Title:	Review and Approval of IT Projects
Control Number:	02002-001
Effective Date:	8/23/2002
Scope:	All COC Divisions and Units
Issued by:	Office of the CIO
Approved by:	Executive Committee
Approved by:	Clerk of Court

Purpose:
To provide a standardized approach for preparing and submitting proposals for information technology projects for funding consideration by the Clerk of Court.

Information technology (IT) project proposals may be initiated by any operational unit of the Clerk's Office or by the Technical Services Division. The Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has implemented a process to assist in the review and evaluation of IT project proposals submitted for funding. The purpose of this review and evaluation is to 1) ensure that substantive information about proposed projects (staffing plans, technical architecture, user requirements, project deliverables, benefits) is adequately documented, 2) identify the impact of the project on the COC operational and technical staff and operations, 3) identify potential savings by utilizing existing COC-owned technologies or by minimizing IT software and hardware duplication or otherwise leveraging existing technology investments, and 4) ensure that proposed project schedules are feasible and that the project scope and budget are realistic. This policy is not intended to be required for routine purchases of information technology hardware and software, but rather for IT projects that require the allocation of significant staff and budgetary resources.

Documentation:
All project proposals will contain an analysis of both business and technical factors. Business factors include business objectives, return on investment (including cost avoidance, enhanced revenue, non-quantifiable service benefits, staff savings and staff efficiencies), critical success factors, estimated costs, business-related risks and alternatives to the proposed project. Technical factors include proposed system architecture and its compatibility with the COC Technical Architecture Standards, impact on existing systems, data conversion and electronic interface requirements, and staffing requirements for development, implementation and long-term maintenance. Assistance in the preparation of project proposals will be available from the Office of the CIO through the promulgation of proposal preparation guidelines, as well as from the COC Technical Advisory Committee.

Approval:
The Comptroller will review all projects for fiscal soundness. The Technical Advisory Committee will review all projects for technical soundness. Following initial review, recommendations and suggestions for improvement are made to project sponsors. The CIO, Comptroller and Executive Committee will review revised project proposals submitted. From this process project the Executive Committee will rank proposals in priority order. Project priority decisions are based on the approved IT priorities previously established by the Executive Committee and approved by the Clerk. The Clerk makes the final decision on funding after reviewing the recommendations of the Executive Committee.

Review and Approval of Projects using Existing Resources:
Several COC units fund applications support staff at the County's eGovernment Department (eGov). While individual units have the responsibility to set priorities within their areas, it is necessary that all new projects initiated by COC units that involve the allocation of eGov resources be reviewed for technical consistency with the IT architecture and the technical standards and policies promulgated by the Clerk's CIO. Thus, all requests for new systems, system upgrades, database restructures, and the like, should be submitted to the Technical Advisory Committee for review. It is especially important that requests for Internet and Intranet applications be submitted to internal review. The COC is developing a dedicated Internet / Intranet environment, including system architecture with common elements that control, for example, how mainframe data is accessed and all web-enabled applications must meet technical as well as style criteria. In addition to review by the Technical Advisory Committee, if there is a CIO Working Group actively in place with responsibility for a certain technical / functional area, e.g. Intranet Working Group, then the appropriate working group will be invited to review the proposal also. Projects that are initiated outside of the scope of this policy will not be approved for implementation in a production environment until an internal review has been completed.

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