Information Technology Planning Committee
Purpose
To optimize the IT project governance structure and processes to drive business value and enable effective decision-making, while ensuring that project prioritization and planning are in place to execute strategic initiatives.
Goal 1: Provide transparency and awareness for all IT development projects.
Strategy
- Expand and enhance the current OIT project portfolio to represent all projects that utilize technical resources, e.g. adding BIRS and Next Frontier projects.
- Identify overlap or dependencies among projects.
Outcomes
- Optimize resource allocation and demonstrate resource demands.
- Provide visibility into prioritization and timelines.
- Provide a tool for reprioritizing projects as critical needs emerge.
Goal 2: Provide one entry point for IT project requests.
Strategy
- Follow a unified process for OIT project request intake and review.
- All requests are provided with a business case drafted by the PMO, project requesters, and impacted stakeholders.
Outcomes
- Projects demonstrate clear expectations and have agreement on deliverables before work begins.
- Coordinate project execution, considering timelines and resources, to improve delivery.
- Improve data for measuring project success and determining future courses of action.
Goal 3: Use a standard scoring rubric for all projects.
Strategy
- Provide a standard format for evaluating project requests and determining prioritization.
- Projects that support University strategic goals are weighted higher.
Outcomes
- Determine the value of a project before committing budget, personnel, and time.
- Address project risks to minimize impact.
- Provide a forum for understanding and enhancing the scoring rubric.
Goal 4: Distill Working Groups to Decision Support, IT Operations and Support, Communications and Marketing, Research, and Student Recruitment and Success.
Strategy
- Each ITPC member represents a Working Group. How Working Groups operate is determined by their respective members.
- ITPC members bring project needs from their division to the Working Group, and route to the project request submission.
- Working Groups report to ITPC on active projects and provide input on prioritization of projects under their group.
Outcomes
- Support cross-divisional conversations about projects, e.g. business case reviews.
- Serve as a resource for project information in their respective department/division.
- Identify projects not yet tracked that need to be submitted through the request process.
Goal 5: Structure monthly ITPC meetings to meet specific objectives.
Strategy
- Review and discuss scoring and ranking of new project requests.
- Working Group representatives report on progress of active and pending ITPC projects.
- Bring critical (i.e. emergency executive directives) project needs to the group.
Outcomes
- Purpose and outcomes of the meeting are defined, maximizing time for a resource-heavy (expensive) meeting
- Format allows for broad membership to contribute.
Project Vetting
Purpose
Provide ITPC members with an awareness of ITPC projects and Working Groups an opportunity to provide feedback on project requests.
- Once the project request is received, the PMO and project stakeholders will draft a business case that includes a description of changes, justification, scope, and preliminary impact analysis.
- The PMO will provide the assigned Working Group with an opportunity to review and provide feedback on the business case and prioritize among their existing Working Group projects.
- Once the Working Group completes their review, the business case will be shared with ITPC for final comments with a deadline of two weeks. Comments will be monitored by the Working Group and PMO for opportunities to provide clarification or additional information, with the goal to resolve all comments.
- The monthly ITPC meeting will include a standing agenda item to confirm final review of recent business cases and determine prioritization of the projects in the Project Portfolio.