On any given day, the Department of Information Technology is working on hundreds of projects.  DIT projects can reside within the Executive Office, Infrastructure Services, and Agency Services.  These are the IT projects, DIT's project portfolio, that turn the State of Michigan IT strategic and business plans into reality.  Projects can be short (one week) or long (five-years); internal (service delivery improvement) or external (client-facing); single agency, multi-agency, or enterprise wide.  The IT Project Board is the owner of DIT's project portfolio and assures that DIT is practicing effective project portfolio management.

The Project Board has the authority, under the express authority of the Leadership Team/Board, to enact decisions related to Level 2 and Level 3 projects as defined by the following:

Level 2 Projects (one or more):

·         Multi-agency project

·         Greater than $1 million IT budget

·         Non-standard technology

·         DIT is on Executive Steering Committee

Level 3 Projects (one or more)

·         Greater than $5 million IT budget

·         Executive Interest/Order

·         Media Involvement

The Project Board has been developed to assure that Level 2 and Level 3 projects:

• are aligned with the enterprise strategic and architecture plans
• comply with DIT Principles and Policies
• have a qualified project manager (agency and DIT), a realistic and sound project schedule, incorporated project management methodology, and agency and DIT buy-in. 

The Project Board consists of no less than seven (7) members who serve as advocates representing the DIT viewpoints required to approve IT projects.  These viewpoints and the Project Board membership include:

• Program Management  
• Infrastructure Services
• Agency Services
• Strategic Planning
• Enterprise Architecture and Technical Standards
• Enterprise Security
• Budget/Finance

Three processes, Pre-Initiation, Initiation, and Approval, have been developed for State of Michigan Information Technology Projects. The Project Board processes were developed through a cross-functional team leveraging best practices within DIT and information from IT research companies, such as META Group.  The Gate 1 and Gate 2 reviews were created using documentation and best practices from the Project Management Institute, the United States Office of Management and Budget, and the Michigan Information Technology Executive Council.  These documents included but are not limited to the OMB Program Assessment Rating Tool, DIT Guiding Principles, and Teradyne's Phase-Gated Project Execution Process.  For questions regarding the Project Board, please contact the Program Management Division at DIT-ProjectManagement@michigan.gov.

The Charter defines the authority of the Project Board.  It is currently in Phase 1 of its operations.  The Project Board Charter includes:

• Project Board Strategy
• Project Board Overview
• Structure
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Meeting Management
• Charter Authorization and Project Board Member Signatures

Check out the Project Board Charter for details.