For Latest Version of this Work Flow Document à http://www.maine.gov/oit/project_management/

 

I.       Introduction

Pursuant to Office of Information Technology - IT Policies, Standards and Procedures, all requests for IT related work and projects must comply with this document’s defined process.

 

 

 

Applicability: This document applies to all work requests performed by the following OIT Divisions:

 

·   Office of the CIO

·   Applications

·   CORE Technologies

 

 

II.      Process   (Note: Please refer to section III. for “Definitions, Abbreviations & Clarifications”)

 

Phase 1: Define the Work

 

1.  Upon receipt of a work or project request – the ‘Requestor’ will determine the amount of effort required to complete the task.

 

Important Note: Core services needs to participate in estimation whenever the request requires Core services or impacts other OIT stakeholder groups.  A request for estimation can occur by notifying a hosting manager(s) via email and creation of a Footprints ticket(s), or as part an OIT Review session.  If unclear, seek guidance from a hosting manager(s).

 

1. The ‘Requestor’ will determine the amount of anticipated and required effort, based upon the nature of the request, previous experience and similar tasks performed.

 

2. If the ‘Requestor’ does not have a sufficiently defined WBS (work breakdown structure) to understand the required effort hours, they will further elaborate the work request to fully understand and determine the scope of the request. During this effort determination process, it’s recommended that an appropriate project management methodology be followed. Please contact the PMO for guidance or perform the representative tasks below, to include, but not limited to, the following:

 

                                          i.    Engagement of stakeholders

                                         ii.    Development of conceptual design

                                        iii.    Review of existing systems/inventory

                                       iv.    Estimates funding, resources, etc.

                                        v.    Compilation of an applications worksheet…..

1.    WBS – Work Breakdown Structure - Applications

2.    WBS – Work Breakdown Structure – CTS

                                       vi.    RFP planning

                                      vii.    May involve iterative ‘OIT Review’ sessions

2. Once the ‘Requestor’ validates the scope and effort hours of the work request – they will then determine the project sizing based on the ‘right-sizing’ process.

 

1. For any work request. The ‘Requestor’ shall:

 

                                          i.    If not done previously, notify the hosting manager(s) via email and Footprint ticket(s) of the request.

 

                                         ii.    Schedule an OIT Review if….

1.    Services from other domains of OIT will be required or impacted.

 

2.    If Core services will be needed for ‘deployment certification’.  Please see related policy at http://www.maine.gov/oit/policies/AppDeployCert.htm

 

3.    If the technology is not well identified or clearly established as being within the ‘bricks’.

 

                                        iii.    Work with the appropriate IT Manager to determine assignment of a ‘Project Manager’. It’s recognized that the ‘Requestor’ and ‘PM’ may often be the same person.  Note: If a project manager is needed, please consult with the Director of the Project Management Office.

 

 

2. For all small,  medium and large projects the ‘Requestor’ shall:

 

                                          i.    Schedule an OIT Review if one has not already occurred.  NOTE: An OIT review is not required for ‘self-contained projects’.

 

                                         ii.    Prepare and submit a business case to the PMO Portfolio if one has not already been completed. Business Cases should be sent via email to OIT Portfolio Management at ProjectMgtOffice.OIT@maine.gov.

 

                                        iii.    Work with the appropriate IT Manager to determine assignment of a ‘Project Manager’. It’s recognized that the ‘Requestor’ and ‘PM’ may often be the same person.  Note: Once a project manager is identified, the recommended appointment needs to be confirmed by the Director of the Project Management Office. To obtain confirmation or if a project manager should be needed, please contact the Director of the Project Management Office.

 

 

Important Note: No stakeholder group can be held liable for a ‘Requestor’s’ failure to schedule an ‘OIT Review’ or by scheduling one very late in the project lifecycle. In these situations, it’s very unlikely that the other stakeholder groups will be able to shift priorities to accommodate a project and thus the entire project implementation could experience delay.

 

 

Phase 2: Project Initiation & Implementation (WBS)

 

3. The Requestor/PM is responsible for managing and overseeing all aspects of the implementation.

 

1. For scheduled work requests. The ‘Requestor’ shall ensure the following activities occur:

 

                                          i.    Schedule an OIT Review session if the nature of the situation should change to where a work request would require an OIT Review. Please see above section 2.a.II for criteria of when work requests require an OIT Review session.

 

                                         ii.    Important Note: Any requests for Core services should be communicated at least 4-6 weeks in advance of when they are needed. This communication shall occur by notifying your hosting manager(s) via email and Footprints ticket(s), as part of the production RFC process or as part an OIT Review session.  If uncertain seek guidance from your hosting manager(s).

