Christopher Global

Problem Statement

The FedNow Operations Center (FNOC) is a team focused on operational tasks. While working on developing the FedNow instant payments product, the team had to handle various cross-functional readiness activities, which took them away from their usual operational responsibilities. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and support leaders found themselves torn between strategic and tactical demands, causing the team to lose sight of its readiness progress.

Purpose

In order to support cross-functional and organizational readiness, as well as FNOC's internal readiness efforts, FNOC sought project management assistance. While various activities were ongoing, their statuses were uncertain due to frequent shifts in priorities. Consequently, the team reached out to FedNow PMO to secure a dedicated resource for monitoring their overall organizational readiness consistently.

Custom Solutions & Actions Taken

Christopher, an expert project leader, helped the FNOC team of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in developing the following solutions:

• Development of FNOC's day-one readiness project plan, outlining the operational tasks and processes to be completed by FNOC before the FedNow release.

• Management and reporting of FNOC's organizational readiness activities.

• Facilitation of business process requirement sessions and reviews with internal clients and process owners.

• Collaboration with FNOC's SMEs to balance operational and project-oriented time allocations.

• Documentation of process-based decisions, including changes in ownership, roles, and requirements.

• Coordination with the FedNow PMO for functional reporting on FNOC's readiness and intradepartmental projects.

• Creation of the data strategy project plan, detailing process steps, policies, product requirements, roundtable discussions, and schedules.

• Management and scheduling of data strategy meetings, stakeholder updates, and monitoring of project plan activities.

  
  

   

Conclusion

About a month prior to the launch of FedNow, the Operations Center of FedNow finalized its preparedness plan. With the assistance of project management, the team successfully predicted operational needs and assigned project-related tasks. The data strategy team of FedNow also developed an interim process for handling data requests from internal clients. The project management support provided by FedNow's PMO played a crucial role in improving communication and organization during a turbulent and uncertain period.