During his tenure as an IT Project Manager at Wincor Nixdorf (Banking Division) from 2013 to 2014, Mark Whitfield focused on large-scale retail banking software modernisation and multi-vendor hardware migrations.
He spearheaded a £5+ million workstream on-site for Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) as part of their Self-Service Software Replacement (SSSR) programme.
The focus areas and technical outputs of his work during this era are detailed below.
🏛️ Era Focus Areas (2013–2014)
Legacy ATM Modernisation: Managing the transition of core banking infrastructure away from legacy terminal systems to prevent service outages and meet stricter post-2008 operational risk regulations.
Multi-Vendor Integration: Directing complex hardware and software integration streams to ensure Wincor Nixdorf solutions successfully paired with third-party banking frameworks.
International Technical Liaison: Acting as a qualified management link between the local UK delivery teams and Wincor Nixdorf’s central engineering base in Paderborn, Germany, for advanced subject matter expertise.
Methodology Pivot: Implementing project governance frameworks that bridged strict PRINCE2 Waterfall structures with Agile Scrum delivery models.
💻 Technical Outputs
ATM Terminal Driving Migration: Transferred critical automated teller machine (ATM) driving responsibilities away from legacy BASE24 Classic running on HPE NonStop mainframes over to Wincor’s ProClassic Enterprise (PC/E) product suite deployed on an AIX platform.
OS Lifecycle Upgrades: Successfully planned and executed the infrastructure upgrade of the Lloyds Banking Group ATM hardware estate from the end-of-life Windows XP operating system to Windows 7.
Database & Platform Architecture: Delivered backend systems alignment leveraging Oracle databases integrated across distributed UNIX/AIX environments.
PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a globally recognized set of security guidelines designed to ensure businesses that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment to protect cardholder data.
Who Needs It
If your business takes payments online, over the phone, or in-store, PCI DSS applies to you. It is mandatory for all merchants, financial institutions, and service providers handling card data, regardless of the company’s size or transaction volume.
The 12 Core Requirements
The standard consists of 12 fundamental requirements organized into 6 main control objectives:
Network Security: Install and maintain network security controls (e.g., firewalls) to protect cardholder data.
Secure Defaults: Never use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters.
Protect Stored Data: Safeguard stored account data via encryption, hashing, or truncation.
Encrypt Transmissions: Strongly encrypt cardholder data across open, public networks.
Malware Protection: Protect all systems and networks against malicious software.
Restrict Access: Restrict system and cardholder data access on a strict “need to know” basis.
Authenticate Users: Identify users and authenticate access to system components.
Restrict Physical Access: Control and restrict physical access to cardholder data and hardware.
Log and Monitor: Log and continuously monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data.
Regular Testing: Regularly test security systems and network processes for vulnerabilities.
Information Security: Maintain formal policies that address information security for all personnel.
Why Compliance Matters
Achieving compliance—often demonstrated through a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) or a Report on Compliance (RoC)—protects your customers and your business from data breaches. Non-compliance can result in devastating penalties, forensic investigation costs, loss of merchant processing privileges, and heavy brand damage.
For more specific details, requirements, and self-assessment tools tailored to your business, refer to the official PCI Security Standards Council website.
Insider Technologies Limited is a specialized UK-based software house and service provider that engineers high-availability monitoring, tracking, and cybersecurity solutions for business-critical, 24/7 mission-critical architectures. I worked at ITL in Salford Quays from 1995 through to 2013.
Attending an EBUG conference (European BASE24 User Group)
Foreground, attending a British Isles TANDEM User Group (BITUG)
Insider Technologies Limited (website author in 2009)
CompanyOverview
🏢 Corporate Identity & Status
Legal Name: Insider Technologies Limited
Founded:27 February 1989
Headquarters: Manchester, UK (Albert Street, Eccles)
Ownership: Operating as a private independent software company, recently integrated as part of PartnerOne.
Strategic Partnerships: Certified Microsoft Gold Partner for Application Development and long-standing Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) partner.
