IT Governance Process

Fiscal Year ’27 IT Governance Process:

New to this year, there is a section on the Project Request Form where the department will need to identify how the new request will be funded. In preparation, the new information requested is:

• Please identify any current software, subscriptions or other funding source that your department can cancel/discontinue.
• If the source of funding has been identified, provide the department and budgeting information.
• If there is no identified source of funding, please note that the request is for ‘new funding’.

The FY’27 IT Governance Timeline: All New Project Requests are due Friday, November 7, 2025

• Friday, November 7, 2025: the project request must be received by the ITS Project Management Office (PMO).

  • Please complete the ITS Project Request Form. The ITS Project Request Form is available on the Suffolk Portal: ITS Project Request Form
  • The ITS Project Request Form must be approved by the Requester, Manager and the Sponsor. Sponsors are at the Vice President, Provost and Dean Level.
  • Once the ITS Project Request Form completed, it will be sent to Marian Sales [email protected] in the ITS PMO.
  • Note: submission of a signed ITS Project Request Form does not imply a guarantee that it will be approved.

• Monday, November 10, 2025 – Friday, January 30, 2026:
  There are two types of new Project Requests: (1) For a Specific New Software (2) For a Discovery to Replace a Current Software. The next steps vary based on the type of request submitted.

  • A Project Request for a Specific New Software: This is a request is for a specific vendor- software. The department already did a discovery and/or there is only one option.
    • Accessibility Assessment, Security Assessment and Technical Review are completed. If the project request does not meet Suffolk University standards it will not move forward.
    • If there are no issues with the Security Assessment, Accessibility Assessment and Technical Review, the PMO will work with the requester to prepare the Value Proposition Presentation to present to the ITGEC.

  OR

  • A Project Request for a Discovery to Replace a Current Software:
    • A Discovery Team will be created that will assess the request, attend vendor demos and determine a recommendation for approval. The PMO, the Project Sponsor and Requester will identify the team members that will assess the request.
    • The Discovery Team will determine if there is an option already being used at the University that can meet the requirements. If not, then 2 to 4 vendors will be evaluated; demos are scheduled, and each product will be rated for value and functional fit. Post demos, the Discovery Team will vote on the Vendor-Software Recommendation.
    • Accessibility Assessment, Security Assessment and Technical Review are completed for the Discovery Team’s recommendation. If the recommendation does not meet Suffolk University standards it will not move forward.
    • If there are no issues with the Security Assessment, Accessibility Assessment and Technical Review, the PMO will work with the requester to prepare the Value Proposition Presentation to present to the ITGEC.
• Monday, February 2, 2026 – Friday, February 27, 2026: Value Proposition Presentations are presented to IT Governance Executive Committee (ITGEC). Post all presentations, the ITGEC will review and rank the requests for the Budget Committee (for final review and approval).
• The Week of April 12, 2026: The project requester and sponsor will be informed if the project is approved for FY’27. This is an estimated date based on the Budget Committee Meeting Schedule.

Task vs. Project

When evaluated, some initiatives may be determined to be a task rather than a project.

• Project: A new software and/or hardware initiative that takes a level of effort of more than one person and more than 7 hours to complete.
• Task: A software and/or hardware initiative that takes a level of effort of one person and less than 7 hours of work to complete.