FAQs - Portfolio and Project Management

Overview

The IT Services Digital Transformation Office (DTO) provides support services to all projects that follow the Information Systems Stewardship Model. ​The Information Systems Stewardship Model ensures that the IT Services projects and initiatives are in alignment with the University's strategic goals. The goal of the IT Services DTO is to build an effective, flexible ​project management framework that can be applied to any project with effective repeatable processes. ​

Below are the FAQs on Portfolio and Project Management. 

Details

I have a Project that will need IT Funding and/or Resources, where do I start?

After completing an initial assessment and determined your project will take: 

• 20 days (144 hours) or more of effort; or

• $10,000 or more of project funding.

The first step is to add your project to the ITS Projects Roadmap. 

How do I add my project to the ITS Projects Roadmap?

All projects in the Roadmap will be presented to the Stewardship Committees for review on timing and strategic alignment while it is being documented into a Project Charter. In order to add your project to the roadmap, you must complete the following: 

1. ​​​ Submit a Project Proposal using the Project Proposal Template to its-pmo@sfu.ca​
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2. Add your project to the ITS Projects Roadmap spreadsheet in the "Data" tab and fill in all applicable columns​

Who updates the entry on the ITS Project Roadmap once it's been added?

Once you've filled out the ITS Projects Roadmap, you will be responsible for your entry until it's time to submit a Project Charter. Once the Project Charter has been submitted to the DTO for your project, the DTO will be responsible for your entry on the ITS Projects Roadmap spreadsheet. Then, once the project has been assigned a Project Manager, the Project Manager will be responsible for the entry on the ITS Projects Roadmap.

How do I submit a Projec​​t Charter? 

All completed Project Charter, and Project Plan documents are to be sent to the Analyst, DTO to be reviewed and scheduled for presentation at the Project Review Committee meeting. If you have any questions about filling out any of the documents or need assistance, please email its-pmo@sfu.ca​

The information contained within the Project Charter assists the Project Review Committee​ with making an informed decision to approve the project request and determine if the project should be presented to​​​ one of the four stewardship committees for further approval:

• ​ASSC - Administrative Systems Steering Co​mm​t​e;​​

• ​ESSC - Educational Systems Steering Committee;

• RSSC - Research Systems Steering Committee;

• ​One IS - One ​Information Systems Steering Committee​.

Project Charter Template: https://sharepoint.sfu.ca/sites/its/pmo/templates

What about a Project Plan? 

All projects require planning. Smaller projects, with less resource requirements, limited impacts and shorter timeline can have their plan approved within the Project Charter template. A ​Project Plan document is required when:

• Overall one-time project funding is $75,000 or more.

​​The purpose of the Project Plan document is used to plan out the activities required to successfully execute the project in greater details. It's audience is the project manager and project team, however the stewardship committees will want to review project plans before granting projects approval to execute. 

Project Plan Template:  https://sharepoint.sfu.ca/sites/its/pmo/templates