Insider Technologies Limited (ITL) in 2001, Salford Quays, Chandlers Point
🌐 Core Domain & Industries Served
The company delivers real-time, event-driven diagnostic, tracking, and compliance middleware solutions across three main highly-regulated global verticals:
Government & Defence: Secure enterprise military messaging tracking and digital evidence handling.
Telecommunications: Tracking data traffic and critical infrastructure middleware.
🛠️ Core Technology Stack & Competencies
Insider Technologies specializes in niche high-availability operating environments—specifically HPE NonStop (historically Tandem Computers and HP NonStop) running Guardian and Open System Services (OSS) environments—alongside enterprise Windows, Linux, and Unix systems. Their expertise spans database transaction management, BASE24 XPNET monitoring, IBM WebSphere MQ tracking, and low-level development (SQL, TAL, TACL, COBOL85, C++, Pathway).
Insider Technologies – Core products in 2003
In-Depth Product & Political-Technical Timeline
This timeline breaks down how Insider Technologies evolved its software suite. It demonstrates how their technical development directly responded to shifting geopolitical landscapes—ranging from late-Cold War military messaging security to post-9/11 financial regulations and modern European cloud autonomy initiatives.
🔹 The Foundation & Legacy Tandem Era (1989–1999)
Political Context: The final years of the Cold War and the 1990s globalization boom demanded high-security, fault-tolerant mainframes for NATO-aligned military communications and early global banking clearing networks.
Technical Context: Tandem Computers dominated the un-interruptible 24/7 market. Software was required to monitor these platforms without causing processing overhead.
1989
Company Incorporation: Insider Technologies is incorporated in the UK to engineer bespoke software for highly robust technical ecosystems.
1990–1995
Reflex (Core Release): Release of Reflex, a foundational service management and real-time transaction diagnostic tool built specifically for the Tandem Guardian operating system.
1996–1999
MultiBatch Software: Further Develop and Extend MultiBatch to orchestrate and safely automate complex batch processing on Tandem machines alongside the evolution into HP NonStop computing frameworks.
Y2K Compliance Focus: Technical adjustments were deployed across Reflex and MultiBatch to assure financial institutions that automated transaction logging would not fail during the millennium rollover.
🔸 The Multi-Platform & Financial Compliance Era (2000–2015)
Political Context: Following the September 11 attacks, global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) frameworks heavily expanded. Financial regulators demanded exact, audible end-to-end payment tracking.
Technical Context: Enterprises began migrating away from single-architecture mainframes toward heterogeneous IT environments, requiring tools that could jump across Windows, Unix, and Linux simultaneously.
2002–2004
Sentra Development: Launch of Sentra, expanding the firm’s portfolio beyond HPE NonStop into cross-platform environment monitoring for Windows, Linux, and Unix systems.
Reflex 80:20 & Reflex ONE24: Advanced variations of the Reflex tracking system were built to cater to specialized real-time electronic payment flows like BASE24 with XPNET.
2005–2010
RTLX Reactor (page 12) and Middleware Monitoring: The release of RTLX Reactor provided message tracking capabilities tailored for IBM WebSphere MQ, allowing institutions to trace various payment and other data through complex middleware chains.
Corporate Structuring: The creation of Insider Technologies (Holdings) Limited reinforced corporate expansion as the company deepened its footprint in secure military messaging for government defense bodies.
🔹 The Cyber Autonomy & Sovereignty Era (2016–Present)
Political Context: Escalating nation-state cyber warfare, strict GDPR regulations, and the UK/EU push for technological sovereignty and domestic digital ecosystem resilience heightened the reliance on trusted, onshore technology suppliers.
Technical Context: High-threat environments demand zero-trust visualization, time-accurate logging across digital evidence files, and advanced protection against internal exfiltration vectors.
2019
30-Year Milestone & Modernization: The company celebrates its 30th year, accelerating development on modern mobile application extensions to permit real-time, remote secure alerts for operations teams.
