SAM Procurement Project Brief v 1-0

dtp016_-_project_brief_3.0.docx

Document Sign-off  

Working draft should be version 0.x and 1.x Draft sent for Approval/Review should be version 2.x Approved Project brief should be 3.0 Post-approval changes should be change controlled via Issue Log and Scope Change Page, and version 3.x

Background

The University of Edinburgh has devolved budgeting across Colleges, Schools and Professional Services for IT, including software licensing and devolved software management. While Information Services Group, ISG, hold and administer several software agreements on behalf of the university, there is no single central software register within ISG  and no University wide coordinated software management.

Without a comprehensive register of the software used at the university, demonstrating compliance for any audit will be time consuming and record keeping is inconsistent across the estate which might leave the university vulnerable.   

Departments and schools purchase and administer software and there is no overarching software management process or requirement for a consolidated record of software purchasing. The resourcing and responsibility for such software lies within ISG, Colleges, Schools and Departments, resting on their administration to purchase and record software licenses and their IT support to distribute it. 

There is a lot of duplication of effort. Usually department admin or IS support order licenses and there is a variation in detail of record keeping, which is inaccessible to central ISG support. ISG helpdesk have to send calls to software services or school admin to check on the existence of a user license or the eligibility of a user for site license software.

ITI Software Services keep records of licenses issued and copyright acknowledgements only for the agreements/deals they administer. The team rely on other IS teams and university IT support staff to distribute software and comply with licensing.

Looking forward,  should there be institutional agreement - there is potential to leverage a single software asset management process – supported by SAM software – to provide a central register of software licensing, to leverage institutional cost saving through additional bulk purchasing/site licensing and the ability to redeploy unused licenses across the University. 

Scope

Whole university for software administered by IS. The project will deliver a platform readily available for use by Colleges without the requirement for unification of processes in the immediate future.

The project should be capable of delivering a unified licence management process across UoE.

Changes to Scope will be logged on the Issue Log and also recorded on the Project Scope Change page.  

Out of Scope

The project will not replace College processes. However the project will provide flexibility for Colleges to achieve similar benefits for Schools and the College as delivered by this project. 

Objectives and Deliverables and Success Criteria

This table can be used through Business and Technical Analysis, Design, Build, and Testing/UAT as a Traceability Matrix to ensure the project brief project objectives and deliverables are followed through.

Requirements

Requirements are aligned with objectives and deliverables, and also the opportunity to realise the benefits.

Benefits

1.            A software asset management system, SAM, is one of the foundation of ITIL IT service management and the configuration database 2.            A SAM would permit the coordination of licenses across the university, cost effective by coordinating procurement with bulk purchases or site licenses to save money.  A SAM would permit the reassigning of licenses which are no longer being used across the estate.

3.            A SAM would also aid the university's software license compliance.

4.            It would save admin time for the college, streamlining the order process and effort for the IT support services in the process of software deployment  

5.            The trend in software houses is towards named user licenses administered through license portals – an effort intense process without a central SAM

Governance

Project will have these governance roles by default. Delete/Add/Change as appropriate.

Portfolio Governance

Project Board

No project board for this project

Tolerances

Zero tolerance on Cost. Any estimate of cost above the set budget this must be escalated to Sponsor and Director. Any significant lack of quality should be anticipated and prevented by the procurement process, but if one occurs then this must be escalated to Director. 1 month tolerance on key milestones

Resources Skills and Cost

Budget

The budget is £300,000 capital – to purchase, install and commission the service.. Any estimate of cost above this must be escalated to Sponsor and Director.  

Priority and Funding  

Funding is confirmed.

Portfolio Priority is Normal.

Project Team

The project team : who manages the team, lead and other technical people, business analysts, lead and other representatives, people in other areas of the University who will be involved in analysis, testing, acceptance and service handover.  

Quality of Project and Deliverables / Key Project Milestones  

Other Milestones as Appropriate will be added to the plan as it is refined

Project Stakeholders

The project will consult with representatives from all ISG Divisions, Finance, Infosec, the three colleges, CSG and USG.

Assumptions

We assume that the LOT 5 framework will provide market leaders. We assume that a cloud based solution can integrate with our infrastructure, so will accept cloud based bids.

Constraints

We rely on the supplier’s knowledge and experience to help set up and configure the system

Risks

Risk that the consultant will be from one of the suppliers bidding, so need to manage but openness and procurement oversight.  

Issues

The timeline for having the system by start if term is tight.

Previous Lessons Learned

The project will review DTP002 project for any useful products or lessons.

Dependencies

None  

Communication

SharePoint will be used for sharing, emails and meetings for outward communications, as well as our college and other area representatives.

Run / Grow / Transform

Transform  

Alignment with Strategic Vision 

This project will deliver benefits, change and innovations in alignment with the IS Strategic Vision and the University's Strategic Vision for 2025. ** Check the Annual Plan on ITI Sharepoint to see how the project's deliverables and benefits have been aligned to Run/Grow/Transform and the Strategic Themes **

University's Strategic Vision for 2025 the main elements of the vision that this projects contributes have a commentary.

IS Change Programme - How will this project's Deliverables and Benefits promote the Themes 

Indicate if the project deliverables and benefits contribute to the themes with the IS Change Programme.

Service Excellence - Information and Security

This project will undertake GDPR assessment.

This project will be reviewed by InfoSec.

Service Excellence - Process Improvement, efficiency, quality and best practice (Social Responsibility and Sustainability)

Not Applicable.

Digital Transformation

Moving from a myriad of manual procedures to a single digital solution.

IS Change Programme - How will the execution of this project promote the Themes

Project Sponsor – Project Responsibilities

The sign-off milestones are associated with specific responsibilities of the Sponsor role.

This sets out the Sponsor responsibilities on this project - please review and amend as appropriate for this project and agree with Sponsor

Start of project – Explicitly Included in the Initiation Milestones Sign-Off

1. Negotiates and confirms funding for the project
2. Ensures the project is in line with organisational strategy and priorities
3. Chairs the project board, appoints its members and ensures they are effective
4. Advises the project manager of protocols, political risks, issues and sensitivities
5. Makes the project visible within the organisation 

End of Planning – Explicitly Included in the Planning Milestone Sign-Off

1. Works with the project manager to develop the Project Brief
2. Ensures a realistic project plan is produced
3. Sets tolerance levels for escalation to themselves and to the project board
4. Ensures that project team have representation and engagement from users and suppliers
5. Helps identify Stakeholders
6. Approves Communication Plan
7. Agrees on frequency of meetings with Project Manager
8. Agrees of frequency of meetings with Project Team
9. Agrees on milestones and who signs-off

Development / Execution – ongoing

1. Provides strategic direction and guidance to the project manager as directed by the Board
2. Approves changes to plans, priorities, deliverables, schedule
3. Encourages stakeholder involvement and maintains their ongoing commitment
4. Chief risk taker
5. Makes go/no-go decisions
6. Communicates change in organisational structure, priorities, business benefits or funding
7. Helps the project manager in conflict resolution
8. Helps resolve inter project boundary issues
9. Gains agreement among stakeholders when differences of opinion occur
10. Assists the project by exerting organisational authority and the ability to influence

Delivery – Explicitly Included in the Delivery Sign-Off

1. Ensures that Service is ready for change

Closure - Explicitly Included in the Closure Milestone Sign-Off

1. Helps with publicity for the change delivered
2. Ensure that benefits will be managed, measured and realised post-project
3. Evaluates the project’s success upon completion

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