08 Oct
Sr. IT Project/Programmer Manager
Vacancy expired!
- The Colorado Department of Education (hereafter referred to as “CDE” or “the Department”) is seeking a qualified Senior Technical Project Manager to perform all project management activities for a project currently underway to build a custom IEP System and data monitoring system (DMS) for CDE’s Exceptional Student Services Unit that allows special education service providers to create and document legally-compliant Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and provides CDE and field (schools) users with data monitoring and reporting functionalities related to special education.
- The purpose of this position is to provide staff augmentation. To manage the project from the current project state through the remaining project phases to completion. This project is a challenging and complex project which has detailed requirements defined. This role needs to be filled by a senior-level project manager, with significant project management experience managing large custom technical projects.
- CDE anticipates that the term of this project will run from as soon as the position can be filled and contracted through the completion of all project management related tasks, estimated to be December 31, 2022 (the project may be completed prior to this time as determined by CDE).
- The Contractor shall work closely and collaboratively with the Department’s Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services (or designee) to discuss suggestions or issues as they occur and incorporate suggestions or guidance from the Department while performing the work described within this Statement of Work, the purchase order, and the vendor contract.
- The Contractor shall coordinate and prioritize all work to ensure that all deliverables and deadlines are met.
- The Contractor shall employ an internal quality control process to ensure that all deliverables are complete, accurate, easy to understand, and of high quality.
- The Contractor shall provide deliverables that, at a minimum, are responsive to the specific requirements, organized into a logical order, contain no spelling or grammatical errors, formatted uniformly, and contain accurate information and correct calculations.
- The Contractor shall submit each deliverable to the Department’s Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services (or designee) for review and approval.
- The Contractor shall retain all work papers generated for reference through the duration of the project and project acceptance.
- The Contractor shall participate in the review and revision process until the Department provides written acceptance of the deliverable.
- The Contractor shall provide copies of any supporting documentation to the Department upon request of the Department and without charge.
- The Contractor shall respond to all telephone calls, voicemails, and e-mail inquiries from the Department within one (1) business day.
- The Contractor shall enable all Contractor staff to exchange documents and electronic files with the Department staff in formats compatible with the Department’s systems. The Department currently uses Microsoft Office 2010 for PC and is migrating to Office 365.
- The Student Data Transparency and Security Act (C.R.S. §§22-16-101 et al.) governing the privacy of Personally Identifiable Information requires a confidentiality contract between CDE and the Senior Technical Project Manager.
- The Senior Technical Project Manager may have access to confidential information or Personally Identifiable Information. As such, the Senior Technical Project Manager will be required to sign a Confidentiality agreement upon starting their work as a Contractor with CDE.
- The Contractor shall facilitate the collaborative efforts, with project stakeholders, to execute and deliver all elements of the custom IEP System and data monitoring system (DMS) for CDE’s Exceptional Student Services Unit. The IEP part of the system was released in July 2021 to a handful of schools that volunteered to pilot the application. The project has been managed by an individual who is a subject matter expert on special education and has done an admirable job but needs to get back to the job they were hired to do.
- The Contractor will read and assimilate the project documentation, including but not limited to the contract statement of work and requirements; project documentation created by the project team; client and vendor communications; and any project assessment documentation. The Contractor will interview the project stakeholders to gather project information and status.
- The special education Subject Matter Expert (SME) will transition the project to the Contractor. The SME will continue to be a part of the project team to provide SME expertise but will return to the duties they were hired to do. As part of the transition, the SME will walk through the current project issues with the Contractor.
- The Contractor will adopt the problem level definitions currently used by the team or if none, create one. e.g., Level 1 – Critical, showstopper, major functionality is impacted, there is no workaround, or no reasonable work-around, Level 2 – Critical, showstopper but there is a usable workaround, Level 5 – Informational, low to no impact, incorrect spelling in an error message, etc.
- The Contractor in collaboration with the SME will prioritize the issues and strategize a plan to address the critical issues by priority. When critical issues are reported, the Contractor will immediately triage with the SME, customer, and vendor as needed based on the issue. Promptly gather all the details of high-level issues, or project blockers and alert management to the issues with suggested next steps toward a solution.
- Note, collaboration is a requirement throughout this SOW. This Contractor must use collaboration as the first go-to method of working and communicating to drive this project. The lone project manager making decisions in a silo will not be acceptable or successful. However, the Contractor must be strong with experience and instincts to know there will not be consensus on each or perhaps any issue. At some point, collaboration needs to end and actions need to be executed.
- As always, there is a political component to this project. It will be essential that the Contractor listen carefully and follow the guidelines for communicating with the client and the vendor. Initially, it will be in everyone’s best interest to include a SME in all conversations. This should continue until the SME and Contractor agree the Contractor may communicate independently.
- One of the schools has asked to revert back to the old application. As a Senior project manager would recognize, this, and any issues like this need to be resolved immediately. Prior to this request, the schools have been encountering bugs and working through them with the vendor, as expected. Thus, this is a recent and unexpected development. The Contractor must be comfortable and experienced in troubleshooting these types of highly visible issues.
- The Contractor, while not expected to be a SME on the application must be able to communicate, understand and rely on the SMEs working in this unit on this project. A strong technical acumen is essential and the ability to break down the technical complexities into language appropriate for the team members and other project stakeholders, to understand without condescension. In addition to the project manager and technical translator, this solution-oriented individual will be expected to serve as a leader, a coach, a problem solver, and a negotiator, throughout the project lifecycle. This individual is the go-to person for project summary and details for senior and executive decision making. They are expected to provide options, recommendations, risks, and rewards when consulted. This is a high-stakes project with high visibility and the potential for enterprise-wide impact.
- This position will work closely with all levels: executives, managers, and individual contributors. In this role, he/she must lead without direct authority over the members of project teams and must be comfortable facilitating meetings. He/she must have the ability to prepare and present information about the project and processes to all levels. Additionally, with all levels, he/she will need to negotiate deadlines and provide status updates. Diplomacy and professionalism are critical to the success of this role.
- Create test plans and user acceptance documents that map to defined requirements.
- Submit weekly detailed status reports to the project team members, the Executive Director, and the Project Management Office manager.
- Schedule and facilitate project team meetings.
- Must have 8 or more years of experience managing multiple, concurrent high priority and complex projects and programs comprised of multiple projects. Must have experience managing large complex multi-year, high cost, technical projects.
- Must have experience managing projects with critical issues.
- The Senior IT Project Manager will need to be able to assume management of a project in-flight.
- Familiarity with State of Colorado data privacy implications and how to mitigate related risks within the education industry is a plus.
- Must have strong oral and written communication skills.
- Must have experience managing personnel in both direct and matrix organizations.
- Must have the ability to directly address conflicts and escalate issues where appropriate.
- Must have experience with writing requirements, overall test plans, and user acceptance documents that cover all system components and requirements.
- Experience in Colorado K-12 education and management of projects in that area are a plus.
- Must have experience in communicating with senior leadership/executive staff on the progress of the high-impact projects that he or she shall lead.
- Contractor shall be required to pass a criminal background check.
- Contractor shall be required to comply with Covid requirements if coming to any State of Colorado public government building.
Vacancy expired!