2022–2025
PartnerOne Integration: Insider Technologies aligns its operations under the PartnerOne portfolio, preserving its UK identity while supercharging its enterprise-scale data infrastructure solutions.
Corporate Integration combines Insider’s expertise with PartnerOne’s portfolio to deliver advanced analytics and secure messaging systems to banking, defence, and telecommunications markets.
Defense and Public Safety Porting: Technical deployment of specialized capabilities covering digital evidence security, timekeeping tracking, and legacy virtualization modules aimed explicitly at helping the UK Government maintain its historical tech stacks safely.
RTLX Reactor (in 2012) for tracking BASE24-eps & BASE24 XPNET transactions
Insider Technologies Limited (ITL), Company Overview and Timeline by Year
The Insider RTLX product at ETI-NET is now called C-Deep for Transaction Monitoring;
Mark Whitfield is an SC-cleared Senior IT Project and Engagement Manager with over 30 years of experience. His career spans from early mainframe programming to leading multi-million-pound cloud migrations and digital transformations for major financial, utility, and government clients.
The chronological breakdown of his professional project portfolio, structured by his definitive career eras, is detailed below:
1. The Technical Era (1990–1995)
During this foundational era, Mark worked as a Programmer and Lead Analyst for The Software Partnership (acquired by Deluxe Data in 1994). He focused strictly on the development, optimization, and deployment of the sp/ARCHITECT-BANK electronic banking solution on Tandem Mainframe Computers.
Details: Handled the custom design and backend coding for a high-profile desktop electronic business banking application.
Project: Automated Touch-Tone Phone Banking Suite
Year: 1992–1993
Client: Girofon (Denmark)
Budget: Client-retained vendor contract
Details: Coded automated, menu-driven voice solutions operating on a Periphonics VRAM device to fetch live customer balances directly from mainframes.
Project: Early Digital Inter-Account Transfers
Year: 1993–1994
Client: TSB & Bank of Scotland
Budget: Internal product development
Details: Directed logic design and mainframe coding to support pioneering inter-account electronic funds transfers.
Project: International Banking Optimization
Year: 1994–1995
Client: Rabobank
Budget: Vendor-driven custom development framework
Details: Managed localized software optimization, custom patches, and deployment testing for global banking operations.
2. The Infrastructure & Monitoring Era (1995–2014)
Mark transitioned into a Product and Project Manager role at Insider Technologies Limited (and later a brief stint at Wincor Nixdorf). His focus shifted heavily toward platform diagnostics, high-availability transaction monitoring, and financial hardware software integrations.
Project: Reflex (Reflex 80:20) System Co-Development
Year: 1995–2004
Client: Multiple Tier-1 Investment Banks (including Euroclear/Crestco, Bank of England, and Deutsche Bank)
Budget: Part of a broader £3M Management Buyout (MBO) product portfolio
Details: Acted as Senior Programmer and Technical Lead to co-develop diagnostic monitoring modules for high-availability mainframes.
Details: Managed the integration of transaction tracking across ATM networks using ACI’s XPNET and HP NonStop architecture.
Project: Legacy ATM Software Modernisation
Year: 2013–2014
Client: Major UK Retail Bank (via Wincor Nixdorf Professional Services)
Budget: Corporate financial service transformation
Details: Served as Project Manager executing the swap-out of outdated, legacy ATM client systems for modernized software stacks.
3. The Digital and Cloud Era (2014–Present)
This era highlights Mark’s leadership of large-scale Agile and Waterfall digital delivery frameworks, moving from corporate gambling technology to complex, high-budget UK public sector programs.
Project: Mobile & Online Gaming Sportsbook Platforms
Details: Led Agile Scrum development teams to upgrade payment gateways, implement fraud detection, and roll out football/horse racing mobile interfaces.
Project: National Air Space Real-Time Mobile Applications
Year: 2016
Client: NATS (UK-wide Air Traffic Organisation)
Budget: Corporate custom applications initiative
Details: Managed the secure Agile delivery of Apple iOS applications displaying live military and public airspace information.
