’s probably tradition for most people to expect results at the end of a project, but there was definitely positives in me being able to take a look at my progress at various points whether it was a high or a low and pinpoint the lessons learned to apply to not just future projects but make minor adjustments or tweaks to what I was doing at the time.
10. Adapt
During the introduction I mentioned that my involvement in this project was from an operational perspective. The key responsibilities assigned to me when I was brought on board was to assist the project in assess business impact, assign severity to any business risks and to provide subject matter knowledge on process. During my time on this project I’ve had to manage various colleagues, assist in software testing, liaise with stakeholders and operational managers, provide technical assistance, develop solutions and much, much more. Being able to face these challenges and succeed has provided an immense amount of professional development and has expanded my skill set so much in such a short amount of time in a way that I think no other project can compare.
Closure
In conclusion, the way my company tackled the biggest regulatory change in the last 20 years was ultimately, a success. The lessons I’ve learned along the way will no doubt go on to shape how I develop myself in the future and I am truly grateful that my company gave me the opportunity to be a part of something unrivalled in terms of scale, complexity and challenge. The relationships I’ve built over the last couple of months have all given me something to take forward.
If you made it this far then I’m proud of you for sticking through yet another post about GDPR. If you’re reading this hot off the press be sure to check your inbox, in the space of writing this I managed to rack up an impressive 12 emails about company XYZ’s new privacy policy(huzzah!) and If you were involved in your company’s GDPR project I’m sure that 5 o’clock meeting at the pub is long overdue!
If there is something you feel I might of missed off this list I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment below or alternatively drop me a message on my @LinkedIn.
There are some honourable mentions that I feel comfortable in name dropping,
@Sayed Miah (Deserves a Manager of the Year Award)
@Jon Bartlett (Thank you for providing so much confidence in me, truly inspiring in your belief)
@Chris Thomas (Really stuck by your promise and have shown immense support)
@James Seager (Thanks for the push to succeed in this, it could of slipped from me so easily)
There are so many more but unfortunately, I’m unsure how they would take a public full name tag.
Lisa, Eama, Martyn, Rob, Heidi, Trevor, Sophie, Jamie, Lynn, Lloyd the list goes on and on.
Thank you all so much!
Michael Saunders
Data Subject Rights Specialist (Complaints)
2018
