Engaging Upper Management in Programming Project Prioritization Dr

Engaging Upper Management in Programming Project Prioritization Dr. K. B. Massingill, CIO Jim Trietsch, Associate CIO Copyright Dr. K. B. Massingill and James W. Trietsch 2003. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Names • • • Change Management Strategic Alignment Program Management – (Project Selection)

How did we get here? • • • Banner conversion Irregular meetings of VPs Sr. Systems analyst – good at sorting projects and saying “No!” • “Yes” projects may not be strategic

Proposal • • • Executive team Quarterly meeting Schedule work six months out Strategic decisions Ongoing planning

Primary Team Members • • • Executive VP Provost VP, Development VP, Finance CIO Associate CIO Director, Computing & Networking Services Director, Web Integration & Programming Sr. Systems Analyst Director, Re-engineering

Process Goals • • • Increase # of prioritized projects Create culture of pre-planning Reduce # of ad hoc projects Prioritize necessary ad hoc projects Train staff in project management and time analysis

First Meeting Goals • Review projects of last 12 months • Review and tune projects list for next six months • Set preliminary goals for months 7 -9. • Approve annual meeting calendar • Approve procedure and submission form for projects

First Meeting • • • LOTS of confusion What do executives want? ? ? VP Signatures? ? ? Electronic copies? ? ? Lots of background needed for existing proposals

Meeting Presentations • • Gantt charts galore Excel spreadsheets Lots of info or minimal info Do they really care?

Second “First Meeting” • Two hours was NOT enough • How ARE we going to track this stuff? • New format of available hours, people, resources • Need consistency within Information Services groups • What do we need from users?

Business Process Analysis • User-defined requirements not good enough • Business needs hard to describe • Is this really a technical need and how badly do they need it?

User Requirements DILBERT reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Technical Analysis • Time for good analysis • Wait for work to be tentatively approved before technical analysis • Hours and hours for good analysis

Time for Projects DILBERT reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

First Scheduled Meeting • Refined report process • Need for triage of programming requests • Can we ever really say No? • Planning six months away really realistic?

Intended Process VICE PRESIDENTS - COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT Request for Programming Services Feasibility Review Committee Review Approved Project Initiation / Execution Y N • Table • Request More Info • Decline ULTIMATE GOAL – PORTFOLIO CONTROL AND REPORTING Benefits Realization

Time for Projects DILBERT reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Preparing for next meeting • • • New requests Update on scheduled requests Successful? – – – On time Within budget Meets user requirements • Reminder of cancelled/denied requests

Ultimate project goal is to avoid at all costs …

Time spent in between meetings … • • • Surviving after the meeting Business process analysis Technical analysis Receiving new requests Dealing with users!

Technology Demo DILBERT reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

EDUCAUSE Review – May/June 2003 “It is important for the president, as well as members of the executive team, to understand own IT issues, rather than assume that these are exclusively the purview of the CIO or technology officer. It is no longer possible for a college or university president to safely delegate all technology-related decisions to the CIO. The costs are too high, the risks are too great, and the opportunities are too significant for the president not to be personally aware or involved. ” John Hitt, President, University of Central Florida

So What? • Executive buy-in crucial • Be fair, but realistic with analysis about projects • Don’t commit too much • If I do this project, which one gets delayed? • Keep on, keep on …

ACU Executive Perspective “The prioritization process has allowed ACU to focus scarce resources on strategic priorities. Our CIO and staff no longer are placed in a position of having to determine the priority of projects from different areas. Since each executive officer is involved in the decisions making process, there is greater awareness of the overall needs of the university and how they match up with our programming and network resources. ” Jack Rich, Executive VP, ACU

Management Approvals DILBERT reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Questions ? ? ?