The Office of the Chief Information Officer, which oversees the priorities and day-to-day operations of the Information Technology Services (ITS) division, has introduced two new items that improve the university’s ability to implement its long-range plan and ensure that the university continues to appropriately advance the use of technology to meet its mission, vision, and goals.
“By expanding the IT governance framework and introducing a capital projects planning process, the Office of the CIO can build and sustain partnerships with university stakeholders to bring more voices into its IT strategic planning,” says Karen McCarthy, Deputy CIO and Associate Vice President of IT Operations.
IT Governance Framework
The Office of the CIO has convened two new governance groups to help advise the Information Technology Council (ITC) and contribute to the university’s decisions about and use of technology.
Chaired by McCarthy, IT Project Steering (ITPS) provides guidance for all strategic initiatives and decisions articulated in the university’s long-range plan and that enable implementation of the LRP. Drawing from senior-level expertise across the institution, including the Office of the Provost, Office of the Chancellor, Global Network and Strategic Initiatives, University Advancement, External Affairs, General Counsel, and Finance, ITPS ensures that the university makes the best possible decisions in advancing the use of technology across its global campus system.
With a particular focus on the student experience, the Student Change Control Advisory Board has also been created within the IT governance framework. With representatives also from across the university, SCCAB provides guidance and prioritization of systems or technologies that a student directly interacts with or that directly impact the student experience in a way that students can measure.
New IT Capital Project Planning Process
One of the roles of the ITPS and SCCAB are to review, prioritize, and recommend strategic IT project requests to the ITC for funding consideration and approval. Leveraging this new IT governance framework, the Office of the CIO has introduced a new annual planning process.
Once per year, ITS, on behalf of the OCIO, will accept requests for future fiscal-year capital projects and/or new technology needs, as well as anticipated needs. New capital project requests will come into ITS to be prioritized by the university’s IT governance process. As part of this process, members of the ITS team will review business needs and begin to scope potential project plans, resource requirements, and schedules.
This new annual request and schedule will enable the Office of the CIO, ITS, and university leadership to appropriately prioritize project and technology requests required to meet the goals of departments and the institution, while also enabling ITS to build and maintain a more comprehensive multi-year capital plan.
Visit cio.northeastern.edu for more information on IT capital project planning and governance.