DEADLINE : September 30th 2020

PROVISION OF SERVICES FOR KOAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

1.0 About KOAN

Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) is a national membership organization for organic agriculture in Kenya. KOAN was formed to coordinate, facilitate and provide leadership and professional services to all members and other stakeholders in the organic agriculture sector in Kenya. KOAN Membership is derived from farmers, traders, exporters, service providers (extension officers, certification bodies) and research institutions. The organization goal is to develop key competencies, skills and strategies in the areas of Organic Production; Marketing; Standards and Certification; Training, Extension and Information Exchange; Networking, Policy and Advocacy. In order to effectively dispense its mandate of availing quality organic produce to consumer’s at the most convenient way, KOAN would like to develop an in house project management and tracking system. The aim is to develop a dynamic system that has functionality of CRM, project tracking, task management and reporting to Kenya Organic Agriculture Network

2.0 Services required.

KOAN is looking for a service provider to develop a project management system for the organization and pillar implementing partners in Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOAI). The system will be used to manage donor projects in line with the acceptable project management benchmarks and methodologies and profile ease monitoring of project activity progress on real time basis.

3.0 System Description

The KOAN Project management System is envisioned to be a holistic platform which allows for tracking of projects and project activities in line with donor grant contracts for KOAN and its partners. Initially, it will be created to incorporate 3 partners in Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative with a possibility of expanding in the future to cover more partners. It should provide most of the features acceptable in project management and go above by providing tracking and alerting capabilities from Goal, outcomes, outputs and activities.

3.1 Product perspective

The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network is looking for a custom project management software developed in line with KOAN operating principles, procedures, systems and constraints. The system should be interoperable with other existing KOAN custom systems and allow for customization based on arising needs. The system also needs to be agile and flexible.

3.1.1 Product features

The Systems should have the following minimum features;

1. Project planning and scheduling-

Shared timelines to activate experience and creativity of entire teams to collaboratively create and visualize a project plan. A process where one can easily define the project goals, objectives and specify the work to be done/activities related to this scope. Analyze the required activities and create a detailed plan that shows how and when the project will provide the deliverables defined in the project scope.

Key deliverables to include- Gantt charts and Timelines

Daily up to yearly timeline; Real-time updates; Integrated task management; Multi-project timeline report; Follows-precedes relationships; Fully customizable columns and filters

1. Product roadmap and release planning

Create easy ways to plan, visualize, and communicate product/project roadmap. Ability to share product roadmap with stakeholders, get feedback about ideas and break it down into a detailed release plan. Align product roadmaps with company’s corporate strategy and create buy-in and transparency across all teams.

Key deliverables to have

Project Status in progress bar; Multi-project roadmap; Analyze status, priority, assigned person; Scoped based on user permissions; Compare estimated time and actual time; Document key information in wiki

• Task management and team collaboration

Task management software to easily create, assign and manage work. Allow the project manager to stay always on top of the latest development. Create a dynamic task list to provide an overview of all the work that has to be completed. See the progress, who is working on which tasks and what tasks have an approaching deadline. Ability to transition easily to project planning by activating the Gantt chart and setting dates as well as relationships between tasks.

Key deliverables to have;

Inline editing; Integrated Gantt chart; Custom permissions; Email updates; Custom fields; Custom workflows; Create your own view; Export as PDF, XLS, CSV;

1. Use of Project Management Methodology Boards (KANBAN, AGILE, SCRUM)

Ability to have boards for: managing tasks, developing new features, prioritizing activities, monitoring risks, planning sprints or releases, spreading ideas, anything! Flexible boards which can be configured to user needs, easy to get started and fun to work with.

1. Time tracking, cost reporting and budgeting

The system should make time tracking easy. Stay on top of project budgets and costs spent. Create custom reports for accurate, current insight into project performance and allocated resources. Plan the cost for each project phase, and see how much of the allocated budget has been spent at a glance.

Key deliverables to have;

Project budgets; Custom cost types; Project-based hourly rates; Dashboard; Share cost reports; Custom fields; Custom permissions; Export as CSV; Integrated project management features;

1. Project wiki

Ability to collaboratively create and maintain a project wiki. Manage project documentation, references, guidelines, user manual at one central place and create a knowledge base for projects and share it with team and other stakeholders. Ability to easily insert, edit and format texts (e.g. copy and paste from Word), include tables, pictures, links, and other references to the System (e.g. work package tables, Gantt charts or tickets). Have all changes at one site, or export texts (e.g. in Markdown). Create detailed navigation structure with a side menu, table of contents, and site hierarchies.

 

3.1.2 User classes and characteristics

• Types of users:
• KOAN Project Staff
• Project partners
• Contractors working for KOAN
• Technical expertise:
• Project Managers/ Officers need to be conversant with project management principles and practices
• All users’ needs to have minimal technical expertise (need to know how to use the mouse and keyboard)

 

3.1.3 Operating environment

This program will operate in the following operating environment for the client and the server

GUI:

• Apple Mac OS X (Universal)
• Linux/Unix (Source code)
• Microsoft Windows (Installer)
• Web browser (universal)

 

3.1.4 System requirements

The system shall be available online through company VPN

The system shall be installed on the company server (Window Server 2010) .

 

4.0 Time frame

The estimate start date is October 2020 with final hand over expected not later than 4 months from the signing of service contract.

5.0 Expertise required

KOAN is therefore looking for a qualified consultant to undertake the services indicated above. The consultant should have the following:

1.  Incorporated Company – with Tax compliance certificate
2.  Formal training at a degree level on computer literacy or related.
3. Have a profile of at least 3 CMS and Object Oriented Systems similar to the specifications in question he/she has developed. This should be supported by contact persons and contacts of the clients.
4. At least 5 years’ experience in the field of developing mobile based applications and web based systems with end to end functionality.

 

6.0 Payment

The prospective consultant is requested to send a financial proposal indicating daily rate of payment, number of days that he/she will take and total cost inclusive of taxes.

7.0 Technical approach

The consultant should send a proposed technical framework for developing the application.

The technical framework and budget should be sent to KOAN not later than 10th September 2020 COB on info@koan.co.ke For any enquiries call 0728 772 805

Call EoI – Project management System