IT Portfolio and Project Management - Project and Opportunity Requests

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• Definitions
• Purpose
• When to use
• How to use
• Process Steps
• Roles & Responsibilities
• Questions/Assistance

Definitions

• Future Planning Project - A type of request that will go through Project and Portfolio Management Office (PPMO) Team review before becoming and IT Department Project or an IT Project in TDX. Future planning refers to projects to occur in the next fiscal year. Projects to start in current fiscal year are not considered future planning.
• MSU IT Top Project – MSU IT Top Projects are strategic IT projects that require more support from across the IT Department and generally more complex. In most cases, a Project Manager is required. These projects are submitted as IT Department Projects, but must also complete the MSU IT Priority Project Review Form. Form can be requested from Jeremy Reed or Scott Termeer.
• IT Department Project – All IT project requests are IT Department Projects. They can be small or large projects within a single IT unit. Initially, these projects are entered and managed within the specific IT requesting unit by the resource identified as the Functional Lead. These may be made a priority by the Executive Director of the unit increasing their priority or they may be best effort activities. They may also be converted to an MSU IT Top Project by completing the MSU IT Priority Project Review Form.
• Opportunity – Opportunities are ideas for improvement identified by staff, usually to meet our Stewardship & Sustainability goal in the 2030 Strategic Plan. The Opportunity Review Request triggers a review with the requestor and a Project and Portfolio Management Office (PPMO) resource to review and expand the opportunity and its benefits into a format that can be considered as an IT Project.

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Purpose

• Future Planning Request - These are generally for Annual Planning/Continuous Planning of future projects to create a roadmap of activities within MSU IT. They occur in the next fiscal year or later.
• IT Department Project Request – All IT Projects begin as an IT Department Project Request and are completed by the unit sponsoring the project. If the sponsor determines that the project should be highly visible to MSU IT Executive Leadership or if the project requires complex scope, budget, and schedule management the MSU IT Priority Project Review Form can be requested, completed, and returned to become an MSU IT Top Project. 
• Opportunity – An opportunity request is created when a team member has an idea that may help the institutional strategic plan related to Stewardship & Sustainability. The primary goal is to identify low value services, products, and activity that can be retired, consolidated, or adjusted. The Portfolio Management Team can help develop the request into an IT Project or Department Project.

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When to use

• Future Planning Request - When project is planned to start in a future Fiscal Year, it requires PPMO review to be added to the MSU IT roadmap and consideration during Annual Planning cycle.
• IT Department Project Request – All IT Projects that are not Enterprise Project requests (Large, complex, multi-unit institutional) start with IT Department Requests. Non Project Manager staff managing projects can reach out to the Portfolio and Project Management Office for tools they can utilize to help with project management.
• Opportunity – When someone identifies an improvement that can be made to meet Stewardship and Sustainability goals but is not sure of how to get started with a solution.

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How to use

Complete the appropriate request form utilizing the instructions in the form:

• Future Planning and IT Department Project – use the same form
• Opportunity

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Process Steps

• Future Planning
  • Complete request form
  • PPMO Review and follow up
  • Assessment of request
  • If approved, project is created with future start date
• Department Project
  • Complete request form
  • PPMO follows up with support needs identified in request
  • Project is created with Functional Lead from request form as Project Manager
  • If sponsor wants to create visibility or feels project schedule, scope, and budget complexity is high, the MSU IT Priority Project Review Form should be requested, completed and submitted to Jeremy Reed and Scott Termeer for Top Project status. A PMO Project Manager may be assigned, if available.
• Opportunity
  • Complete request form
  • Portfolio Management team member will reach out and schedule a review
  • Complete an opportunity template of elaborated idea
  • Share opportunity with appropriate executive for decision and next steps

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Roles & Responsibilities

• Requestor
  • Complete appropriate form
  • Participate in process to assess project or elaborate idea
  • Ensure project set up for success with funding, resources, and appropriae assessments/reviews
  • Manage project lite if requestor is also the functional lead/project manager for the project lite
• Portfolio Management Team
  • Manage Project request reviews and processes
  • Support assessment and management of projects
  • Support elaboration of opportunities
• Service Owner
  • Lead IT Assessment process
  • Support information gathering for funding, resources, and architecture
• Business & IT Stakeholders
  • Give input into IT assessments as needed
  • Give input into opportunity reviews as needed
• IT Executive Leadership Team (ELT)
  • Review/approve IT Project requests as appropriate
  • Review and provide decision on opportunity requests

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Questions/Assistance

Complete a Portfolio Management Assistance request (link).

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