Project Administrator (Basecamp)

We need an agency / team or individual contributor to gather requirements, coordinate resources, & maintain internal project steps & timelines in Basecamp. Test projects will be 5-10 hours; ongoing work half time & potential for successful participants will include full-time employment. Background The client for this project is a US-based sourcing advisor for IT infrastructure. The client’s executive staff is managing dozens of small internal & external projects & needs these activities to be coordinated in Basecamp. The business goal is to be able to predict estimated delivery time for any project that takes more than 1 day as accurately as possible at any given time without imposing a major administrative burden on the exec team & staff. Initial contract will be project-based for 5-10 hours to build Basecamp templates for repeatable project workflow. Steady state is expected to be half-time on an hourly basis. Long run prospects include joining the customer-facing delivery team full time as project manager &/or business analyst. Your job will be to: • Maintain project-related Basecamp functionality & content (to-dos, etc.) o Research & recommend tools to augment Basecamp for better project management o Develop & maintain project progress / success metrics & reports o Synchronize content from other systems into Basecamp • Maintain a prioritized list of major internal & external projects o Keep track of non-movable / external deadlines & update project priority daily to meet them o Keep track of movable / internal deadlines & update based on assigned priority, resource availability, & progress to date o On a regular basis, collect information on project progress & update target timelines from project owner o Document delays & causes of delays • Gather requirements & project timelines for each new major project: o Work with project requester to collect project requirements via phone, skype, e-mail, etc. , validate that request has been transcribed correctly & publish them in Basecamp using a pre-defined format. o Identify a project owner either via assignment by project requester or soliciting volunteers o Contact the project owner and other project participants if any to identify steps required; arrive at a total time estimate for the project o Obtain a preliminary prioritization vs. other key pending tasks with input from project requester & project owner o Based on the project’s labor requirements & prioritization, estimate a due date & get it confirmed by the project owner o Validate that the due date is acceptable to the project requester o Map the final project schedule into Basecamp • Document processes & vocabulary o Create a step by step workflow for the above tasks o Create & maintain a dictionary of client-specific terminology o Build templates in Basecamp for repeated tasks Qualifications – Required Minimums • Excellent spoken & written English • Ability to think analytically & add structure to requests • Familiarity w/IT infrastructure & related disciplines (data center / co-location, managed hosting, cloud computing, bandwidth / networking, content delivery, etc.) • Availability during US working hours Qualifications – Preferred Experience / Background • Previous project administration / management &/or requirements gathering experience o Example job titles: project manager, project administrator, business analyst • In-depth knowledge of Basecamp & extensions / add-ons • Experience working with busy executives & adapting to their working modes / styles • Experience working with small firms / startups without established structure / process • MBA/BSBA • MS Office applications