Our client had a growing number of IT projects being initiated and executed, but was experiencing a decline in success rate, and had no visibility to the overall project workload and the progress / success of ongoing projects. There was no clear prioritization of projects, leaving individual staff and departments to determine for themselves what the priorities were.

They desired to establish a governance process by which business leaders could evaluate potential projects, initiate and prioritize the most important projects, and monitor the progress and success of active projects.

• Previous attempts at establishing an IT Steering Committee had been unsuccessful
• There were no written policies regarding project initiation, approval, or prioritization
• There was no portfolio management process, and no single list of all active and pending projects
• Individual projects did not have clear scope, requirements, budget, etc. defined
• There was a change in IT leadership during the establishment of the process

The Kelso Group worked with senior business leaders to define and establish an IT Governance Model, including the creation of an IT Steering Committee. We drafted the process and policies for project initiation, evaluation, and prioritization, and trained our client's department managers on the process of requesting and presenting projects to the Steering Committee.

We also compiled a detailed list of all active and pending projects (over 100), and led the initial process to categorize and prioritize these projects. Lastly, we created a project roadmap document, which showed the prioritized projects, with interdependencies, laid out over a 3-year timeline.

The business now has visibility on and direct input into all major information technology initiatives. Key business leaders have direct oversight and decision-making control over which IT projects are being worked on and how they are prioritized. Project scopes are clearly defined, schedules established, and costs justified before work begins. Department managers know the status of their requested projects, and where / why they fall on the priority list. Project initiation and throughput is controlled and managed, and as a result, project completion and success rates have risen.