Project: Core Systems Interface Data Centre Migration
Year: 2016 (May–October)
Client: Royal Mail Group (RMG) / Postal Services
Budget:£4.3 Million
Details: Led a massive cross-functional team of 90 Capgemini engineers to migrate over 1,100 platform data interfaces ahead of peak annual trading.
Project: Automated Call Centre CCaaS Telephony Implementation
Year: 2017 (May onwards)
Client: Local Regional Government
Budget:£400,000
Details: Deployed a programmatic dialler system linked with Microsoft Azure CRM to facilitate the “Support for Mortgage Interest” campaign.
Project: Automotive Online Car Sales and Digital Readiness
Year: 2017 (October)
Client: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) / Aston Agile Delivery Centre
Budget:£1.1 Million (Split into a £670k Customer Sales Portal and a £430k Readiness project)
Details: Engagement Manager implementing a new-car ecommerce vehicle pipeline.
Budget:£1 Million+ (Part of a larger £13.5M cloud program moving 130 apps)
Details: Orchestrated the launch and configuration of Azure Cloud frameworks migrating 12 historical Dynamics 2016 platforms to Dynamics 365 Online.
Project: Fish Export Service (FES) to CHIP Inspection Portal
Year: 2023–2024 (Nov–Feb)
Client: UK Government / Northern Ireland Trading Framework
Budget:£1 Million+
Details: Served as Technical Delivery Manager directing Agile Scrum teams to build cloud-hosted APIs supporting catch verification under the Windsor Framework.
The European BASE24 User Group (EBUG) was a prominent, community-led organization dedicated to the BASE24 payment processing system. It served as a vital hub for financial institutions and vendors to exchange technical knowledge, discuss platform migrations, and influence the development of ACI Worldwide products.
Group Overview
Primary Purpose: EBUG facilitated networking and technical collaboration among users of the BASE24 ecosystem, including the BASE24 Classic and BASE24-eps platforms.
Evolution of Scope: While it began with a strict focus on BASE24, it eventually expanded to include other ACI products like Postilion.
Independence: The group shifted from being an ACI-sponsored event to a supplier-agnostic forum known as “The Payments Knowledge Forum” after ACI ended its direct involvement.
Legacy Transformation: In its later years, it was affectionately referred to as the “Everybody Belongs User’s Group”, reflecting its inclusive stance as “The Independent Group for All Payments System Users”.
Detailed Timeline
The history of EBUG is marked by its annual conferences held in major European cities and its eventual transition to an independent entity:
1980s: EBUG is established as a regional group for the growing BASE24 community in Europe.
Early 2000s: EBUG events gain prestige, featuring technical tracks on HPE NonStop transaction monitoring and payment security.
2006–2008: High-profile meetings held in cities such as Istanbul (2007) and Vienna (2008). The 2008 Vienna event was notable for discussing ACI’s strategic shift toward IBM platforms.
2009: The conference takes place in Prague, continuing strong support for BASE24 on NonStop despite broader industry shifts.
2012: The Technical Focus Group (TFG) is held in London at Trinity House. This marks a turning point as the event moved off ACI’s premises, signaling a shift in sponsorship dynamics.
2013: EBUG holds a major forum in Westminster, London, at the Institution of Civil Engineers. By this time, it is officially rebranding toward the broader “Payments Knowledge Forum”.
2015: EBUG fully transitions into the Payments Knowledge Forum, an annual gathering in London that continues the 30-year legacy as an independent, supplier-agnostic body.
……….
The Payments Knowledge Forum (PKF) is an independent, user-led resource dedicated to the exchange of information regarding payment systems. It operates without vendor affiliation, bringing together financial institutions, retailers, processors, and consultants to share practical expertise and shape the future of payment activities.
Overview of the Payments Knowledge Forum
Purpose: PKF serves as a collaborative hub for payment system users to discuss industry challenges, regulatory changes, and technical innovations.
Composition: The forum is open to a wide range of industry stakeholders, including:
Financial Institutions: Banks and building societies.
