<h2>Background</h2><p>Church World Service (CWS) is committed to supporting vulnerable populations, refugees, and displaced individuals. To enhance case management, service delivery, and client empowerment, CWS is developing a dedicated software application designed to streamline workflows, secure data, and improve communication between case managers and clients.</p><p>CWS Africa is undertaking a strategic enhancement of the Case Status platform to improve engagement, communication, document management, case visibility, scheduling, reporting, and service delivery while ensuring compliance, security, and operational effectiveness.</p><p>For consistency, this document refers to the enhanced Case Status platform as “the platform” and refers to</p><p>CWS Africa program teams as “Programs.” The platform will support secure handling of personally identifiable information (PII), enhance self-service capabilities, improve Programs operations, and strengthen collaboration between Programs and Information Technology.</p><p>The project will follow a structured and governed approach covering requirements management, solution design, development oversight, testing, training, implementation, and operationalization of the enhanced platform.</p><p>The solution must be secure, scalable, auditable, and compliant with applicable regulatory and organizational requirements, including minimum National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 Rev. 4 security and privacy expectations.</p><p>To support successful delivery, CWS Africa seeks an experienced Project Manager consultant to coordinate collaboration between Programs and the IT software development team, with the target of achieving a fully operational solution by <strong>March 2027</strong>.</p><h2>Purpose of the Assignment</h2><p>The Project Manager consultant will serve as the primary coordination and delivery lead between Programs, IT software development partners, and CWS Africa leadership to facilitate and track the following:</p><ul><li>Program requirements are clearly documented, validated, prioritized, and translated into technical specifications.</li><li>Development efforts remain aligned with approved business objectives.</li><li>Project governance, risk management, and change control processes are followed.</li><li>Security Testing, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), training, implementation, and operational readiness activities are completed.</li><li>Handover of system documents – system architecture, configuration details, source code repository access, test results, user manuals, deployment, support and maintenance</li><li>The final enhanced platform is production-ready, secure, compliant, and fully operational by <strong>March 2027</strong>, subject to required approvals and stakeholder inputs.</li></ul><h2>Objective of the Consultancy</h2><p>The overall objective is to coordinate the successful delivery of the platform enhancement initiative through effective stakeholder engagement, requirements management, project governance, implementation oversight, and operational readiness support.</p><p>The consultant will coordinate and track delivery so that the solution:</p><ul><li>Meets Program operational / business requirements.</li><li>Meets Information Technology standards and architectural requirements.</li><li>Meets information security and privacy requirements (NIST 800 53 Rev 4.).</li><li>Supports future scalability and partner integration.</li><li>Achieves successful adoption by end users.</li><li>Is operational and supported within the defined project timeline (March 2027).</li></ul><h2>Scope of Work</h2><p>The Project Manager consultant shall work closely with Program leadership, IT leadership, Administration and Operations stakeholders, and other project participants, including the Executive Sponsor, Project / Product Owner, funder compliance representatives, and relevant governance bodies. This role must spend a minimum of 10 hours per week on-site, and the actual hours needed will be determined upon review of the work plan.</p><h3>Program Vision and Requirements Alignment</h3><p>The consultant shall:</p><ul><li>Review and understand the platform program vision and enhancement roadmap.</li><li>Facilitate in-person workshops with Programs and IT stakeholders.</li><li>Hold and lead an in-person leadership updates meeting every two weeks.</li><li>Refine and document business, functional, and non-functional requirements.</li><li>Prioritize and stage builds based on dependencies and keep updated project timelines.</li><li>Establish requirements traceability from business needs through implementation.</li><li>Support requirements that are testable, measurable, and prioritized.</li><li>Develop and maintain the product backlog.</li></ul><h3>Project Coordination and Delivery Management</h3><p>The consultant shall:</p><ul><li>Coordinate all project activities across Programs, IT, and the development team.</li><li>Track project plans, schedules, dependencies, and milestones through the Change Control Board (CCB), as applicable.</li><li>Track delivery progress and report status to stakeholders.