New Mexico Public Education Department—Student Nutrition
Administrative Review and Training (ART)
Project Charter For Certification
Executive Sponsor – Dr. Susana Murphy
Business Owner –Carolann Gutierrez
Project Manager – Carolann Gutierrez
Original Plan Date: August 2010
Revision Date: 2010
Revision: Initial Release
About This Project Charter DOCUMENT
Permission to plan the projec t and setting the governance structure
The Project Charter provides the project manager and project team with permission to proceed with the work of the project, within the scope delineated in this document. The Project Charter should be the outcome of a number of documents that went into the pre-planning for the project, and in many cases the agency IT Plan, Business Case for appropriations, Federal funding requests and the like.
Project sponsors sign the Project Charter signifying that they have agreed to the governance structure for guiding the direction for the further planning of the project, discovery and defining the requirements, acquiring necessary resources, and within that context the statement of work for any related contracts including a contract for the Independent Validation and Verification.
The Project Charter is also the foundation for the creation of the project management plan, and much of the thinking and writing for this charter will be immediately usable for that project management plan.
Project certification Initial phase documentation
The Project Charter is also used within the State of New Mexico IT Project Certification process as evidence of the project’s worthiness for the Initial Phase certification. The Initial Phase certification is especially critical to many state and agency projects because of its related release of the initial funds required for the project.
Initiation Phase funding is requested by an agency for use in developing project phases, developing Independent Verification and Validation (“IV&V”) plan and contract; address project review issues and/or to develop an overall project management plan. Note: Waiver of the IV&V requirement requires specific written approval by the Secretary of the DoIT.
DoIT “Project Certification” Memorandum July 2, 2007
The Project Charter and the Request for Certification Form are meant to provide a comprehensive picture of the project’s intention and initial planning, that includes the project’s place in the context of the State of New Mexico’s IT Strategic Plan, Enterprise Architecture, and DoIT project oversight process. See “IT Project Oversight Process” Memorandum July 5th 2007 on the OCIO-DoIT web site.
table of contents
About This Project Charter DOCUMENT
table of contents
1. project background
1.1 Executive Summary -rationale for the project
1.2 Summary of the foundation planning and documentation for the project
1.3 Project Certification Requirements
2.0 Justification, Objectives and impacts
2.1 Agency Justification
2.2 Business Objectives
2.3 Technical Objectives
2.4 Impact on Organization
2.5 Transition to Operations
3.0 Project/Product Scope of Work
3.1 Deliverables
3.1.1 Project Deliverables
3.1.2 Product Deliverables
3.2 Success and QUALITY METRICS
4.0 Schedule Estimate
5.0 Budget Estimate
5.1 Funding Source(s)
5.2. Budget By Major Deliverable or Type of expense -
5.3 Budget By Project Phase or Certification Phase
6.0 Project Authority and Organizational Structure
6.1 STAKEHOLDERS
6.2 PROJECT GOVERNANCE PLAN
6.3 PROJECT MANAGER
6.3.1 PROJECT MANAGER CONTACT INFORMATION
6.3.2 PROJECT MANAGER BACKGROUND
6.4 PROJECT TEAM ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
6.5 Project management Methodology
7.0 Constraints
8.0 Dependencies
9.0 Assumptions
10.0 Significant Risks and Mitigation Strategy
11.0 COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR EXECUTIVE REPORTING
12.0 INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION - IV&V
13.0 Project Charter Agency Approval Signatures
14.0 Project Charter Certification Approval Signature
Revision History
Revision Number / Date / Comment1.0 / August 14, 2007 / Original DoIT PMO Document
1
Project Charter [art]1
1. project background
1.1 Executive Summary -rationale for the project
The NMPED Student Nutrition division is responsible for administering federally-funded child nutrition programs for all Local Education Agencies (LEA’s, or districts) within the state. NMPED is also responsible for ensuring that all LEA’s meet the federally-mandated accountability requirements for student nutrition and associated funding. To further that cause, USDA issued and NMPED was awarded a grant in the amount of $1,680,528 to procure services to improve accountability within the state.
NMPED will partner with inTEAM/SL-Tech, a leading provider of performance consulting and technology services within K-12 school foodservice, in order to meet the goals of the project. inTEAM/SL-Tech will provide four specific products:
- Consulting services to improve accountability within specific, identified New Mexico LEA’s.
- Decision Support Toolkit (DST) software, an off-the-shelf system accessed by NMPED via the internet, to help identify LEA’s with specific accountability issues.
- WebSMARTT software, an off-the-shelf system accessed by LEA’s via the internet to enter and track specific accountability data required by NMPED and the federal government.
- Electronic learning modules to teach best practices in meeting accountability requirements in a standard, measurable way.
1.2 Summary of the foundation planning and documentation for the project
The USDA-administered Administrative Review and Training (ART) grants set aside $4 million per year for state agencies to procure additional (beyond services or programs already implemented) services to improve accountability within LEA’s. New Mexico has been awarded a grant in the amount of $1,680,528.
