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IT Service Status
IT Service Status

Strategically Providing Support and Leadership to Administrative Systems

Office of Portfolio Management

The Office of Portfolio Management (OPM) in Northwestern IT partners with Administrative Systems to improve project operations and effectiveness by advancing key capabilities that position IT as a strategic business partner for delivering successful project solutions.

We strategically manage and provide support and leadership to Administrative Systems teams in key practice areas: Portfolio and Project Management, Resource Management, Enterprise Architecture, and Application Security Administration.

Portfolio and Project Management

The Office of Portfolio Management (OPM) partners with Administrative Systems development teams in Northwestern IT to deliver and support essential, cross-functional, and exploratory projects. We frequently assist with projects that involve:

  • Highly complex and/or highly visible initiative
  • A high degree of system/data integration
  • Approaches that are new to Northwestern
  • Changes that substantially affect people, processes, etc.
  • Multiple stakeholders with varying needs and/or perspectives
  • Projects that do not fit traditional team portfolios

As a strategic component of the Northwestern IT Administrative Systems organization, the OPM works to improve its ability to deliver projects that bring value to the organization. With support from the organization’s leadership team and staff, we promote strategic, sustainable project portfolio management, resource management, and project management capabilities for Administrative Systems teams. We accomplish this by defining and maintaining standards that introduce repeatable processes and practices in the execution of project work. These endeavors enable Administrative Systems to position itself as a strategic business partner for delivering successful project outcomes.

Resources:

Enterprise Architecture

This Enterprise Architecture team collaborates with Administrative Systems teams and our business partners to facilitate better business outcomes through better use of technology. The team partners with stakeholders to identify common concerns and help articulate new possibilities that utilize the strategic application of information technology in support of Northwestern strategies and priorities. The EA team contributes to IT application strategy definition and execution, identifies data integration patterns, provides strategic consulting, and helps to define the standards and processes to support transformational projects.

Application Security Administration 

The Application Security Administration team maintains the security model for enterprise systems to ensure data protection.

Request a Project

The Office of Portfolio Management administers the intake and routing of Administrative Systems project requests as they are evaluated for prioritization by the IT advisory committee. The Request for Project form captures the initial project request information for Administrative Systems projects that will likely require 100 hours or more of total project effort.

Each request will be evaluated within Administrative Systems, and the project requestor will be contacted by the appropriate Administrative Systems team to develop the full Project Request and Project Scorecard. An initial project effort estimate will be created based on the information collected. The estimate will be used to evaluate the availability of IT resources to perform the work requested. Each developed project request will then be reviewed by the appropriate IT advisory committee, with Administrative Systems recommendations, to select and prioritize all project requests.

  • Requests submitted by April 26, 2024 will be evaluated for the FY25 Project Portfolio.
  • Requests submitted after this date may be deferred to the project portfolio backlog and will be reassessed based on priority and resource availability. If this is an urgent request, please supply the Requested Delivery Date on the Request for Project form.
Request a Project

Partnership and Support

The Office of Portfolio Management facilitates the maintenance of the Northwestern Business Capabilities by partnering with Administrative Systems leadershipAdministrative Systems Advisory Committee (ASAC), and IT Advisory Committees. These partnerships guide the selection of projects to best support and build upon the Northwestern Business Capabilities. The Administrative Systems Transformation Timeline highlights key IT projects and activities to support the transformation of Northwestern's enterprise systems.

We collaborate with Administrative Systems teams to plan, perform, and deliver successful projects for Northwestern. The Job Family Expectations describe the Analyst (System, Info Security, and Data), Project Manager, and Developer positions within Administrative Systems teams.

Administrative Systems teams align on a shared set of strategies, approaches, and goals identified in the Administrative Systems Expectations for work. The expectations are reviewed and updated each year.