</li><li>Facilitate governance meetings and decision-making forums.</li><li>Maintain risk, issues, action, and dependency registers.</li><li>Attend Change Control Board (CCB) meetings and track resulting decisions and actions.</li></ul><h3>Solution Design and Development Oversight</h3><p>The consultant shall:</p><ul><li>Support translation of Program requirements into technical specifications.</li><li>Coordinate solution review sessions between Programs and IT.</li><li>Coordinate Information Security involvement in design reviews and track whether development follows approved standards.</li><li>Monitor sprint progress, feature delivery, and backlog management.</li><li>Track completion and currency of project documentation throughout the project lifecycle.</li><li>Track configuration and release activities for compliance with the CWS Africa Change Management Process - Secure Software Deployment.</li></ul><h3>Security, Privacy, Risk and Compliance</h3><p>The consultant shall track solution implementation for compliance with:</p><ul><li>Secure processing and storage of information.</li><li>Privacy-by-design and security-by-design principles.</li><li>Applicable organizational security requirements.</li><li>Minimum NIST 800-53 Rev. 4 security and privacy requirements.</li><li>Vulnerability assessment and security review before go-live.</li><li>Appropriate access controls, audit logging, authentication, backup, recovery, and incident response capabilities; and</li><li>Compliance requirements relevant to processing and data management.</li></ul><h3>User Acceptance Testing (UAT)</h3><p>The consultant shall:</p><ul><li>Track implementation of the UAT strategy and plan.</li><li>Coordinate end-user testing activities.</li><li>Support preparation of test cases and acceptance criteria.</li><li>Track and manage defects through resolution.</li><li>Facilitate formal UAT sign-off.</li><li>Track resolution of critical and high-risk issues prior to implementation.</li></ul><h3>Training and Change Management</h3><p>The consultant shall:</p><ul><li>Develop a stakeholder engagement and change management approach.</li><li>Coordinate and attend in-person user training activities.</li><li>Develop training schedules and materials.</li><li>Support communication and user adoption activities.</li><li>Coordinate operational readiness activities so support teams are prepared for post-launch support.</li></ul><h3>Implementation and Operationalization</h3><p>The consultant shall:</p><ul><li>Coordinate implementation planning activities.</li><li>Facilitate go-live readiness assessments.</li><li>Support launch activities and hypercare planning.</li><li>Coordinate production support handover.</li><li>Track completion of operational documentation, runbooks, and support processes required for handover.</li></ul><p>The consultant will coordinate and track completion of the following before the target operational date of <strong>March 2027</strong>:</p><ul><li>Security testing.</li><li>User Acceptance Testing.</li><li>Training.</li><li>Implementation.</li><li>Operational handover.</li></ul><p>In-person project completion meeting.</p><h2>Expected Deliverables</h2><p>The consultant shall provide, at minimum:</p><h3>Inception Phase</h3><ul><li>Inception report and work plan.</li><li>Stakeholder engagement plan.</li><li>Project governance framework.</li></ul><h3>Requirements Phase</h3><ul><li>Business Requirements Document (BRD).</li><li>Functional Requirements Document (FRD).</li><li>Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM).</li><li>Prioritized product backlog.</li></ul><h3>Delivery Phase</h3><ul><li>Project schedule and milestone tracker.</li><li>Risk and issue register.</li><li>Change management log.</li><li>Monthly project status reports.</li><li>Technical coordination reports.</li></ul><h3>Testing and Readiness Phase</h3><ul><li>Security Testing report (Static &amp; Dynamic Analysis test, Configuration Verification, Software Composition Analysis and Penetration Test).</li><li>UAT Strategy and Plan, including approved test scope, acceptance criteria, roles, and sign-off process.</li><li>UAT execution reports, including test coverage, pass/fail results, open defects, and documented business sign-off status.</li><li>Defect and resolution tracker.</li><li>Training materials and training records, including attendance, user groups covered, and knowledge transfer evidence.</li><li>Operational readiness assessment, including readiness status, unresolved risks, support model, and go-live recommendations.</li></ul><h3>Go-Live Phase</h3><ul><li>Implementation plan.</li><li>Go-live readiness checklist, including approval status for UAT, training, security review, data readiness, support readiness, and deployment communications.</li><li>Security and compliance assessment summary, including identified gaps, mitigation status, and approval or exception record before go-live.</li><li>Deployment and handover documentation, including runbooks, support contacts, escalation paths, release notes, and ownership transfer confirmation.</li><li>Post-implementation review report.