Every year, NMPED Student Nutrition conducts accountability requirements of LEA’s to ensure that all federal accountability requirements are being met. The penalty for failing to meet federal requirements is the withholding of federal funds used to administer child nutrition programs. Through these reviews, NMPED has consistently found gaps in the meeting of accountability requirements. The ART project will allow NMPED to close those gaps, to improve overall accountability, and to ultimately provide better nutrition services to New Mexico’s school children.
1.3 Project Certification Requirements
Does the project fit into the criteria for certification? Which and how?
CRITERIA / YES/NO / EXPLANATIONProject is mission critical to the agency / YES / Gaps in federally-mandated accountability requirements can result in the withholding of federal funds used to administer New Mexico’s child nutrition programs.
Project cost is equal to or in excess of $100,000.00 / YES / The total cost of the project will be $1,680,528 (provided through a federal grant).
Project impacts customer on-line access / YES / DST and WebSMARTT software will be accessed via the internet by NMPED staff and LEA’s.
Project is one deemed appropriate by the Secretary of the DoIT / YES / The project is critical to meeting the ART grant funding purposes.
Will an IT Architecture Review be required? / NO / The vendor will provide access to all systems via the internet.
2.0 Justification, Objectives and impacts
The justification and objectives section relates the project to the purpose of the lead agency and describes the high level business and technical objectives for the project. The section also includes a high level review of the impact to the organization, and of the concerns for transition to operations.
2.1 Agency Justification
IDENTIFY AGENCY MISSION, PERFORMANCE MEASURE OR STRATEGIC GOALS TO BE ADDRESSED THROUGH THIS PROJECT
Number / DescriptionNMPED / The following is taken from NMPED’s Strategic Plan”
“The New Mexico Public Education Department is constitutionally responsible for ensuring financial and programmatic accountability in New Mexico public schools and vocational rehabilitation services.
The New Mexico Public Education Department will:
- Promote high quality education for all students,
- Hold schools accountable for results,
- Evaluate the results of our policies,
- Implement continuous, measurable improvement, and
- Increase access to and application of technology for student learning.
2.2 Business Objectives
Use the following table to list measurable business objectives
Number / DescriptionBusiness Objective 1 /
- Meet federal accountability requirements for child nutrition programs
Business objective 2 /
- Benchmark performance between similar LEA’s to identify outliers
business objective 3 /
- Supplement internal resources with outside expertise to provide accountability training for LEA’s that have consistent problems with audits
business objective 4 /
- Provide cost control training to LEA’s in order to improve fiscal performance
2.3 Technical Objectives
Number / DescriptionTechnical Objective 1 /
- Use DST to provide an umbrella reporting systems for disconnected information that currently stored in various systems
technical objective 2 /
- Provide an accountability system to LEA’s that currently do not have one in order to meet federal accountability requirements
2.4 Impact on Organization
The impacts on the organization are areas that need to be addressed by the project through its planning process. They may not be internal project risks, but they can impact the success of the project’s implementation.
Area / DescriptionEnd user /
- Additional tools and training will allow end-users to better meet federal accountability requirements and reduce the risk that federal funding will be withheld.
Business Processes /
- ART will continue to improve NMPED’s and LEA’s business processes, reengineering, accountability, and data quality (performance and financial).
It Operations and staffing /
- Minimal, since software is accessed via internet.
Other
2.5 Transition to Operations
The transition to operations areas include items that are asked in the certification form to assure that the project has accounted or will account for these matters in its planning and requirements specifications.
Area / DescriptionPreliminary Operations location and staffing plans /
- inTEAM/SL-Tech will provide off-the-shelf software accessed via the internet. No custom development work is being done for NMPED. The system is developed and currently deployable.
Data Security, Business Continuity /
- DST and WebSMARTT will be hosted by the vendor, whose hosting solution meets the most strict data security for the credit card industry (PCI compliant).
Maintenance Strategy /
- DST and WebSMARTT will be hosted by the vendor, who will perform all required maintenance on a regular basis.
Interoperability /
- DST will receive data from the state student information (STARS) system and the state claims system. The flow of data is one-way, into DST. No data will be written back to any NMPED systems.
Record retention /
- No unique data will be stored by DST. However, the vendor will provide regular backups of reporting information in order to ensure ease of access.
Consolidation strategy /
- N/A.
3.0 Project/ProductScope of Work
In its efforts to move from the high level business objectives to the desired end product/service the project team will need to deliver specific documents or work products. The State of New Mexico Project Management Methodology distinguishes between the project and the product.
