Project Management Oversight

The Project Oversight role is responsible for ensuring information technology projects designated as “major projects” adhere to state laws, standards, guidelines, and management best practices.

Vision

To provide project results statewide through project management leadership, standardization, and regulation.

Mission

For IT projects classified as “major projects,” ensure management practices align with the requirements set forth in the applicable Century Code and state standards. Beyond compliance, oversight actively supports project teams in driving continuous improvement and achieving sustainable outcomes across all areas of project management.

Core Tasks for Executing the Vision and Mission

  • Establish Establish guidance related to project management (e.g., creating and maintaining project management standards and reporting mechanisms)
  • Create, maintain, and continuously improve statewide, enterprise project management tools and templates
  • Proactively monitor IT procurements to determine if they will meet the requirements to be deemed as a major project
  • Confirm that procurement and contracting processes include collaboration between the sponsoring agency, NDIT, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Attorney General's Office as mandated
  • Serve as a member of the Oversight Committee
  • On behalf of the CIO, participate as one of the procurement collaboration staff
  • Review and provide feedback on project charters, project plans, project schedules, variance reporting, startup and closeout reports, post-implementation reports, and other project management deliverables
  • Review and provide feedback on project processes (e.g., risks, issues, change requests) on an ad-hoc basis
  • Regularly audit project documentation to ensure required approvals, status updates, variance calculations, risk and issue reports, and change requests are documented and submitted
  • Provide escalation pathways when deviations or noncompliance are identified, ensuring corrective action is tracked and resolved
  • Monitor the major IT project portfolio status; create a report for the CIO that summarizes the health of all projects
  • Monitor project status and create a report for the CIO that summarizes the health of all projects
  • Report oversight activities and project health transparently to the Legislative Information Technology Committee (LITC), maintaining accountability for project governance and legal adherence
  • Identify projects for CIO and potentially LITC review when project budget or schedule exceeds a 20% variance to baseline

Oversight Structure

  • Project Compliance Coordinators (PCC) are assigned to projects over $100,000 that have the potential to become major projects, but do not currently meet the criteria
  • Oversight Analysts (OA) are assigned to perform oversight activities on major projects
  • PCCs and OAs are assigned to a project by the state CIO. The PCC and OA serve at the request of the CIO and establish and conduct their work processes to fulfill the CIO’s obligations relating to project oversight as set forth in applicable Century Code and state standards
  • Any OA assigned to a project will “meet the qualifications established by the department” as set forth in applicable Century Code and state standards

An Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) fee is assessed to major IT projects and programs to fund legislative reporting and enterprise project management activities throughout the State. Any major IT project/program budget must include this cost. The current fee structure may be found under the biennium budget guidelines on the NDIT Billing page of this website. Fees will be assessed at the completion of planning and then annually until project/program closeout.

The EPMO Fee allows NDIT to provide the following services which are required by North Dakota Century Code:

  • Legislative reporting on IT projects
  • Resources to fill the oversight analyst role on major projects
  • Oversight assistance to ensure that laws are met
  • Oversight assistance to ensure that project management standards are met
  • Manage project document archiving and provide open records support

In addition to North Dakota Century Code required services, the EPMO fee also covers:

  • Creation and maintenance of project management tools, templates, and processes
  • Oversight assistance to ensure project management best practices are followed to promote project success
  • Escalation points to help those performing project management roles resolve complex project issues, resourcing problems, and ensure efficient project delivery
  • Support and facilitation of ancillary project activities, such as procurement, change management, and cybersecurity