2023 Trend: Evolving Project Management

Laura Jesson

Senior Research Analyst

Laura Jesson has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry as a project manager, business analyst, and consultant. She joined Cutter Associates in 2013. Prior to joining Cutter, Laura spent eight years at Wells Capital Management and Evergreen Investments, where she managed investment operations projects. She previously worked at Omgeo as a member of the Central Trade Manager (CTM) product design team. Laura started her career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) as a process consultant supporting a variety of projects for clients in the financial services industry.

Laura earned her bachelor of arts in economics and psychology from Amherst College. She holds the Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification.

Recent research assignments and publications include the following:

Client Reporting
Corporate Actions
Cyber Security
Front Office Data
Managing Operating Costs
Managing Vendors and Service Providers
Opportunities for External Sourcing

Arnold Wachs

Principal – Head of Consulting

Arnie Wachs, Head of Consulting at Cutter Associates, brings extensive business and technical knowledge to the role, with over 30 years of investment management industry experience. Arnie advises clients on their strategic technology direction, data governance practices, trading platforms and practices, portfolio management tools, and operational organization, as well as data management architecture, tools, and practices. He has extensive experience working for investment management firms, financial software vendors, and consulting firms, in roles that included business analyst, developer, system architect, development management, project management, product management, sales, and executive positions. He has a deep understanding of investment management system use and design. He also leads the firm’s Technology and Architecture practice.

Prior to joining Cutter, Arnie worked for ITG, where he led the product management efforts for the development of the next-generation OEMS platform. Prior roles include Head of Equity Systems at BlackRock Solutions, Senior Product Manager at Charles River Development, and Vice President at Fidelity Investments, where he designed and developed the firm’s global trading platforms. Arnie also led efforts at State Street Global Advisors to create an enterprise-wide, cross-asset class security and benchmark master. He holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from Clarkson University.

Mar 06, 2023

The following blog post is one in a series of Cutter 2023 Trends that provide insights into industry challenges and considerations for our clients and member firms in 2023 and beyond.

Project management keeps evolving, and it is a trend we expect to continue for our Cutter community in 2023. For several reasons, firms are reconceptualizing their project management approaches.

First, many organizations report that they lack sufficient project management practices to support initiatives across the entire organization. They may, for instance, benefit from strong project management within the IT area, but struggle to execute an operations-only initiative, let alone a complex cross-functional initiative.

Other teams report that they need to adapt their project management practices to the project at hand. While teams may find that an Agile methodology may best support their software design-and-build efforts, a Waterfall, lighter touch, or custom process may better suit other efforts.

The ways people communicate, collaborate, and coordinate have also changed in the past few years due to the adoption of collaboration tools (Teams, Slack, etc.) and because many employees no longer work face to face. With today’s on-site, remote, and hybrid work environments, organizations face serious employee culture and engagement challenges. Project teams and project managers face their own unique set of magnified challenges because they rely on rapid and frequent interactions.

Firms find that managing the expectations, timeframes, costs, resources, and risks associated with projects difficult and oftentimes delicate work that requires strong communication and a sense of resiliency ─ because, put simply, things will inevitably go wrong. How an organization manages projects reflects its culture ─ not only internally, but also to the outside organizations your firm works with, such as vendors, service providers, and even your clients.

In 2023 and beyond, we expect firms to place more emphasis on adaptable project management programs to help them realize their future vision and affirm their corporate culture.

To speak with a Cutter analyst or consultant about this trend, contact us at [email protected]. To read more 2023 Trends, see our whitepaper, Trends in Asset Management: 2023 and Beyond.