CITC Portfolio and Project Management

By Andy Novak, EPM Project Manager and Manager, CITC Project Mgt Office (PMO)

The  Computing and Information Technology Center (CITC) has a rich history of providing quality systems and services to our customers as they harness the power of technology to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of their business units.  

Now, the CITC is embarking upon an initiative, led by the Division of Administration and Compliance, which will help us do the same in order to provide greater transparency/operational visibility, enhanced team communication/collaboration, and more consistent delivery to our customers at UNT. This more formal approach to managing IT projects is in compliance with Texas Administrative Code (TAC), chapter 216.

The CITC has selected Microsoft’s Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution, consisting of Portfolio Server for managing the list of projects to be justified, prioritized, and selected from (“excellence in selection”), and Project Server (used in conjunction with MS Project 2007 desktop client software) for scheduling and implementing individual projects as carefully as possible once selected (“excellence in execution”). 

CITC projects -- only -- at this point

Both products use a central repository and provide a web component for collaborating with customers as well as colleagues. Although we have continued to be “enterprise-wide aware” as the software configuration has been underway, at this time there are no plans to roll out the EPM software beyond the scope of delivering CITC IT projects. 

After a rigorous piloting period during the Summer and Fall of 2008, we began the process of formally educating our staff and rolling out the Project Server portion of EPM for managing individual projects. Our goal is to complete Project Server training and fully utilize the tool within CITC by early Summer 2009.

With respect to CITC IT projects, Portfolio Server will provide a mechanism for introducing the concept of (Project) Portfolio Management to UNT.  Portfolio Management is similar to managing a financial portfolio – weighing the cost of investments (project proposals) against capacity, reward, and risk so that the final selection of investments (projects) for execution provides the greatest business value and contribution to the strategic goals of the investor (UNT). 

More specifically, it is about having a way to manage the intake of customer requests, pre-defining an objective process for the review and approval of project proposals, and continually monitoring the “mix” of both proposed and in-progress projects to assess which ones are on track, which ones need intervention, and which ones are no longer viable investments or are candidates for cancellation.

A formal project management process has many benefits

A formal Portfolio Management process will ensure that IT projects match the strategic goals and objectives of UNT and executives have a clear view of what they are approving and why.  Other anticipated benefits are improved communication and alignment between leaders in CITC and the business units we serve, more efficient scheduling of resources, a reduction in the number of redundant projects, and a “safety valve” to prevent an attempt to take on more projects than there is the capacity to deliver.

Portfolio Server is in the midst of configuration and a pilot program will be scheduled within CITC as soon as the business solution is crystallized and approved by the CTO and Directors.  Once a practical solution has been configured and initially tested, we will invite key external customers to help vet the process so that the final product brings added value, is technically and functionally solid, and can be easily accepted into our culture at UNT.

“We are excited about the adoption of portfolio and project management practices within our organization. CITC’s management has worked closely with the Project Management Office (PMO) to develop and implement department-wide standards and best practices that will ensure that we are able to effectively manage delivery of services internally and to our University constituents. We have full confidence in the PMO to pave the way for our transition into this new way of conducting business.” says Charlotte Russell, Director of CITC Administration and Compliance.

According to Dr. Maurice Leatherbury, CITC’s Associate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, “The CITC badly needs the capabilities that Project and Portfolio bring to us, to manage the large number of projects that we have under way at any time. Those products will give to us the ability to monitor the projects that the CITC is working on for the betterment of UNT. They also bring a professional structure that will make our processes of receiving project requests, approving those projects, completing them, and measuring the quality of the work we’ve done repeatable and transparent to the campus. I am personally excited about the advent of Project and Portfolio in the CITC and I’m looking forward to using them to manage our projects better.”

Questions concerning this article may be directed to Andy Novak, EPM Project Manager and Manager, CITC PMO, by email at andy.novak@unt.edu or by phone at 940-369-7143.  You can visit the PMO’s home on the web at http://pmo.unt.edu.

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