Visualizing the Solicitation Process with Kanban

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Program: Montgomery County is committed to better government through transparency and accountability. The Office of Procurement is mandated to maintain a system to track and report targeted milestones of a solicitation lifecycle from issuance to contract execution. A protocol was needed to easily manage the volume of solicitations, address the increased demand for status updates and reduce operational inefficiencies and missed milestones. Creation of the web-based Solicitation Kanban application has ensured effective and professional service delivery of timely procurements by integrating workflow analysis throughout the solicitation lifecycle process. The application was developed in a highly collaborative manner with Procurement’s Technical and Operations staff while leveraging existing resources for development, thereby eliminating the need for any incremental investment or funding. Key management indicators are set in pre-defined modules that align real time dynamic reporting data with deadlines, policies and directives. The Kanban application was developed and is maintained in-house at no cost and was fully implemented in 1 month.