Retailers: Businesses focusing on consumer point-of-sale and e-commerce.
Payments Processors: Entities managing the technical execution of transactions.
Consultants: Experts providing strategic and technical guidance.
Governance: It is uniquely “run by users for the benefit of users,” ensuring that the information shared is neutral and prioritises the operational needs of the participants over commercial vendor interests.
Activities: PKF hosts regular events and an annual conference to address evolving topics such as ISO 20022 migration, central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and security frameworks like PSD2.
Detailed Timeline of Major Payment Milestones
The following timeline tracks critical industry milestones often discussed and addressed within the forum’s scope:
2015: The Payments Strategy Forum was established by the UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to create a long-term roadmap for UK payments.
November 2016: Publication of the “Payments Strategy for the 21st Century,” introducing concepts like Request to Pay and enhanced data standards.
March 2018: Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for PSD2 were published, initiating the transition to Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
November 2018: Launch of TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), enabling real-time fund transfers across Europe.
September 2019: Full implementation of PSD2 security measures, including the requirement for standardised API interfaces for third-party access.
2020–2024: Acceleration of digital payment adoption following the COVID-19 pandemic, with a notable decline in cash usage at points of sale.
October 2021: The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published global targets for cost, speed, and transparency in cross-border payments.
February 2024: Swedish krona successfully onboarded to the TIPS platform.
April 2025: Danish kroner scheduled for onboarding to the TIPS system.
September 2025: Publication of the Digital Euro innovation platform outcome report, detailing findings for future development.
April 2026: Review of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) to enhance accountability in financial services.
June 2026: Deadline for firms to demonstrate credible timetables for addressing climate-related financial risks.
2026 (Targeted): Anticipated go-live dates for enhanced access to the CHAPS high-value payment system.
Annual Conference & Resources
The PKF holds an annual conference that serves as its primary knowledge-sharing event.
Recent/Upcoming: The 2026 Conference continues the forum’s tradition of deep-diving into operational resilience and the digital transformation of finance.
Direct Access: For the latest news and detailed membership information, visit the The Payments Knowledge Forum Official Site.
……….
Some HPE NonStop BASE24 related User groups on LinkedIn :
Mark Whitfield’s Project Management templates are a comprehensive, editable suite of over 200 documents designed for Agile, Waterfall, and PRINCE2 methodologies, based on over 30 years of project delivery experience. Available through his website (click banner link above), Etsy, Flevy and Eloquens, these templates are designed to be used across the project lifecycle—from initiation to closure—and include lifetime free updates and additions.
Many POaP Plan On a Page examples
Full Overview of Mark Whitfield Template Bundle
The bundle, priced at around £38.00 (as of April 2026), provides tools for MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and MS Project (.mpp).
1. Planning & Scheduling
MS Project (MPP / MSP): Includes full PRINCE2 7th Edition, Agile Scrum, and SDLC (Software Development Life-cycle) plans.
Excel Detailed Plans: Includes Gantt chart tracking for users without MS Project.
Plan on a Page (POaP): Over 30 PowerPoint examples for executive summaries.
Example Plan On a Page POaP
2. PRINCE2 & Governance
Full set of over 200 documents including Project Initiation Document (PID), Business Case, Work Packages, Risk Management Strategy, and Configuration Item Records.
Reporting: Highlight reports, exception reports, and end-stage reports.
PRINCE2 Delivery Plan in MS Excel Example
3. Tracking & Risk Management
RAID Logs: Comprehensive trackers for Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies (includes simple and detailed versions).
Finance Trackers: Simple and full project finance trackers (forecasting, actuals, variance, rate lookups).
SDLC: Detailed Software Development Life-cycle plans.
Deployment/Runbook: Execution and release planning documents.
Agile: Burn down and burn up charts.
