Project Barley Evaluation - Management

[Description | Evaluation | Recommendations]

3.1 Description

The project was coordinated by Darwin Daviduk (ITSD) and Ron Weisenburger (Policy Secretariat) with contracted management advice and support from Price Waterhouse.

Four groups were established in the Department to support the management of the project, to develop the content, and to handle the packaging and technology components of the project.

The Steering Committee was the Executive Committee of the Department. Their role was to provide policy direction to the project, to approve the project design and to allocate funds for the project. This was done as part of four regular meetings of Executive Committee throughout the life of the project. The purpose of these meetings was:

to approve the project proposal and its budget
to get progress reports
to receive the project report and its recommendations.

In addition the project coordinators had numerous meetings, phone calls, e-mails and other communications with Les Lyster and Ray Bassett, the designates from Executive Committee to the project.

The Implementation Committee's role was to act as the guidance team for the project. This group included at least one person who was directly involved in each of the major aspects of the project. Initially, the group met for two to three hours each week (usually on Friday mornings) to plan and implement project development, and where necessary develop recommendations for the Steering Committee's approval. After mid-June meetings were held less frequently on an as-needed basis.

The Information Providers/Seekers and the Technical Support groups worked closely together to develop the information content for the project. Initially they met one day per week for training and to determine an overall picture of the information that would go into the project. They then divided these up into work assignments for individuals. After mid-April they met on an as-needed basis.

The people involved were:

"PROJECT BARLEY COMMITTEES"

STEERING COMMITTEE

Doug Radke, Barry Mehr, Les Lyster, Ray Bassett, Ralph Christian, Mike Mylod

IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE

Project Coordinators -- Ron Weisenburger (427-2417)/ Darwin Daviduk (427-2101)

Consultant -- M. Merali (Price Waterhouse) (420-2475)

Production/Marketing -- Don Macyk (427-5341)

Communications -- Mel Miller, Gerard Vaillancourt (427-2127)

Field Services -- Alan Hall(340-7611)

Computer Services -- Rick Ostrowski (427-2101)

PWSS -- Dennis Nicholson (422-1485 ext #279)

Training -- Rick Pixley (427-2111)

Recording Secretary -- Gail Atkinson (427-4011)

Steering Committee Liaison -- Les Lyster (427-2440), Ray Bassett (427-1957)

Project Advisor -- Roger Renaud (493-8230)

INFORMATION PROVIDERS/SEEKERS

Coordinators -- Gerard Vaillancourt (427-2127), Murray McLelland (782-4641)

Consultant -- M. Merali (Price Waterhouse) (420-2475)

Agronomy -- Jim Jones (362-3391)

Len Kryzanowski (427-6361)

Shafeek Ali/Denise Maurice and Faith Beier (427-7098)

Crop Management -- Murray Hartman (227-6565)

Machinery Dealers Info -- Dennis Budney (427-2188)

Equipment -- Murray Green (948-8525)

Conservation -- Peter Dzikowski (422-4385)

Irrigation -- Greg Snaith (362-1212)

Marketing -- Doug Walkey (782-3301)

Market Outlook -- Al Dooley (427-5387)

Markets -- Bob Prather (427-4241)

Cost of Production -- Frank Jetter (427-4005)

Crop Insurance -- Rod Rains (782-8240)/Gil Goudreau (782-8232)

Food and Industrial Use -- Ron Pettitt (986-4793)

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

ITSD -- Keith Toogood, Don Sass (427-2101), Rick Pixley (427-2111)

Communications -- Gerard Vaillancourt, Rob Thirlwell (427-2127)

3.2 Evaluation

The approach used worked well. All of the Implementation Committee members were not able to attend all of the meetings. Generally this did not hamper the group's ability to move forward, as the understanding from the start was that decision making would not be held up for those who were not able to attend.

Other relevant evaluation comments are in other sections of the report.

The following italicized comments are from the Price Waterhouse Evaluation Report for the project:

While there was a general feeling that communication was good within each team there was concern that communication and co-ordination between teams (management, technical support, content seekers/providers) was not nearly as strong as it could have been.

Some feeling of "directionless" on part of content seeker/providers at the start of the project. This arose because they did not realize that they had to conceptualize the content format themselves. This led to some frustration that the content seeker/providers group did not use their time as well as they could have.

Seeker/providers could have been better organized in their search processes - each assigned to a specific topic or area instead of all randomly searching the Internet.

There was concern on the part of some people that the content was being driven by the technology instead of the other way around. There was criticism that the technology team was controlling format and content.

Overall there was a general positive feeling about how hard all project barley team members worked and their commitment to making the project happen. It was pointed out however that this approach to the work and level of output could not be sustained over the longer term.

A formalized agreement with service providers is likely necessary in the future to clear up expectations with respect to the providers role and support they will provide.

3.3 Recommendations

Build on the project management structure that was used for this project when Internet is expanded withing AFRD.

4. Project Administration

[Description | Recommendations]

4.1 Description

Administration was provided by staff of Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) and by Gail Atkinson of Statistics and Market Analysis Branch.

The duties included filing of all related documents, keeping minutes of all meetings and distributing same, maintaining mailing lists of all committees, scheduling meetings and arranging for meeting rooms, maintaining a record of all pilot users, answering telephone calls regarding the project, managing all private sector contracts for goods and services, managing the budget development and monitoring of same, receiving and assuring payment of all invoices, establishing and maintaining and monitoring a common e-mailbox for "duke", responding to all the "duke's" mail, and providing usage statistics for the project.

An archive of Project Barley materials is being maintained by ITSD.

4.2 Recommendations

This is a needed function, that must be continued.
A single focus for incoming requests or mail is preferable for use by those who do not know the specific person that they need to contact.

This information is maintained by the Web Editor
Last Revised/Reviewed November 20, 1997

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