Obtaining Technology Resources’
Systems UPPS No. 04.02.01
and Services Issue
No. 8
Effective Date: 02/01/2013
Review: April 1 E4Y
01. POLICY
STATEMENT
01.01 The purpose of
this UPPS is to establish policies and procedures that facilitate the effective
development, procurement, utilization, and allocation of information technology
systems, resources and services.
02. FUNCTION
OF TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES STAFF
02.01 Function of
Technology Resources
Technology Resources (TR) is a department within the
Information Technology division that provides services to implement and
maintain effective and efficient information systems to meet the information
processing needs of the university. Among its many services, TR provides
analysis, design, and programming services for development of customized
information systems; support services for implementation, integration, and
maintenance of third-party software packages; and data administration and
distribution services for the centrally-administered databases utilized by
these software systems.
02.02 The TR staff
resources are allocated as needed to support the priorities of the University and
the Information Technology division. TR supports numerous systems, projects, and
activities, depending on the university’s priorities (see Section 04. of this
UPPS).
03. PROCEDURES
FOR REQUESTING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES’ SYSTEMS AND SERVICES
03.01 Texas State
users may complete a Project Charter (Attachment I),
or contact a member of the TR staff with a request for systems or
services. The processes are outlined and
the associated documents are located on the Technology Resources’ Project
Management Office website.
Except for emergency situations, persons requesting
enhancement or development services must document the request using a Project
Charter, as shown in Attachment I. TR
staff is available to assist users in writing the Project Charter. This format
meets the requirements of the System Development Life Cycle and Information
Technology’s project management practices.
03.02 Evaluating the
Size, Scope, and Complexity of the Project
Requests vary greatly in size, scope, and complexity, as do
the resources necessary to address them. As part of Information
Technology’s project management practices, TR has adopted formal Project
Classification Criteria, as required by the Texas Department of Information
Resources’ project management practices (Texas Administrative Code Chapter §216). To achieve early recognition of the variances in
projects, to appropriately manage project risk, and to enhance prospects for
successful project outcomes, TR staff will work with the requesting department
and other stakeholders to appropriately classify projects according to the
Project Classification Criteria (located on the TR Project
Management website).
03.03 Document External Mandates via Project Charter
Responses to federal, state, or
other external mandates often require commitment of both user and IT resources. The
user should document these mandates in the Project Charter (Attachment I),
cite the applicable law or regulation, and specify the consequences of not
meeting the mandate.
The existence of a mandate, in and of itself, does not
preclude the need for a Project Charter (Attachment I). Prioritization
of the request at the appropriate level is still required (see Section
04.01). However, because of the limited implementation time often
associated with mandates, it is sometimes necessary to suspend normal
prioritization procedures (see Section 04. of this UPPS). Whenever this
appears necessary, TR will consult the chair of the appropriate priority-setting
body at the earliest possible time. For this reason, it is critical that
the appropriate request is submitted as soon as possible.
03.04 Requestor's
Commitment of Resources
Once project requests are prioritized and become active
projects, end-user departments should commit all resources needed for the
successful completion of the project.
04. PROCEDURES
FOR PRIORITIZING REQUESTS AND COMMITTING RESOURCES
04.01 Tri-Level
Priority Mechanism
To meet its goals as a service provider, TR works to ensure
that its resources are engaged in satisfying the requests that the user
community deems most beneficial. These project requests normally correlate
with departmental, divisional, and university strategic plans,
and are often critical in achieving the objectives in these
plans. A tri-level prioritization mechanism has been developed to assist
users in prioritizing end-user requests of TR staff. Each department or
office sets the initial priority of each request that it
originates. Requests that require divisional prioritization are
prioritized as specified by the divisional vice president (see Section
04.03). University level or Enterprise Systems Coordinating Council (ESCC)
priorities are established and monitored by the ESCC.
At each level, a priority-setting body reviews and ranks new
project requests relative to requests already submitted. The priority-setting
body should consider the availability of staff resources (user and TR) and
prior commitments to projects in progress.
Priority-setting bodies must ensure that the project team
has been properly identified in order to prioritize projects.
The project classification will determine if the project is
addressed through departmental prioritization and monitoring, at the divisional
or ESCC level, or at both the divisional and ESCC levels.
04.02 Departmental
Priority and Monitoring
Each department should maintain a prioritized list of the
projects submitted to and actively being addressed by TR. It is the
responsibility of both the requesting department and TR to communicate any
changes relative to the priority of the project. The departments should
distribute the prioritized list to the appropriate teams, project leads,
priority committees, and TR to communicate the established or revised
priorities.
04.03 Divisional
Priority and Monitoring
Divisional prioritization and monitoring is required based
on the departmental and divisional priorities. Prior to the project being
submitted for divisional prioritization, the key stakeholders, operational
users, system support analysts, and appropriate TR staff should meet to discuss
the request and define the high-level scope and requirements. The project
documentation should reflect the feedback from all affected parties.
Division vice presidents prioritize (or establish a method
for prioritizing) the project requests emanating from their
divisions. Division vice presidents also assign (or establish a method for
assigning) an individual to lead the division's efforts in satisfying each
prioritized request.
Each division should maintain a prioritized list of its
project requests. This list should clearly indicate the priorities of the
vice president and the division's leader for each project request submitted to
TR and each project actively being addressed by TR. It is the responsibility of
both the user division and TR to communicate any changes relative to the
priority of projects.
The division should distribute this list to the appropriate
teams, project leads, priority committees, and TR to communicate the
established or revised priorities.
04.04 ESCC Priority
and Monitoring
Effectively satisfying a request often requires commitment
of resources normally allocated to offices outside of the requesting division,
or resources that are currently unavailable, or resources that have been
previously committed to other prioritized projects in other divisions. In these
and similar situations, it is the responsibility of the sponsoring department
or division to obtain the necessary resource commitments from the body that
prioritizes the work of those resources. This requirement is essential for
adequate inter-division communication and to prevent the over-commitment of
resources. The need for cross-divisional resource commitments should
become apparent as a result of stakeholder feedback to the request.
For example, a department in the Finance and Support Services
(FSS) Division is sponsoring a project that requires resources from the Student
Affairs (SA) Division. In this situation, it is the responsibility of the
FSS Division (or the requesting department) to obtain a priority for its
project from the SA priority-setting body. If the priority given by SA is
unacceptable to the requesting department, the department can appeal to the ESCC
for resolution. Until ESCC resolves such an appeal, work will likely not
proceed on said project.
Requests will be subject to such ESCC oversight whenever the
ESCC, the requesting division, TR, or the majority of stakeholders deem such
treatment is necessary. ESCC shall establish a method for determining the
relative priority of the requests brought before it for approval, and to ensure
that all areas are aware of these priorities. ESCC should maintain a
prioritized list of the projects to be monitored by the ESCC. This list
should clearly indicate the priorities of the ESCC with respect to resource
commitment and should be available to all areas (the appropriate teams, project
leads, priority committees, and TR) to communicate the established or revised
priorities.
05. REVIEWERS
OF THIS UPPS
05.01 Reviewers of
this UPPS include the following:
Position Date
Associate Vice President for April
1 E4Y
Technology Resources and Chair,
ESCC
Project Management Director, April
1 E4Y
Technology Resources
06. CERTIFICATION
STATEMENT
This UPPS has been approved by the following individuals in
their official capacities and represents Texas State policy and procedure from
the date of this document until superseded.
Associate Vice President, Technology Resources, ESCC Chair;
senior reviewer of this UPPS
Vice President for Information Technology
President