Find Terms by Topic: Portfolio Management
Business Application / System
An application or system which has a direct impact on the delivery of services to department/agency employees, clients or consumers.
Categorization
Within the TBM Program, agencies are responsible for categorizing and documenting their costs to the program taxonomies. The TBM Program provides templates that agencies use to capture and submit categorization to the program.
Cost Center
The cost center used in the TBM program is agency defined. Agencies can select up to three fields coded in the statewide Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS) for their TBM Cost Center.
Cost Pools
The basic financial groupings of cost data. The smaller list simplifies reporting and provides a finance view of IT spend and represents the logical accounting buckets for IT charges. Cost Pools are mapped on the Chart of Accounts. For the State of Washington, Cost Pool mapping is generally done by mapping Objects, Sub-Objects, and/or Sub-Sub-Objects to a Cost Pool.
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture is an established process for describing the current state and defining the target state and transition strategy for an organization's people, processes, and technology.
RCW 43.105.20 (5): "Enterprise architecture" means an ongoing activity for translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change. It is a continuous activity. Enterprise architecture creates, communicates, and improves the key principles and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution.
Executive Sponsor
The senior executive responsible to the agency and the State CIO/OCIO for the project.
Finding
A Quality Assurance (QA) provider's assessment of the project's use of project management best practices, as well as their assessment of deficiencies or gaps in the application of those best practices that may have an adverse impact on the project. Findings are assumed to require corrective actions.
Independent Project Quality Assurance
The work of one or more professionals responsible for monitoring and assessing the health and effectiveness of project management plans and processes as well as an overall assessment of a projects's short and longer term risks. To preserve independence, the QA provider(s) report outside the project management organizational structure, generally to the project's Executive Sponsor and the State CIO. In Washington state government, independent Project QA is considered different than product or technical quality assurance which might include testing and other independent verification and validation activities.
Information Technology
Per RCW 43.105.020, "Information technology" includes, but is not limited to, all electronic technology systems and services, automated information handling, system design and analysis, conversion of data, computer programming, information storage and retrieval, telecommunications, requisite system controls, simulation, electronic commerce, radio technologies, and all related interactions between people and machines.
Information Technology (IT) Assets
The processes, procedures, systems, IT infrastructure, data, and communication capabilities that allow each agency to manage, store, and share information in pursuit of its business mission, including but not limited to:
- Applications.
- All data typically associated with IT systems regardless of source (agency, partner, customer, citizen, etc.).
- All data typically associated with IT systems regardless of the medium on which it resides (disc, tape, flash drive, cell phone, personal digital assistant, etc.).
- End-user authentication systems.
- Hardware (voice, video, radio transmitters and receivers, mainframes, servers, workstations, personal computers, laptops, and all end point equipment).
- Software (operating systems, application software, middleware, microcode).
- IT infrastructure (networks, connections, pathways, servers, wireless endpoints).
- Services (data processing, telecommunications, office automation, and computerized information systems).
- Telecommunications hardware, software, and networks.
- Radio frequencies.
- Data computing and telecommunications facilities.
- Intelligent control systems such as video surveillance, HVAC, and physical security.
IT Expenditures
Within the TBM Program, the source financial information used for identifying IT expenditures is from the statewide Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS) and based on these components:
New IT acquisitions (coded in AFRS as Project Type X)
IT maintenance and operations (coded in AFRS as Project Type Y)
Data processing services (AFRS Sub-Object EL)
NOTE: AFRS Sub-Object EL is defined in the OFM State Administrative and Accounting Manual (SAAM) 75.70.20 as “Charges by state agencies for information technology services. Examples include computing services, hosting services, network services, web services, statewide systems (AFRS, HRMS, etc.), and planning and policy assessment by agencies such as the Department Enterprise Services, the Office of Financial Management, Office of the Chief Information Officer and Consolidated Technology Services.”
IT Strategy and Innovation
IT Strategy and Innovation includes all activities outside of normal Strategic Planning that focus on trying new approaches, new systems and thinking about/ planning IT investments in different ways.
Major IT Project
A project subject to State CIO/OCIO oversight based on risk/severity assessment, a statute or some other factor as determined by the State CIO.
Portfolio Management
Defines the set of capabilities to support the administration of a group of investments held by an organization
Program / Project Management
Defines the set of capabilities to manage and control a particular effort of an organization. This includes intra-agency work.
Quality Assurance Plan
A document that describes how the QA Practitioner will deliver its service.
Quality Assurance Solicitation
A Request for Proposal, a Request for Quote and Qualification, an interagency agreement proposal or an agency recruitment or any other effort that is intended to result in the acquisition or hire of a QA resource.
Recommendation
The QA Practitioners suggested course of action to address a negative finding.
SMART Objectives
SMART is a mnemonic for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. These characteristics are helpful to remember when identifying project objectives.
Start of a Project
For the purposes of project investment, approval, oversight and quality assurance, the start of the project is at the beginning of planning.
Supporting Organization(s) Processes
For the purpose of go live readiness, supporting organizations include the agency(s) and any vendor(s) who are involved in operations and support of the ongoing system/investment. Processes include any unique to the time immediately after go-live as well as those on-going processes required to effectively operate and maintain the system/investment once it is implemented into production.
Technology Business Management
A set of best practices for running IT like a business - and more importantly for effectively and consistently (using a data-driven agreed upon framework) communicating not just the cost of IT, but also attributing that cost to business services. Key to TBM is the ability of IT and business leaders to have data-driven discussions about cost and value of IT to best support business goals.
