Rational Portfolio Manager

RPM is a system that allows us to collect in one place plans, documents, resource specifications, and other information about all active or proposed IT projects considered by the ITGC. This system allows us to:

• Anticipate resource needs and availability to ensure that we have the staff to carry out approved projects.
• Adjust project schedules to conform to availability of resources.
• Gather detailed information on work performed by staff in the Office of Information Technology in order to improve future resource estimates and project plans.
• Determine capital costs of projects.

The “resources” referred to here are information technology staff with specific technical competencies.

New proposals are entered in RPM after the project concept is approved by the IT Projects and Resources Committee (ITPRC) for further consideration. Prior to the second round of evaluation by the ITPRC, a high-level plan for the project must be developed in RPM and resource specifications provided there. As the proposal goes forward, the plan can be refined as needed prior to execution of the project and particular individuals assigned to the project with the aid of the resource specifications made earlier. Once people have been assigned to a project, they can view and update timesheets in RPM to reflect their effort on the project. Effort information compiled by RPM can reveal the project’s progress relative to its plan and allow the accuracy of resource estimates to be judged.

As time goes on, we hope that the plans and effort information from successfully completed projects can be developed into a useful collection of templates upon which reliable and accurate plans for future projects can be built. We also hope to exploit new features of RPM in order to streamline the proposal development and approval process.