 

                                        iii.    Maintain internal team and customer reporting.

 

                                       iv.    Submit for deployment certification as needed and as defined in http://www.maine.gov/oit/policies/AppDeployCert.htm

 

                                        v.    Ensure RFC Footprint tickets are submitted in support of the change management process.

 

2. For all small, medium and large projects.  The ‘PM’ shall ensure the following activities occur:

 

                                          i.    Ensure that a follow up OIT Review session is scheduled at the project halfway point.  OIT Reviews can also be scheduled upon request and at the discretion of the PM or any OIT stakeholder group.  NOTE: OIT reviews are not required for ‘self-contained projects’.

 

                                         ii.    Submit monthly status reports to the PMO. Status reports should be sent via email to PMOStatusReports.OIT@maine.gov.

 

                                        iii.    Submit for deployment certification as needed and as defined in http://www.maine.gov/oit/policies/AppDeployCert.htm

 

                                       iv.    Maintain internal team and customer reporting.

 

                                        v.    Ensure RFC Footprint tickets are submitted in support of the change management process.

 

 

 

Phase 3: Project Closure and Final Acceptance

 

3.  For any work request. The ‘Requestor’ shall ensure the following activities occur:

 

                                          i.    Update and close out all RFC Footprint Tickets

 

                                         ii.    Update the ‘Application Inventory’ system if applicable.

 

 

4. For all small, medium and large projects.  The ‘PM’ shall ensure the following activities occur:

 

                                          i.    Update and close out all RFC Footprint Tickets

 

                                         ii.    Update the ‘Application Inventory’ system if applicable.

 

                                        iii.    Provide final status report to PMO. Status reports should be sent via email to PMOStatusReports.OIT@maine.gov.

 

                                       iv.    Notify Portfolio Management of project completion. This notification should be sent to ProjectMgtOffice.OIT@maine.gov.

 

 

 

 

 

   III.     Definitions, Abbreviations & Clarifications:

 

o ‘Business Case’ is a document that is meant to capture the high-level conceptual design, resource identification and budget of a project. The purposes of the business case are as follows:

 

§  To achieve initial agency stakeholder approval to move forward with the project.

§  To support ‘OIT Review’ discussions.

§  To provide a mechanism that informs and invokes OIT Portfolio Management as defined below.

§  For additional details or to download a copy of the business case template please visit http://www.maine.gov/oit/project_management/templates/index.html

 

 

o A ‘Hosting Manager’ – is defined as any representative of CTS who is responsible for the management, implementation and stability of hosting environments supporting systems for the State of Maine. Representative groups are Windows, Unix, etc…. Remote hosting requires a representative from the hosting vendor.

 

o ‘OIT Portfolio Management’ – is a function and service of the Project Management Office and addresses all OIT related projects that are small, medium or large sized. The Portfolio is a mechanism for the Office of the CIO and Agencies to be able to monitor and track projects that are currently in process or planned. It also helps to ensure the strategic alignment of goals and objectives amongst OIT stakeholder groups and agency representatives.

 

o ‘OIT Reviews’ are weekly recurring meetings of key OIT stakeholder groups. Some examples are; Applications, Core Tech, Architecture, PMO, Security, Network, etc. The purpose of these meetings is to provide a forum where the ‘Requestor’ can bring work and project requests to the table for discussion purposes as follows:

§  To seek guidance and recommendations for any aspect of IT work and projects i.e. hosting solutions, architecture, etc.

 

§  To solicit assistance from any OIT stakeholder group.

 

§  To advise and inform OIT stakeholder groups of upcoming work and required commitments.

 

§  Need to schedule an OIT Review? Please send your request to ProjectMgtOffice.OIT@maine.gov

 

 

o ‘PMO Reporting’ – refers to a process by which Project Managers complete and submit monthly project status reports to the Project Management Office. To download a copy of the status template please visit:  G:\CIO-COMMON\cio-common\PMO Subcommittees\status report new versions. Status reports should be sent to PMOStatusReports.OIT@maine.gov.

 

 

o  A ‘Product Manager’ is defined as any OIT representative that is responsible for overseeing the ongoing maintenance, support and enhancement of IT applications.  Some examples are; Team Leader, PM, Systems Analyst, IT Manager, Core Tech, etc…

 

o A ‘Project’ is a work request that through the ‘right-sizing’ process defined below has been determined to be a project. A project is a unique and time-bounded effort, with a defined beginning and end, with milestones and deliverables.

