As Strategic Management Coordinator for the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, I was interested in areas that formed repeated clogs in various systems, thus stalling our delivery of services to the public. One area that arose was the provision of between five and eight land-based projects in each of our nine communities, annually, by one division of our department. An exploration of the process revealed repeated delays with the multiple approvals needed and lack of agility as the project needs changed often at the last minute, lack of transparency with the financial processing so that the project managers could not tell where in the pipeline their invoices sat, and a general lack of project management skills. To build on the strengths of the project managers, which was their passion for land-based programming, we equipped them with project management skills, and set about building an online tool that would facilitate the process. 

This was a major change for the project managers who had been used to creating their plans with pen and paper. Computer literacy was a challenge for some, so we addressed this first, and appointed superusers who mentored the less technologically adept users. As part of the change management, the first year of the new system, we entered all the data for the projects on behalf of the project managers. This gave them the benefit of using the system for the implementation of their programs while not having to worry about the planning phase which required heavier project management skills. They were able to see the benefits of the system – i.e., watching their invoices go through the pipeline so they were able to answer enquiries from suppliers; seeing how their projects broke down into component parts and tasks; and, finally closing their projects and feeling the sense of completion. 

By the second year, they entered all their projects themselves, while I held weekly office hours to support any need for help. 

The end result was a system that allowed the front-line workers to watch their projects unfold through multiple approvals and phases, to be responsible for their own reporting, and to enable them to be responsive to questions that arose. It also enabled managers to see at a glance how projects were progressing and who needed encouragement. Financial reporting was also enhanced, as was annual reporting which now had data points for retrieval. 

The organization is now in its fourth year with the tool, and we have decided to recreate the tool in-house so that we can better safeguard the data and, ultimately, save money.