Example Agile Scrum Burn Down Chart
Detailed Timeline by Project Life Cycle
Templates provide detailed MS Project (.mpp) and Excel schedules that map out the standard project life cycle over time. The plans include notes and color-coded tasks (black: standard task, blue: artifact creation, brown: decision/event, purple: artifact update).
sp/ARCHITECT was a pioneering electronic banking and funds-transfer software suite originally developed by the Runcorn-based firm The Software Partnership (TSP). Following its acquisition by the American firm Deluxe Electronic Payment Systems in 1994, the Runcorn office became the European hub for what was then rebranded as Deluxe Data.
sp/ARCHITECT electroinic banking by The Software Partnership TSP
Overview
The Runcorn operation specialised in high-availability, mission-critical banking software, specifically the sp/ARCHITECT-BANK product. This software was designed to run on Tandem Computers (now HPE NonStop), which were known for their fault-tolerant architecture. The “sp/ARCHITECT” platform was highly valued for its client-server design, allowing it to be adapted for various hardware brands, including Unix-based systems.
Historical Timeline
Mid-1980s: The Software Partnership (TSP) is co-founded by Nigel Walsh. The company starts developing online banking systems in Timperley before moving to Runcorn.
1990: The firm establishes itself at Norton House in Crowngate, Runcorn, focusing on electronic banking software for major clients like TSB and Bank of Scotland.
1992: The Runcorn office relocates to Wingate House on Northway.
1994: Deluxe Electronic Payment Systems (a subsidiary of Deluxe Corporation) acquires The Software Partnership for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is aimed at helping Deluxe expand its global presence and accelerate the use of the sp/ARCHITECT suite.
1994–1995: The Runcorn office operates as Deluxe Data, providing software design, coding, and 24-hour support for international clients including Rabobank.
2000: Following a series of corporate shifts, the company name changes to EFD eFunds.
2007: By this year, the operation has transitioned to Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) and is based in Aegon House, Daresbury, Warrington.
sp/ARCHITECT electroinic banking by The Software Partnership TSP
Mark Whitfield provides a comprehensive suite of over 200 editable project management templates designed for both Agile and Waterfall delivery. These tools are built based on 21+ years of IT project delivery experience and are formatted for Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Microsoft Project (MPP).
Core Planning & Tracking Templates
Detailed Project Plans: Comprehensive MPP and Excel files covering the full Software Development Life-cycle (SDLC), including Waterfall and Agile Scrum sprints.
Plan on a Page (POaP): High-level visual summaries in PowerPoint or Excel for client reporting and executive snapshots.
RAID Log: A central tracker for Risks, Actions, Issues, and Dependencies, often including tabs for Decisions, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned.
RACI Matrix: A tracker to define roles and responsibilities (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed).
Financial & Resource Management
Project Finance Tracker: Tools for managing project budgets, including forecasts vs. actuals, margin analysis, and variation tracking.
Resource Planning: Grid templates for costing project resources per phase and tracking team allocations.
Benefits Realisation: A spreadsheet to compare initial project goals against actual business outcomes and costs.
Reporting & Communication
Status Reports: Weekly and monthly templates in Word and PowerPoint that include milestone dashboards, project health indicators, and “next steps”.
Organisation Charts: Templates for visualising the project hierarchy and stakeholder contacts.
Agile Dashboards: Excel-based Burn Down and Burn Up charts for teams that do not have access to tools like Jira.
Methodology Support
PRINCE2 7th Edition: Specific MPP and Excel templates aligned with the latest PRINCE2 standards.
Agile Frameworks: Templates for Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, and Sprint Retrospectives.
These templates are available for purchase on Mark Whitfield’s official site and typically include free lifetime upgrades.
Free Upgrade Project Management Templates Download by focus area
Mark Whitfield is an experienced IT Project Manager and software developer who has spent over 22 years specialising in HP NonStop (formerly Tandem) systems. He is currently an Engagement Project Manager at Capgemini.
Career & Expertise
Whitfield’s career in HP NonStop began in 1990 and includes significant technical and leadership roles across the financial and technology sectors:
Software Development: Early in his career, he worked as a programmer for The Software Partnership (later Deluxe Data/FIS), focusing on electronic banking software like sp/ARCHITECT on Tandem mainframes.