 

§  All projects are to be tracked through the PMO’s portfolio management process.

 

§  Projects can range in size from small, medium, to large as determined by the ‘right-sizing’ process.

 

§  There is no single, hard and fast rule to determine if a work request is a project. To determine if a work request is eligible for Project status, it is usually an intuitive decision based on the analysis of risk: risk is defined by any single or combination of the following elements:

 

§  Cost – significant funds at risk

§  Effort – large number of hours of work to be completed by one or more resources

§  Complexity – the difficulty in pulling together work flow with multiple disciplines

§  Political sensitivity – what happens if the work effort fails?

§  New functionality – implementation of new technology or significant changes of existing technology

§  Organizing principles for work requests to be completed – is there an organizing process already in place such as software development life cycle processes or use of a program such as Jira or Sharepoint to ensure work is completed in a timely fashion? If yes, project management processes might be needed to support the existing process or they might not. The question to ask is, “Would this work process benefit from formal project management techniques or would the use of those techniques create unnecessary work?”

Finally, there is the ‘straight face test’ - Can you answer any questions regarding the decision to adopt or not adopt project management techniques at a later date.

 

§  When in doubt if something is a Project or an RFC based work request, bring the discussion to an OIT Review meeting for discussion.

 

§  For further project definition please see, “Definition of a Project”, at this link http://www.maine.gov/oit/project_management/links.html

 

§  For full services and functions of the PMO please visit Office of Information Technology - Services - Project Management Office

 

 

o  A ‘Project Manager’ referred to herein after as ‘PM’, is defined as an OIT representative that is assigned to and responsible for the management and implementation of IT related work and/or project requests, regardless of size. Some examples are; Team Leader, PM, Systems Analyst, Product Manager, IT Manager, Core Tech, Technical Business Consultant, Contractors, etc…

 

 

o  A ‘Requestor’ is defined as any OIT representative that is responsible for a work request. Some examples are; Team Leader, PM, Systems Analyst, IT Manager, Core Tech, Product Manager, Technical Business Consultant, etc…

 

 

o ‘Right-Sizing’ refers to a process that categorizes work requests into sized effort hour buckets for the purpose of defining required management process elements.

 

§  A ‘Work Request’ is generally 0 – 40 hours of effort.

 

§  A ‘Small Project’ is generally 40 – 1,499 hours of effort.

ØBusiness Case

ØAbbreviated Project Charter

ØStatus Report (s) to be sent to Team Members and others as appropriate.

ØDeployment Certification

 

§  A ‘Medium Project’ is generally 1,500 – 9,999 hours of effort.

ØBusiness Case

ØProject Charter

ØProject Management Plan as indicated in the PMO Project Template Checklist

ØRequirements documentation

ØStatus Report (s) to be sent to PMO, Team Members, and others as appropriate.

ØDeployment Certification

 

§  A ‘Large Project’ is generally 10,000 + hours of effort.

ØBusiness Case

ØProject Charter

ØIn Depth Project Management Plan as indicated in the PMO Project Template Checklist

ØRequirements documentation

ØStatus Report (s) to be sent to PMO, Team Members, and others as appropriate.

ØDeployment Certification

 

§  Provided effort hour ranges are for guidance. Work requests and projects may be placed into different buckets due to overall size, risk, visibility; and at the discretion of an OIT review committee.

 

o A Self Contained Project is a project as defined above in accordance with the ‘right-sizing’ process and meets the following criteria:

§  Requires no coordination of resources with other OIT stakeholder groups above and beyond the normal RFC process.

§  The project is deemed to be of low risk and visibility by the IT Manager.

NOTE: The most common example(s) of a ‘self-contained’ project are small and ongoing maintenance releases of applications.

 

o A ‘Work Request’ is defined as any initial request for IT services. These requests often come to OIT from representatives of agencies or the legislature but can also originate within OIT groups such as Core Tech or the Office of the CIO.

 

§  Work requests can range from a small application repair, new report, to a request for a new large application or significant operating system upgrade.

 

§  It’s the role of the ‘Requestor’ (see definition above) to determine and understand the scope of each work request.

 

§  Some work requests can and will be identified as a ‘project’ by the ‘Requestor’. ‘Right-sizing’ is a tool to support this determination

 

 

 

For additional clarification, please reference the embedded Q&A from the January 18, 2012 workshop.

 

Responses to Jan 18th Workflow Q&A (as revised after 2/27/12 Implementation Kickoff Meeting)