The NSW Department of Education (DoE) wanted to improve customer experience and knowledge access by rolling out a real-time dashboard technology in an enterprise production system. Working in a highly agile environment and with governance support from PM-Partners, the DoE completed the dashboard ready for deployment to 10 IT directors and 100 corporate users.

Highlights

• After successful rollout of real-time dashboard technology across NSW schools, the Department of Education was tasked with a similar rollout in an enterprise production system.
• PM-Partners was brought in to provide the DoE with critical support and operational services, as well as governance and a specialised change management approach.
• After implementing a three-senior-person delivery model for the project turnaround, the DoE completed its dashboard ready for deployment to 10 IT directors and potentially 100 corporate users from the broader business.

Customer background

The DoE had previously built a prototype dashboard displaying real-time technology incidents and request tickets across NSW schools. In line with the Premier’s commitment to improving customer experiences and providing greater access to knowledge through state departments, the Deputy Secretary saw the value in this technology and provided funding to implement the prototype into an enterprise production system.

The challenge

The DoE needed to manage multiple stakeholders in a highly agile work environment – all while completing the production infrastructure and dashboard development for its implementation and rollout to the Deputy Secretary and IT Directors.

This meant they needed to look externally for critical support and operational services, as well as a change management approach for this new service. Beyond the turnaround, the DoE sought the transfer of expertise so that its success, approach and tools could be leveraged in other projects and applied to various areas of its operations.

How PM-Partners helped

Development was underway by an external vendor operating in a highly agile environment that needed appropriate levels of governance, project management, and service and operations management.

Rather than the traditional three-person consulting model (strategist, project manager and communications), PM-Partners implemented a three-senior-person delivery model for the project turnaround. This included:

• Project manager: Overall project management and governance.
• Communications and change manager: Managed change and capability while providing the overall approach and tools.
• Senior consultant: Focused on service delivery and operations management. Responsible for overall delivery and end-to-end integration.

Embedding a small number of senior resources with proven expertise and delivery, PM-Partners successfully implemented:

• A rapid stakeholder engagement approach.
• Tight governance.
• Regular senior and executing briefings.
• Best practice and subsequent realised benefits.
• Rigour for user acceptance and operational acceptance testing to assure quality deliverables across the service.
• Tangible deliverables and processes to hold business areas accountable for their service deliveries.

Outcomes delivered

A major success across the board, PM-Partners supported the DoE as it completed its dashboard ready for deployment to 10 IT directors, and potentially 100 corporate users from the broader business. A service roadmap was put in place, and support services set up to provide a fully managed service for long-term success.

To find out more about improving your organisation’s project management capability contact the team at PM-Partners or call 1300 70 13 14 today.