Long Term Projects |
Grants Management |
IQC Management | World
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Managing long-term development projects is a complex task that requires
strong organizational skills. Most projects call for multi-layered work plans
and performance evaluation, multi-office interactions, and collaborative planning
and information sharing among partners and stakeholders.
Without sound and efficient information management, reporting requirements
can become administratively burdensome. TAMIS plays an important role in providing
a methodology and structure that greatly facilitate organization, planning,
and information sharing in DAI’s long-term projects.
The standard TAMIS model for long-term development projects has three integrated
components: work plan management, impact and performance monitoring, project
administration.
Work Plan Management
At the heart of every long-term development project is the annual or life-of-project
work plan. Once the work plan is finalized, it is entered into TAMIS, usually
with individual tasks or activities grouped into components and sub-components
that define the structure or organization of the project. Associated with work
plan tasks are myriad items:
- Technical assistance scopes of work and mobilization checklists;
- Seminars or training courses;
- Terms of reference for studies and training events requiring donor approval;
- Meetings and trip reports; and
- Comments and follow-up actions.
Work plan management in TAMIS allows the project team and partners to organize
this information logically and to track the status of individual tasks and the
work that contributes to the successful completion of those tasks. All information
is entered into TAMIS only once, but the flexibility of TAMIS allows this information
to be used in a variety of ways. For example, the work plan can be viewed by
component and subcomponent, by due dates, by the person on the technical assistance
team responsible for the task, by intermediate result, by Contract Line Item
Number (CLIN), or by other ways that may be useful to the project.
Impact and Performance Monitoring
Impact and performance monitoring in TAMIS occurs on three levels: at a strategic
level, in which individual tasks contribute toward fulfillment of the project’s
goals and objectives; at the workplan task,in which the outputs of individual
tasks are monitored, noting progress toward completion of the workplan; and
at the contract level, in which individual tasks contribute to fulfillment of
contract deliverables and milestones.
As the work plan is developed, each task is carefully related to these levels
of performance. First, each task is related to the big picture—that is,
the donor’s strategy and objectives for the project to ensure all activities
contribute to the project’s goal. Indicators and results are usually defined.
As the work plan is entered into TAMIS, the work plan is linked with these results
and their specific indicators and targets. Data are usually collected on an
annual basis to measure progress toward achieving the project’s goals,
but storage of the data in TAMIS means data are available for all participants
to view at any time over the life of the project. If the project chooses, the
client can view this information on the web, which facilitates the frequent
and spontaneous reporting needs of many missions.
In the second level of performance monitoring, measurable outputs for each
task are specified and noted in TAMIS. Monitoring progress on task outputs gives
project management a good sense of progress toward completion of the work plan.
Outputs are usually reported, in the quarterly report, but, again, completion
of outputs during a quarter is noted as they occur, thus allowing real-time
and continuous monitoring of progress.
The third level of performance monitoring occurs on a contractual level. Tasks
that contribute to fulfillment of contract deliverables or milestones are noted
in the work plan in TAMIS. Monitoring progress on deliverables and milestones
gives project management in the field, and in the home office, information on
progress toward fulfilling our legal obligation with the donor.
The Integration of Components of Project Management
in TAMIS
Project Administration
TAMIS has several modules to assist the project support staff in performing
and tracking the administrative tasks. Depending on the needs of the project,
administrators use the system for mobilizing and monitoring short- and long-term
technical assistance; managing staff and resource scheduling; tracking the level
of effort of the team and subcontractors; tracking subcontractor invoices; accessing
team directories, project guidelines and policies, and project publications;
initiating and tracking procurement and purchase orders; monitoring the status
of approvals; monitoring project start-up and close-down activities; and accessing
library resources.
Other TAMIS Modules
TAMIS also has several optional modules that can be customized to meet the specific
needs of a long-term project that has a grants program or one that works with
a particular clients. For more information, please refer to the TAMIS fact sheets
on grants management and client management.
How
TAMIS Integrates Management,
Monitoring, and Administration
The power of TAMIS lies in the way it integrates information
among the three components: workplan management, impact and performance
monitoring, and project administration. For example: a project’s
workplan includes a task in which a short-tem consultant will develop
a plan to evaluate the overall impact of the project. The output of this
task (which is also a contract deliverable to be accomplished in the first
six months of the project) will be a report outlining the performance
monitoring plan.
Project staff develop a scope of work and upload it to TAMIS. USAID, which
accesses TAMIS via the internet, relays its perspective and contributions
by adding comments in TAMIS. The Chief of Party finalizes the scope of
work and asks the DAI home office for recruitment assistance. The home
office project associate uses the scope of work to recruit candidates
for the position and puts the candidates’ resumes in TAMIS. The
Chief of Party and USAID choose the consultant to do the work. All approvals
related to the short-term technical assistance, including technical and
salary approval and travel clearance, pull information from the final
scope of work and are generated automatically in TAMIS. In addition to
being stored electronically in TAMIS, the approval forms are sent electronically
to USAID for approval and printed and used for hard-copy documentation.
Once the candidate is approved, a checklist is prepared sharing mobilization
tasks through TAMIS between the field and home offices.
The consultant arrives, completes the assignment, and prepares a report
outlining the project performance monitoring plan, which is shared with
USAID and the DAI home office through TAMIS. Once accepted by USAID, the
report appears in the publications list for the project. The report also
fulfills two obligations (task output and contract deliverable), and a
checkmark automatically appears in the output list and the contract deliverable
list.
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