Overview
As a strategic business partner of the University, IT Services must and is happy to accept requests for work. These requests follow the IT Governance process that is outlined in four general steps below.
Step 1: Idea Generation and Collection
Our IT Business Analysts meet regularly with and build relationships with divisions and departments across campus to tease out initiatives that require or could use technology assistance. Additionally, the Change and Continuous Improvement Committee (CCIC) representatives can gather and assess internal divisional technology requests and present them to IT in addition to their relationship with the Business Analysts. In this way, any person at Miami University (including students!) can submit requests for IT initiatives and improvements by contacting their CCIC representative.
The IT Business Analysts then create a Project Request which is used to track the life of the work request in IT's project management tracking tool, TeamDynamix. Project Requests automatically flow through a pre-built workflow that achieve appropriate visibility of the request to the groups that have the ability to complete the request.
Step 2: Value Engineering
After a Project Request is created, it next will be discussed by a group in IT who assesses and approves new requests. This step in the process is called Value Engineering (VE). The purpose of this group is to assess the value of the requested work and determine if there are any other solutions in Miami's technology tool belt that will achieve the same outcome. For each request they:
- Determine if there are any solutions in Miami's current technology tool belt that can achieve the same outcome
- If not, determine what group or groups within IT Services are required to complete the work
- Estimate the time frame required to complete the work
- Assign an estimated time frame based on the required team and work in scope of the request
These recommendations made by the VE committee will proceed to the CCIC, who will make the final decision on projects that IT takes on.
Step 3: Change and Continuous Improvement Committee (CCIC)
After VE makes determinations on what IT group would do a project, the time frame required the project request proceeds to the CCIC. CCIC is the group with the decision making power over what projects are addressed by IT Services. However, some types of projects may not be within the power of CCIC to veto such as, but not limited to strategic initiatives and maintenance work that supports security practices like upgrades and other improvements.
If CCIC approves moving forward with a project request, it proceeds to the next step.
Step 4: Project Pre-planning and Execution
Once VE assigns a team and time frame and CCIC approves, the project request waits until close to time to begin the project. At this time, a pre-planning session is held to gather all the required people that must be involved to discuss, build and test the new solution. A more accurate time frame may be assigned based on these initial discussions. The project will then begin when the assigned team is ready to start the work. The IT Business Analysts, Project Managers, and Scrum Masters will usher the project request into an active project and monitor and facilitate the execution of the project until completion.