Governance provides direction, oversight, and continuity to Miami’s strategies for the provisioning and support of IT. One major function of governance is to focus on alignment: making sure IT Services’ activities support Miami’s mission. Through a collaborative process, the hundreds of requests IT receives for projects are each evaluated and, if approved, prioritized.
Each project request is reviewed by several groups and committees before it gets approved. Those groups are:
Client Engagement
Seeking to infuse an understanding of each department or office’s business needs into the governance process from the very beginning, IT has assigned each vice presidential area a client engagement representative. Regular interactions build a partnership that serves as an incubator for IT project ideas. IT representatives serve as the first step in the project request intake process, working with requestors to frame a clear case ready for the next steps in the review process.
Value Engineering (VE)
The VE team members review each project request. The goal is to prepare a clear statement of the costs and risks associated with each to inform the CCIC decision-making process.
The specific objectives of the VE process are to:
Evaluate each proposal using a defined, repeatable, auditable, scalable process, to ensure consistency.
Manage the project requests, track and report progress, and determine dispositions in line with established standards.
Provide transparency by providing each requestor visibility into the status of their request.
Communicate with the requestor and any identified stakeholders throughout the evaluation.
Set and manage the expectations of all participants.
Engage appropriate resources (team, requestor, Client Engagement leads, product subject matter experts) to make informed determinations about the technology request.
Information Technology Investments Council (ITIC)
Comprised of the vice presidents, this committee was at one point the final authority in the governance process. Any disputes in planning and decision-making were escalated to the ITIC for final resolution. The University is currently looking into ways to restructure the ITIC and re-align this group with the University's recently published strategic goals.
Change and Continuous Improvement Committee (CCIC)
Representing each of the major functional areas of the University, CCIC reviews all requests for IT projects. Using business cases prepared through the project intake and value engineering processes, the committee balances the value of the proposal with the availability of resources, and the probability of achieving the identified value. Meeting monthly, the CCIC maintains a list of active projects and a prioritized list of projects “on deck” to be started as resources become available.
For current CCIC membership, governance activities, meeting cadence, and more resources, pleaseview this Knowledge Base article.
Change Advisory Board
The Change Advisory Board (CAB) supports the assessment, prioritization, authorization, and scheduling of technology changes at Miami University. Meeting once a week, the committee analyzes the risk of proposed changes to Miami’s production environment and seeks to minimize outages or other impacts on active systems to the extent feasible.
Current CAB members
Pete Ferris | IT Process and Planning (Change Management Process Owner, CAB Co-Chair)
Elizabeth Parsons | IT Communications & Client Advocacy, CAB Co-Chair
Frank Luo | Enterprise Database and Systems Operations
Dean Harris | Enterprise Database and Systems Operations
Dennis Schwind | Network Engineering
Jason Maxwell| Network Engineering
Ryan Klein| Enterprise Operations, Windows Administration
Randy Hollowell | IT Communications & Client Advocacy
Sofia Olaya | Application Development & Application Support
Priya Kodeboina| Solution Delivery
Angeline Poling| Finance and Business Services Information Technology
Subject Matter Experts as appropriate to each individual change
