MDF has worked on an exciting assignment for Wetlands International in the past year. Recently, Wetlands International - a global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to wetlands conservation and restoration - faced rapid expansion, opening new offices and projects. When the size of an organisation grows, it might be risky. The risk is that internal processes and procedures could fail, affecting projects' quality and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the long term.
Wetlands International was aware of this potential scenario and decided to embark on an exciting trajectory with MDF to solve this. They wanted to align their project management processes and procedures and support project managers from various countries in their work.
How we created a new set of project management guidelines
To ensure their projects' success, we recommended working in co-creation to design project management guidelines. We proposed the following actions:
- Conduct a rigorous needs analysis to understand the project managers and their line manager needs.
- Validation of the needs in online workshops using Mural®;
- Design of a new Wetlands International Project cycle;
- Writing of the Guidelines and design of tools for each phase, such as RACI tables;
- Make the guidelines available online and offline in Sharepoint;
- Accompany the launch of the Guidance with training series for project managers to create awareness about the project manual procedures and processes.
It has been a pleasure collaborating with Wetlands. A core group of Wetlands International has been assigned to work with us to facilitate the process. We would sit together every Wednesday to work and think along. Every Friday, we would catch up in a short meeting online.
We worked it through step by step, and now we are delighted to share that the guideline for project cycle management is available, and project managers can access it anytime and anywhere.