Insider Technologies (1995–2013): He spent 18 years at Insider Technologies as a Senior Development Engineer and Project Manager. His work involved:
Developing monitoring and diagnostic software such as Reflex 80:20, Reflex ONE24, and RTLX (Real-Time Log Extraction) for payment systems.
Managing the first HP OpenView Operations Smart Plug-In certification for the NonStop platform.
Designing XPERT24, a performance tracking product for ACI’s XPNET layer.
Capgemini (2016–Present): As an Engagement Project Manager, he has led digital projects for major clients in the automotive, government, and aerospace sectors, including a cloud migration for UK Government applications.
Technical Contributions
Publications: He has authored articles for globally published journals like The Connection (2013), discussing topics such as querying terabytes of legacy transaction log data from NonStop mainframes.
Project History: He has managed high-value projects, including a £5 million initiative to migrate legacy HP NonStop software to AIX-based technologies for a large UK retail bank.
Training: He is trained in various NonStop-specific technologies, including TAL (Transaction Application Language), COBOL85, PATHWAY, and NonStop SQL.
Whitfield also maintains a professional website, mark-whitfield.com, where he provides project management templates and resources related to HP NonStop and Tandem systems.
Mark Whitfield provides a comprehensive bundle of over 200 editable project management templates designed for Agile, Waterfall, and PRINCE2 methodologies. These templates are based on over 30 years of project delivery experience and are available for purchase via his official website or Etsy shop.
Key Template Categories
The bundle includes a wide variety of tools across different formats (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and MS Project):
Planning & Scheduling:
Plan on a Page (POaP): Over 30 PowerPoint slide examples for executive-level summaries.
Detailed Project Plans: MS Project (MPP) and Excel templates for SDLC, PRINCE2 7th Edition, and Agile Scrum projects.
Gantt Charts: Built-in tracking views for both MS Project and Excel.
Tracking & Control:
RAID Logs: Comprehensive logs for tracking Risks, Actions, Issues, and Dependencies, plus additional tabs for Change Requests and Lessons Learned.
RACI Matrix: Templates to define project roles and responsibilities (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed).
Finance Trackers: Tools for internal and external forecast vs. actual costs, including margin and variance tracking.
Agile Specific Tools:
Burn Down & Burn Up Charts: Excel-based alternatives when tools like Jira are unavailable.
Agile Story Dependency Tracking: Specifically for managing dependencies between agile stories and external suppliers.
Reporting & Governance:
Status Reports: Weekly and monthly templates in Word and PowerPoint formats.
Stakeholder Analysis: Power/interest mapping and engagement plan templates.
Benefits Realisation: Plans to track project outcomes against initial business goals.
Purchase Benefits
Lifetime Upgrades: Once purchased, all future additions and updates to the template package are provided for free.
Compatibility: Templates are designed for Microsoft Office 365 but also include Excel versions compatible with earlier software.
Support: The package typically includes walkthrough Word documents to guide users on how to use each major template.
Mark Whitfield HP NonStop Tandem experience & Project Management Templates
In professional project management and construction, cost estimating and cost planning are complementary processes that occur at different stages to ensure a project remains financially viable.
1. Cost Estimating: “What will it cost?”
Cost estimating is a technical assessment used to predict the expenditures for a project.
Early Stages: Estimates might be “rough orders of magnitude” based on square footage or historical data (e.g., cost per hotel room).
Later Stages: Estimates become precise “tender figures” used by contractors to bid on work, factoring in current market rates for labour and materials.
Function: It answers the question: “Is this specific plan affordable?”.
2. Cost Planning: “How do we stay on budget?”
Cost planning is a strategic framework that manages a project’s financial health from start to finish.
Iterative Process: It is a “living document” that is updated as the project moves from concept to detailed design.
Allocation: It breaks down the total budget into “elemental” targets (e.g., spending £X on the foundation and £Y on finishes).
Control: If an estimate for one part of the project exceeds its target, the cost plan guides the team to adjust the design or find savings elsewhere to keep the overall project on track.
