Customers Case Study 1 - DAFWA |
Department of Agriculture and Food of Western Australia Selects Daptiv PPM to Improve Project Management Practices and Results
Key Facts
Daptiv PPM has worked as a strong catalyst to improve project management practices and managers are eager to push Daptiv PPM for further use.
The Situation Western Australia is Australia's largest State in area, covering the western third of the mainland - some 2,525,500 square kilometres. The Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) provides services across the length and breadth of the State through more than 1,400 staff and over 80 locations The agriculture and food industry plays a major role in Western Australia's economic, social and rural wealth. The State's world-class agricultural and food industries provide premium quality food and beverage products to customers throughout the world with the agri-food sector contributing more than AUD5 billion to the Western Australian economy each year. It creates employment for more than 9 per cent of the State's workforce and is the State's second largest export sector after mining. Through DAFWA, the Western Australian State Government continues to invest in and assist the State's agriculture and food industries to promote long term profitability and maintain premium international markets for the State's food and fibre products. DAFWA assists the State's Agriculture, Food and Fiber sectors to be sustainable and profitable, with a clear focus on export-led growth. The Department enhances the international competitiveness of the State's agribusiness by working with them to meet the increasingly demanding standards for safety and quality of food and fiber products produced in a sustainable way.
The Challenge DAFWA's outcome planning processes are industry-based and, in the main, projects are the means used to deliver outcomes for these processes. Recently the Department established a Project Management Office to develop and implement support for the practice of project management. Project management in DAFWA is based on the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) methodology. To manage project cycles, it uses Goal Oriented Project Planning to guide the planning, designing, and thinking about projects. The results of this planning and design are captured in a 4X4 matrix known as the Logical Framework (or LogFrame). It details the purpose of the project, as well as outcome, resources, performance indicators and assumptions about the project. Because of the complex logic that goes into analysing and developing this phase of the projects, it was hard for DAFWA to find a system that could be used statewide to capture the LogFrames, allow for some comparative analysis and generate reports that linked back to the logic framed by the matrix. DAFWA had an in-house product in place to assist with project management but there were a few issues -it didn't allow for DAFWA to deliver confidently and consistently across the geographic locations, which created reliability and stability issues. In addition, DAFWA couldn't reproduce the reports they needed. In developing its business requirements for a new system DAFWA included some basic but critically important selection criteria. These included:
The Solution DAFWA sourced and selected Daptiv through a competitive government tender process and worked with Daptiv's Australian business partner and Daptiv reseller, Bluenova. Charl Morkel, CEO of Bluenova, began working with DAFWA to uncover how Daptiv PPM could adapt to their Logical Framework Analysis, create multi-dimensional reports and accommodate their approach to project management. "We really appreciated being able to purchase one product that handled both our logical framework and project management. Daptiv PPM covers our project management requirements as well as portfolio management to give a holistic view," says Janine Douglas, Manager, Project Management Office. In looking at how Daptiv PPM could accommodate DAFWA's processes, it was clear that Daptiv PPM had the right capabilities for the organisation's needs. "Daptiv PPM had to be flexible to meet our range of needs and we wanted to get the logframe planning component up and running quickly so we could then focus on best practices in project management," says Janine. With the help of Bluenova over the period of a few months, DAFWA created Dynamic Applications within Daptiv PPM to map to their Logical Framework Analysis. "It was a challenging process that really tested Daptiv's flexibility. Bluenova was dedicated to the challenge and very generous in the support they gave us," says Janine. The logical framework component of the system has now been rolled out across the Department supported by a training program and we have started the planning for the roll out of the project management components of the system relevant to the Department and for the possible integration with aspects of the finance and human resources systems." In addition to Daptiv PPM, DAFWA leverages Daptiv Advanced Report Builder, part of Daptiv's integrated Work Intelligence offering which provides rich, easy to use tools for reporting and visualising information. "We've used products that didn't deliver what we wanted. Using Daptiv Advanced Report Builder has made a great difference our reports and it gives us the flexibility to design and develop a range of reporting options," says Janine.
Value DAFWA compared the benefits of using an installed software and the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Looking closely at Daptiv's SaaS model, DAFWA liked the value presented through pure on-demand delivery:
Approximately 130 Project and Program Managers use Daptiv PPM and the feedback from DAFWA's managers once Daptiv PPM was brought on board has been very positive. "Managers like the easy access to Gantt charts and task management and the easy to use document sharing features. They are eager to explore and use the Daptiv PPM project management functionality. There is so much potential in the product. We know it is not the end-- we can just keep progressing and growing with Daptiv PPM. It's the most exciting aspect of being a customer; the prospects for added value." An overarching benefit of using Daptiv PPM from a process standpoint is that it has propelled better project management practices. "We wanted to be able to develop and sustain a program to improve our project management practices and Daptiv PPM has been a strong catalyst," explains Janine. "We had high standards and complex requirements and needed a better system in order to meet those standards and requirements. Daptiv PPM is helping us meet them." "Managers like the easy access to Gantt charts and task management and the easy to use document sharing features. They are eager to explore and use the Daptiv PPM project management functionality. There is so much potential in the product. We know it is not the end-- we can just keep progressing and growing with Daptiv PPM. It's the most exciting aspect of being a customer; the prospects for added value" While DAFWA continues to explore all the options for how they can manage their projects and other areas of work, Janine says, "There has been a great collaborative effort between Bluenova and Daptiv to push the product to its limits. The flexibility of the product has been demonstrated and we're often presented with options for modifying and improving our current functionality. With Daptiv PPM, it's been a proactive experience instead of a reactive one where we were able to explore how the system could meet our needs rather than trying to make our practice fit the way the system worked. We're getting a more sophisticated result and we're very pleased." In working with Daptiv and Bluenova, Janine concludes, "It's about building long-term relationships for process and practice improvements, and we're in it for the long-haul." "The flexibility of the product has been demonstrated and we're often presented with options for modifying and improving our current functionality. With Daptiv PPM, it's been a proactive experience instead of a reactive one where we were able to explore how the system could meet our needs rather than trying to make our practice fit the way the system worked. We're getting a more sophisticated result and we're very pleased"
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