Case Study - UNIDO Public Website - Managing uncertainties and Delivering Value

pavanmalji — Mon, 15 May 2023 15:59:51 +0000

Room

HS1 (Ground level)

pavanmalji Mon, 05/15/2023 - 17:59

Time Slot

Fri 4:15pm to 5:00pm (7/21/23)

Session length

Long session - 45min, including Q&A

Audience

All Attendees

Session Category

Clients & Industry Experiences

Established in 1966, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization, and environmental sustainability. It provides technical assistance, policy advice, and capacity-building support to developing countries and economies in transition. UNIDO focuses on key areas such as industrial policy, trade capacity building, green industry, energy, and agribusiness. Its ultimate goal is to promote inclusive and sustainable industrial development that contributes to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

In December of 2021, Dr. Gerd Müller from Germany took the helm of UNIDO as the Director General. His vision for UNIDO is to provide concrete and practical solutions to pressing global challenges like sustainability, climate change and hunger. As he set out to bring his vision to life, he has introduced a major restructuring to the organization and has prioritized digital transformation to better deliver UNIDO's mandate.

My name is Pavan Malji and I work at UNIDO as a Web Applications Management Officer or WAMO. My team and I develop, manage and support the web applications portfolio of UNIDO under the central IT. I wear several hats on my job including developer, technical lead, project manager, team lead, support engineer, etc. My duties also include resource management, vendor evaluation, technical advisor, etc. Today, I am am going to share with you the journey of the UNIDO’s Public Website revamp project where I wore most of these hats. I will be touching the technical aspects of this project in brief but my main focus is to share the lessons learnt working on a project on a tight budget, tight schedule, fluid requirements while making almost no compromises on the quality, maintainability and scalability.

Chapter 1: The Business Case

“It has been determined by office of the Director General that the current UNIDO public website does not accurately reflect the priorities, work and achievements of the organization. It is also in a serious need of a visual upgrade to a more modern and vibrant look.”

This formed the basis of the project. As the WAMO (hope this does not catch on) in UNIDO, I was given this mandate by the IT department chief. This is also an opportunity for IT to demonstrate that they are fully embracing the new mantra, “Do more with less”

Chapter 2: The Requirements - Management Vs. IT understanding

Chapter 3: The Team

Chapter 4: Execution

Chapter 5: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Chapter 6: If only we had more time

Chapter 7: How do you like that?

Chapter 8: Are we there yet?

Chapter 9: Let’s go live now

Chapter 10: What did we learn

Q & A ?

Speaker(s)

Pavan Malji

Web Application Management Officer at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

Speaker biography

Speaker1 - Mr. Pavan Malji, MSc

Web Applications Management Officer | United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Software Engineer with a bachelors in computer engineering, a masters in business information systems and almost 20 years of experience developing and managing software projects.

Worked on various aspects of software development including requirements gathering, software architecture, system design, information architecture, application security, application infrastructure management, documentation, user support and training.

Specialised in the field of web application development, content management systems and legacy systems maintenance and migration, I have developed, migrated, documented, supported and maintained several business critical applications and public information systems in the last two decades working for international organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

My passion for solving problems and developing software, complemented with a professional attitude and excellent written and oral communication skills has helped me gain substantial experience in software development and IT project management which enables me to implement the right systems, using the right technologies that are right for the business.

Speaking of the right tools and technologies, Drupal has been my goto technology when it comes to content management system since 2014. I have used it in several web projects since then.

My wife and I are blessed with three lovely kids. And my hobbies include running, cooking and watching standup comedy.

Session Keywords

Digital Transformation

Showcases

NGOs