Standard Professional Guidance
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) provides the New Rules of Measurement (NRM 1), which standardises how these processes work together:
Order of Cost Estimate: Establishing the initial viability of a project.
Elemental Cost Plan: Breaking the estimate down into functional parts.
Cost Checking: Continually comparing design changes against the cost plan to prevent overspending.
Microsoft Excel has evolved from a niche Apple Macintosh tool into the world’s most dominant spreadsheet software. Its history is marked by strategic shifts, such as jumping from the MS-DOS era to graphical interfaces to outmanoeuvre then-leader Lotus 1-2-3.
Timeline of Major Excel Milestones
Agile Templates available at download link at website banner
1982: Multiplan (The Predecessor) – Microsoft’s first spreadsheet program. While popular on CP/M systems, it struggled against Lotus 1-2-3 on MS-DOS.
1985: Excel 1.0 (Macintosh Exclusive) – Realising they couldn’t beat Lotus on DOS, Microsoft built a graphical spreadsheet for the new Mac. It introduced the ability to adjust cell heights, widths, and fonts.
1987: Excel 2.0 (First Windows Version) – Launched alongside the first Windows environments, it introduced color support (like red for negative numbers) and was significantly faster than competitors.
1990: Excel 3.0 – Added 3D charts, toolbars, and drawing tools, helping Excel finally overtake Lotus 1-2-3 as the market leader.
1997: Excel 8.0 (Office 97) – Introduced the Paperclip Assistant (“Clippy”) and the first version of the modern VBA environment.
2007: Excel 12.0 (The Ribbon Era) – Replaced menus with the Ribbon interface and dramatically increased grid capacity to 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns.
2010: Excel 14.0 – Introduced Slicers for PivotTables and Sparklines (mini charts inside cells).
2013-2016: Data Intelligence – Added Power Query, Power Pivot, and new chart types like Waterfall, Pareto, and Treemap to support advanced data modeling.
2019-Present: AI & Cloud Integration – Modern versions focus on seamless collaboration, dynamic arrays (like XLOOKUP), and AI-powered insights that can extract data directly from images.
Technological Evolution Highlights
MS Excel templates available on bundle download at website banner
Architecture: Shifted from 16-bit to 32-bit with Excel 95, greatly improving stability.
Collaborative Features: Modern Version History and “Show Changes” now allow teams to track every edit in real-time.
Visualisation: Excel now supports complex timelines via SmartArt or custom Scatter charts with error bars for professional project tracking.
Microsoft Excel Development Timeline History
Microsoft Excel templates available at banner above, FREE upgrades
Mark Whitfield’s project management templates offer a range of timeline and planning views designed for Agile, Waterfall, and PRINCE2 delivery. These templates typically include a high-level Plan on a Page (POaP) and detailed Microsoft Project (MPP) or Excel schedules.
Example Plan on a Page POaP
Timeline & Planning Views
Plan on a Page (POaP): A high-level summary view (often in PowerPoint or Excel) used to communicate key phases and milestones to stakeholders without the clutter of a full Gantt chart.
Detailed Gantt Charts: Provided in both Microsoft Project (MPP) and Excel, these timelines include task dependencies, resource allocations, and critical path tracking.
Agile Sprint Timelines: Specialized views for tracking 2–4 week sprints, daily stand-ups, and sprint retrospectives within a broader project framework.
SDLC Progression: The templates are often structured around a typical Software Development Life-cycle (SDLC), moving from Inception to Transition and Early Live Support (ELS).
Key Timeline Components
The templates are pre-configured with several essential timeline elements:
Project Start & End Dates: Easily adjustable fields that automatically update durations and downstream tasks.
Milestones & Gateways: Visual markers for critical sign-off points and delivery stages.
Task Dependencies: Pre-built links that show how delays in one area (e.g., hardware delivery) impact the overall project finish date.
Resource View: Timelines integrated with resource calendars to account for holidays and leave.
PROject Templates 