Could Working in Project Management for Insurance Software Projects be a Good Career Choice for You?

The insurance industry is one that is heavily reliant on using good IT systems. These systems take on all kinds of important roles that make it possible for insurers to provide the products they do, and to serve their customers.

If you like the idea of a career in the software development industry, then working for an insurance company or a development house that specializes in software for the insurance industry can be a good choice. It can be lucrative – there is fairly high demand due to how important software is to these businesses – and can also mean that you are on the cutting edge when it comes to certain types of technologies and systems.

Here, we are going to talk about the types of insurance software projects people work on in the insurance sector, and the roles involved, with a particular focus on project managers.

Why is Software So Crucial in the Insurance Business?

The insurance business is heavily reliant on data. Insurers can only make decisions about what products they can offer to people and how much premiums should be, for instance, when they can make a good analysis of risk. A lot of the software that insurance companies depend on, then, is software that can crunch this data in meaningful ways that can offer answers to those questions.

That’s not all, though. Insurers now also need to be able to offer online services for their customers, such as the ability to buy insurance, get a quote, or even manage a claim online. This also requires highly reliable software.

Add to that the other business needs an insurer has, such as remaining compliant with regulations and also having internal systems to do things like manage HR and provide their employees with the tools they need, and it is clear just how much of a demand for good software there is in this sector. Having the best software can give an insurer a strong competitive edge, and so insurance companies invest a lot in both in-house and external software projects.

Different Roles in Software Development Projects

As you might expect, to deliver some of the complex types of systems used by insurers, people in a lot of specialized roles are required. Many of these are on the technical side of development, such as, of course, the developers themselves, database designers, and people who work on maintaining live systems. Other roles are more on the business side – for instance there are usually business analyst roles where people who specialize in insurance itself work on the project to ensure that the people on the technical side make the right decisions to have their software adequately support its requirements.

Then there is the administrative side, which mainly includes people who track the project and report to the clients or the business side of the company.

Sitting across all of these in some ways are project managers. Project managers plan the project, manage risk on it, keep all the different teams working on it coordinated, and also have accountability for the time and budget.

Project managers are sometimes people with a development background or they can be people whose background is more business or admin – it depends on the needs of the project and the style of the manager themselves.

What Kind of Person is Well Suited to a Career as a Project Manager for Insurance Software?

The professional skills and traits that can make someone a good project manager aren’t always the same. People choose different management styles, and some have more of a technical approach whereas others are more strategic and business focused. This means all kinds of different people can do well in this career path, however there are some things all good project managers have in common.

Being a well-organized person (at least at work!) is essential, as the vast majority of the work is coordinating things and understanding what is going on in different parts of a project at any given time.

Being a good communicator is also important, as often the project manager serves as the point of contact for both people within the project and people who are stakeholders, as well as third parties in some cases. It can sometimes be the case that the project manager will have to explain problems and delays to clients, for example, which can take some tact!

Project managers are also normally quite adaptable. Things can often stray from the original plans on a project for all kinds of reasons, and it is down to the manager to make adjustments and keep everything on track. They may also need to adapt to different things if they are working on multiple projects at the same time, which can often happen.

What Skills and Training do Project Managers Need?

There are all kinds of different types of project, which can use different approaches including agile development methodologies or iterative development, for instance. As a project manager, you may not need to be able to actually code, but you will certainly need to understand about the software development lifecycle and how to apply the features of the methodology the company you are working for wants to use.

This means that project managers need a lot of specialized knowledge about how to deliver projects successfully and will also need to keep up to date on what is going on in both the software industry, and project management as a whole. New trends emerge in development approaches on a fairly regular basis, and the most employable managers are those who stay on top of them and learn about them. There are various accreditations that project managers can get, and you can search project management training courses online to find out where you can get started in project management training for this career path if it interests you.

Career Progression in Insurance Project Management

As with most management roles, project management is rarely an entry level opportunity, and even with training it is not normally until somebody has experience working on projects in other roles that they take on their own projects. Some people come into project management by first working in a different project administration role, for example in a project support office. Others go into it after first working as developers, testers, or other more technical project staff, and then choosing to go into a more management focused role with the knowledge from their previous projects.

Even once someone has started working as a project manager, the size and scope of the projects they work on tends to increase with experience, allowing them to take on more high profile or complex projects as they progress. Some project managers then go on to be program managers, which means they manage multiple related projects with their own project managers under them.

As you can see, there is a lot of scope to working as an insurance software project manager, and it can be a well-paid and well-respected role that can give you a very interesting career. If you are interested in working in software, it may well be a good career to work towards!