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Nov 7 2024

Meet Songül Kasap, Project Delivery Excellence Manager


Educated as an engineer with software management specialization, Songül Kasap has worked across a variety of industries, including defence, IT and telecommunications before joining NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) in 2018. Kasap has always focused on project management roles, honing her skills of business transformation and project execution improvements.


Kasap’s first role when she joined NCIA focused on delivering Air Command and Control capabilities to increase the effectiveness of air operations and preserve the integrity of NATO’s air domain. Now, she balances two important roles to lead transformative changes that will reduce NCIA lead times in capability delivery.

Meet Songül Kasap, Project Delivery Excellence Manager

We sat down with Songül Kasap to learn more about the current role she plays in supporting the delivery of the NCIA 2030 Operating Model, which aims to accelerate capability delivery through the coordination of early engagement, business intake, sourcing and procurement, as well as project and service delivery processes.

What do you currently do at NCIA?

In my current role, I lead efforts towards radical improvement to streamline the NCIA’s End to End Capability Delivery Process. I focus on project management, sourcing, procurement activities and also ensuring interdependencies and coherency within End2End capability delivery process to prepare the organization for expanded demand. I am both a team member of the Corporate Portfolio Management Office (C-PMO) and the Joint Centre of Expertise (JCoE). Given the joint nature of the JCoE and C-PMO, we work closely with NCIA’s business and functional areas to speed up our sourcing activities through performance based acquisition, to accelerate delivery processes by improving internal resource management and data-driven decision making, and to facilitate smooth transition of projects into service operations via early engagement.

My job is to ensure that the capability delivery lead-time is reduced and the customer journey and satisfaction is constantly improving.

How does your team’s work strengthen NCIA’s capability delivery to NATO?

NCIA is facing an exponential growth in demand for capabilities and services. To meet this increased demand and to ensure NCIA continues to deliver quality services, we need to transform our processes aligning the speed of operational importance. The C-PMO and the JCOE are the two cornerstones of the new operating model designed to fulfil the demands and requirements of our customers.

The C-PMO provides visibility on the impact of a new project on the NCIA project portfolio to relevant NCIA stakeholders and supports them in their decision-making process by analyzing capacity, priorities, and dependencies.

The C-PMO is improving existing project management landscape to bring effectiveness and standardization to manage planning, resource management and risk management data services in support of all the components of the project management framework. This will help to identify potential issues early and mitigate them, thus reducing project delays and improving the customer journey.

How did your previous experience in the private sector refine your skills and prepare you for this role?

Having worked in the fast-paced environment of the IT and telecommunications business sector, I developed the ability to build trust with diverse stakeholders. Understanding their needs and requirements by engaging quickly with them, is key to delivering capabilities and services timely and successfully. Today, I carry that customer centric mind set into NATO’s operational environment where every step delivered on time is another step towards a more secure, ready and resilient Alliance.

Finally, my experience leading diverse cross-functional teams, has allowed me to cultivate a collaborative leadership style, which helps me driving transformation processes with various stakeholders across the NCIA.

What sort of role model do you strive to be?

I strive to be somebody who inspires curiosity and courage. I want my colleagues to feel confident to step out of their comfort zone, face the unknown and embrace new challenges. This is crucial for continuous growth.

I also aspire to be a star performer as well as a star maker. I aim to lead by example, proactively using my own knowledge and skills and collaborating with my colleagues and across teams for new information and approaches. Working in an international organization allows for a wide range of views and perspectives to lead a change movement. I believe that the power of people and diversity can contribute to a more innovative and inclusive environment.