Last updated 13th February 2024
Aoife O'Toole - Benefits Lead, UCD POST
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Aoife O’Toole. I started my career in Deloitte Ireland where I trained as a Chartered Accountant. I then spent a year backpacking around the world, followed by a year working and travelling in Australia. When I returned to Ireland, I joined the Project Portfolio Management team in an international bakery business, Aryzta, and this is where my love of all things projects began. I joined the Housing Department of South Dublin County Council in 2016 as a Transformation Programme Manager and joined UCD in 2023.
What programme are you working on? Tell us a little bit about it?
I work on the Programme for Operations and Services Transformation (POST). The programme is centred on people. It aims to create a better experience for all; improving our processes and ensuring the correct supports are in place to free up people’s time, allowing us to focus on achieving UCD’s strategy.
What is your role on the programme?
I am the Benefits Lead for POST. The primary aspect of my role is supporting and driving benefits management across the programme and ultimately throughout the University. I am also responsible for the financial management and business case development across the programme. A business case captures the rationale for the project, provides justification, and establishes the budgetary requirements, timelines and benefits.
What do you mean by 'benefits' and why are they important?
A benefit is a measurable improvement and benefits management allows us to more effectively measure the impact of the Universities investment, leading to better-informed decisions.
It assists us in defining what success looks like and in helping to ensure everyone is working towards a common goal that aligns to UCD’s strategy. For example, a project aiming to improve user experience might measure this through reduced lead times.
It helps us to communicate the benefits that will be provided to our stakeholders and track our progress to stay on course to accomplishing our strategic objectives.
What projects are you currently supporting?
I support the transformational projects and programmes within POST. You can find a full list of these projects on the POST website. This typically involves facilitating workshops with project/programme stakeholders to help them define their benefits in a concise and measurable way. We determine metrics and targets as well as how and when they will be measured. We align the project/programme benefits to the University strategy and track the benefits through the project/programme lifecycle and beyond.
When supporting teams with business case development, I normally meet with the project/programme managers to guide them through the business case framework and related business case template. I will often help draft certain aspects of the business case and provide advice on the content required.
What do you enjoy most about working in UCD POST?
I really enjoy learning about the diverse range of projects and programmes which aim to transform and improve UCD. My role is to support that journey. It’s uplifting to see the enthusiasm and commitment of all the people involved who are making a positive impact on the UCD community.
If you have any questions on the above content please do not hesitate to contact the POST programme team by emailing (opens in a new window)ucdpostpmo@ucd.ie.