</li></ul><h2>Duration of Assignment</h2><p>The consultancy is expected to commence immediately upon contract award and continue through project completion.</p><p>The consultant will coordinate and track the following:</p><ul><li>Development activities are coordinated and monitored throughout the project lifecycle.</li><li>UAT, training, implementation, and operational readiness activities are completed.</li><li>The enhanced platform is fully operational by <strong>March 2027</strong>, subject to required approvals, dependencies, and stakeholder inputs.</li></ul><h2>Reporting Line</h2><p>The consultant will report jointly to:</p><ul><li>Program Leadership, represented by the designated Product/Project Owner.</li><li>Regional Information Technology Director, serving as Technical Lead.</li></ul><p>The consultant will work closely with:</p><ul><li>Program stakeholders.</li><li>Software development team.</li><li>Information Security representative.</li><li>Project governance bodies, including the Change Control Board (CCB).</li></ul><h2>Required Qualifications and Experience</h2><p>The consultant should possess:</p><h3>Education</h3><ul><li>Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Business Analysis, Project Management, Information Systems, or related field.</li><li>Relevant Agile and Scrum Master certification preferred (Scrum Alliance, Scrum.org, PMI‑ACP, or equivalent). Project management credentials such as PMP or PRINCE2 will be considered an added advantage</li></ul><h3>Experience</h3><ul><li>Minimum 8 years of experience managing or coordinating software development and implementation projects.</li><li>Demonstrated experience serving as a bridge between business and technology teams.</li><li>Experience leading requirements gathering and solution delivery initiatives.</li><li>Experience managing software development projects using Agile and hybrid methodologies.</li><li>Experience coordinating UAT, training, implementation, and change management activities.</li><li>Experience with secure systems handling sensitive or personally identifiable information.</li><li>Experience working in donor-funded, humanitarian, refugee, migration, or international NGO environments is highly desirable.</li></ul><h3>Technical Knowledge</h3><ul><li>Requirements management and business analysis.</li><li>Software development lifecycle (SDLC).</li><li>Information security and privacy practices.</li><li>Risk and compliance management.</li><li>Change management and governance.</li><li>Vendor and stakeholder management.</li></ul><h2>Evaluation Criteria</h2><p>Proposals will be evaluated using the criteria below. Bidders should provide clear, relevant, and verifiable evidence to support each criterion. CWS Africa may conduct reference checks and request clarifications where necessary as part of the evaluation process.</p><p><strong>Weight</strong></p><p><strong>Means of Verification</strong></p><p><strong>Relevant technical project experience</strong></p><p><strong>20%</strong></p><p>Company / Consultant profile; consultant CVs; project references; completion certificates; client recommendation letters; contract award documents demonstrating similar assignments.</p><p><strong>Demonstrated experience implementing comparable software solutions</strong></p><p><strong>20%</strong></p><p>Detailed project descriptions; case studies; references from clients; implementation reports; screenshots or demonstrations of deployed solutions; acceptance/sign-off documents.</p><p><strong>Experience coordinating business, technical, and stakeholder teams</strong></p><p><strong>20%</strong></p><p>Project management methodology; stakeholder engagement plans; organization charts; examples of governance structures; reference checks; documented evidence from similar assignments.</p><p><strong>Demonstrated experience in security, privacy, risk, and compliance</strong></p><p><strong>15%</strong></p><p>Relevant certifications: security and compliance frameworks applied in previous projects; risk management plans; audit reports; client references; documented policies and procedures.</p><p><strong>Cost proposal and overall value for money</strong></p><p><strong>15%</strong></p><p>Financial proposal; detailed budget breakdown; daily rates; resource allocation plan; comparison of costs against proposed deliverables and implementation approach.</p><p><strong>Proposed methodology, work plan, and delivery approach</strong></p><p><strong>10%</strong></p><p>Technical proposal; project work plan; implementation methodology; risk register template; quality assurance framework; change management and stakeholder engagement approach.</p><h2>Success Measures</h2><p>The consultancy will be considered successful if:</p><ul><li>Program requirements are fully documented and traceable.</li><li>Development activities are effectively coordinated.</li><li>Project risks and issues are proactively managed.</li><li>Security and compliance requirements are met.</li><li>UAT is successfully completed and signed off.</li><li>Training and knowledge transfer are completed.</li><li>The platform is deployed and operationalized by <strong>March 2027</strong>.</li></ul><h2><br></h2>

Scrum Master Consultancy Services

Church World Service