IE11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

State Overhauling Process to Design, Approve and Implement Major IT Projects

The state of California is launching a new effort to overhaul the way major IT projects are designed, approved and implemented, Department of Technology Director Carlos Ramos said in an interview with Techwire’s Christina Gagnier.

In the past, IT projects would require a large amount of paperwork, including a Feasibility Study Report (FSR), which could all be time-consuming, redundant and excessively bureaucratic, Ramos said.

"Our effort at remaking the model is to shorten it, make it more focused on those elements of success, and making sure there’s a very good connection between the business need of the department and the eventual technology solution that’s brought forward," Ramos said.

Ramos announced some of the changes in a Senate Oversight Committee hearing last month on the failed 21st Century project, a revamped payroll system that was dogged by inaccuracies in payments and cancelled vendors’ contracts.

In the hearing, Ramos said that while he has learned from how other departments succeed and fail in their projects, the Department of Technology has the authority to change how state departments gain approval for IT projects.

"Our authority is that unless you’re willing to change those processes, unless you’re willing to embrace some re-engineering effort, we’re not going to allow this project to be approved or moved forward," Ramos said in the hearing.

Ramos indicated the first phase of the approval process would be rolling out in September. On the same day as the hearing, the State IT Procurement Task Force announced its recommendations to improve large IT procurements. The report contained 21 recommendations, the first of which was that the state departments should abandon the FSR and instead have a two-stage approval process: initial approval and detailed planning approval.

Though Ramos did not specifically address whether the FSR would be removed from the procurement process, he did state in the Techwire interview that the department would be focusing on eliminating redundancies in the procurement process.

This article was originally published in the Roundup newsletter on September 6, 2013