Kentucky Commonwealth Office of Technology

 

 Patrick Quirk
Executive Director

The Office of Project Management (OPM) is responsible for overseeing large and/or critical information technology projects across the executive branch, with the  goal  of  mitigating risk while averting avoidable delays that could lead to increased spending. Project Managers use their knowledge of critical planning and organizational  activities  to assist state agencies in successfully shepherding IT projects to completion. These individuals understand overall agency missions, information technology project objectives, computer application functionality, elements of  each critical-success  path and overall project  management best-practices.

 

 

 

  

COMMONWEALTH ENTERPRISE IT
PROJECT REPORTING

In November 2019, COT introduced Project Online as the reporting standard to streamline and standardize reporting on IT projects across the Commonwealth to the CIO. Project Online is accessible by project managers (internal or vendor) as well as agency leadership and select team members as desired by individual projects. PMs must be licensed for Project Online and PowerBI, which can be requested via a service request to OPM.

While teams may update Project Online as frequently as desired, monthly reporting to the CIO of select data is a requirement. Data currently required to be reported falls into the following categories:

• Official Project Name
• Project Description
• Sponsoring agency (Cabinet)
• Partnering agencies (if applicable)
• Project Timeline (proposed start and finish date)
• Project Owner (person managing the project)
• Project Health (identify the health of the budget, scope and schedule)
• Project Status Description
• Risks (futuristic threats to the project)
• Issues (current problems jeopardizing the project)
• Project Schedule (project percent complete is derived from the schedule and milestones are recorded)
• Project Phase (Requesting, Initiation, Planning, Execution, Closing and Completed)
• Funding Source (General Fund, Agency Bonds, Capital IT Project Funds, Restricted Funds, Federal Funds, Road Funds, Ky Reclamation Guarantee Funds, Other)
• Actual Costs vs. Implementation Budget Cost (both relating to Vendor Labor, KY Resources, Software, Hardware, IV&V)

Project Online includes collaboration and reporting functionality that can be leveraged by project teams above and beyond what is required to be reported to the CIO. 

Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Services

IV&V is the review of a project by an independent third party (outside the project team reporting hierarchy) to verify that the requirements are correctly defined and to validate that the system correctly implements the required functionality. CIO-103 requires Commonwealth agencies to collaborate with the Office of Project Management (OPM) on a project risk assessment before the agency formally approves any IT project of such size and complexity that it requires reporting to the CIO (see threshold details here). The risk assessment will determine the level of IV&V, if any, required for that specific project.

 

For more information about IV&V within the Commonwealth, including a list of FAQs, please visit the IV&V page.

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY ENTERPRISE PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Commonwealth’s Enterprise Project Management Framework establishes the basic conceptual structure for managing projects across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This Framework will be supported by policies defining specific standards, processes, tools and best practices. While the Framework will change slowly over time, OPM will regularly publish, review and update policies to provide project managers throughout the Commonwealth with clear and current expectations for managing projects. This Framework and supporting policies apply to all projects.

 

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

• Business Case Analysis – Review project requests and candidate projects to ensure they will meet business needs. This service is similar to the Capital Planning Process.
• Project Portfolio Assessment – Provide a high-level assessment of all projects within a Cabinet, Office, or Department and recommend if specific project(s) should be assessed further.
• Project Tracking and Oversight – Track the status and progress of all projects within an agency.
• Project Debriefs - Provide presentations regarding a project to the stakeholders or other groups.
• Application Portfolio Assessment – Provide a high-level assessment of all applications within a Cabinet, Office, or Department and recommend if specific applications should be assessed further. 
 

PROGRAM/PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The OPM can provide the following Program/Project Management Services:

• Program / Project Start-Up – Assign project managers during project initiation when internal project managers may be unavailable. When an agency project manager becomes available, the project will be handed off to the agency staff.
• Full-time Program / Project Staffing – Assign COT program/project managers and/or assistant project managers to agency projects. This service may be used when internal project management expertise is lacking or unavailable.
• Program / Project Recovery – Provide project management services to projects that are struggling and need assistance to get back on schedule/budget/scope.
• Program / Project Assessment – Review a program or project by interviewing key project staff and gathering and analyzing information about the project. The information gathered is used to determine the project’s status, including whether the project is meeting its objectives, whether the project is on schedule, whether the project is over budget, etc. Information gathered is used to determine what corrective actions should be taken, if any.

MENTORING

The OPM provides free support and guidance to the government IT project manager community for those who are new to the field or wish to improve their skills. 

TRAINING FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT,BUSINESS ANALYSIS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICE MANAGEMENT 

PROJECT MANAGER NETWORK

The OPM supports events that allow project managers from different Cabinets/Agencies to meet and network. These events include:

• Periodic project manager symposiums.
• PMI KY Bluegrass Chapter events held in Frankfort.