The assignment
A large government natural resource sector agency, with geographically dispersed professional scientists and technicians, wanted to create a web-based project management tool for research collaboration, information management, and knowledge transfer.
The overall intent of this initiative was to shift corporate culture towards a more collaborative business model.
I was retained by the client to manage and facilitate the initiative, through the planning and design phases.
Work done
My first major project activity was to create a Master Project Plan. As the project involved a range of stakeholders, getting everyone on the same page, to begin with, was key. The agency routinely used a formal Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology, to plan and execute information systems projects.
Once the project plan was approved, I facilitated a series of meetings and on-site workshops, with stakeholder groups, to gather requirements for the new system. A subsequent series of workshops were used to review and refine the requirements. It was all packaged up into a General Business Requirements and Conceptual Design deliverable. A central Sharepoint site was used as a shared repository of project-related information.
Complementing the proposed design, I developed a comprehensive Communications Plan, to guide the detailed development and implementation effort.
On completion of the initial design, I worked with the Agency to develop a business case and Request for Proposals (RFP) for the systems development work. Subsequently, I was a member of the RFP response evaluation team.
Throughout this assignment, I led regular project status meetings, made presentations to executives, and reported project progress to a Steering Committee.