Project Deliverables relate to how we conduct the business of the project. Product Deliverables relate to how we define what the end result or product will be, and trace our stakeholder requirements through to product acceptance, and trace our end product features and attributes back to our initial requirements
3.1 Deliverables
3.1.1 Project Deliverables
This initial list of project deliverables are those called for by the IT Certification Process and Project Oversight memorandum, but does not exhaust the project deliverable documents
Project Charter / The Project Charter for Certification sets the overall scope for the project, the governance structure, and when signed is considered permission to proceed with the project. The Project Charter for Certification is used to provide the Project Certification Committee with adequate knowledge of the project and its planning to certify the initiation phase of the projectCertification Form / The Request for Certification and Release of Funds form is submitted when a project goes for any of the certification phases. It deals with the financial aspects of the project, as well as other topics that indicate the level of planning that has gone into the project. Many of the questions have been incorporated into the preparation of the project charter
Project Management Plan / .“Project management plan” is a formal document approved by the executive sponsor and the Department and developed in the plan phase used to manage project execution, control, and project close. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, and documents approved scope, cost and schedule baselines. A project plan includes at least other plans for issue escalation, change control, communications, deliverable review and acceptance, staff acquisition, and risk management. plan.”
IV&V Contract & Reports / “Independent verification and validation (IV&V)” means the process of evaluating a project to determine compliance with specified requirements and the process of determining whether the products of a given development phase fulfill the requirements established during the previous stage, both of which are performed by an organization independent of the lead agency. Independent verification and validation assessment reporting. The Department requires all projects subject to oversight to engage an independent verification and validation contractor unless waived by the Department.
IT Service Contracts / The Department of Information Technology and the State Purchasing Division of General Services have established a template for all IT related contracts.
Risk Assessment and management / The DoIT Initial PROJECT RISK ASSESSMENT template which is meant to fulfill the following requirement:
“Prepare a written risk assessment report at the inception of a project and at end of each product development lifecycle phase or more frequently for large high-risk projects. Each risk assessment shall be included as a project activity in project schedule.” Project Oversight Process memorandum
Project Schedule / A tool used to indicate the planned dates, dependencies, and assigned resources for performing activities and for meeting milestones. The defacto standard is Microsoft Project
Monthly Project Status Reports to DoIT / Project status reports. For all projects that require Department oversight, the lead agency project manager shall submit an agency approved project status report on a monthly basis to the Department.
Project Closeout Report / This is the Template used to request that the project be officially closed. Note that project closure is the last phase of the certification process
3.1.2 Product Deliverables
The product deliverable documents listed here are only used for illustration purposes
Requirements Documents / Description – No custom work or system customization will be performed in this project. NMPED issued a competitive RFP defining system needs, and selected a vendor that meets the defined needs.Design Documents / Not required, no custom work will be performed for this project.
Pilots / Prior to rolling out to all NMPED schools, a pilot will be conducted at 3 schools for DST and WebSMARTT.
System and Acceptance Testing / Once rolled-out, DST and WebSMARTT will be fully tested by NMPED and participating LEA’s. The vendor is responsible for fixing any bugs. Any enhancement requests will be made to the vendor for consideration.
Operations requirements / Once rolled out, DST and WebSMARTT must be implemented for all end-users. inTEAM/SL-Tech will provide all end-user training via electronic learning and in-person teaching.
3.2Success and QUALITY METRICS
Metric are key to understanding the ability of the project to meet the end goals of the Executive Sponsor and the Business Owner, as well as the ability of the project team to stay within schedule and budget.
Number / DescriptionQuality Metrics 1 / Perpormance to implementation schedule
Quality metrics 2 / Performance to budget
quality metrics 3 / Quality of deliverables
4.0 Schedule Estimate
5.0 Budget Estimate
5.1 Funding Source(s)
Source / Amount / Associated restrictionsusda art grant / $1,680,528 / must be dedicated to additional, outside resources. Cannot be used to fund current activities.
5.2. Budget By Major Deliverable or Type of expense -
Item / Cost Estimate / .consulting services / $398,600.00
Software licenses (perpetual) / $775,000.00
technical support / $405,000.00
Administrative/internal costs (including IV&V and indirect costs) / $101,928
5.3Budget By Project Phase or Certification Phase
Tasks / Internal (utilizing internal staff or existing contracts) / Certification Funding RequirementsPlanning / $101,928.00 / Planning
Rollout (including Training) / Operational / $398,600.00
Software License / $775,000.00
Technical Support / $405,000.00
Total / $101,928.00 / $1,578,600.00
6.0 Project Authority and Organizational Structure
6.1 STAKEHOLDERS
The ART project is designed to have minimal impact on NMPED personnel. ART grant funding is designed to provide funding for state nutrition agencies to procure outside resources and expertise in order to improve overall accountability performance.
name / Stake in Project / Organization / TitleDr. susana murphy / sponsor / nmped / secretary
robert piro / agency cio / nmped / cio
carolann gutierrez / project manager / nmped / director
6.2 PROJECT GOVERNANCE PLAN
6.3 PROJECT MANAGER
6.3.1 PROJECT MANAGER CONTACT INFORMATION
name / Organization / Phone #(s) / EmailCarolann Gutierrez / nmped / 827-1814 /
6.3.2 PROJECT MANAGER BACKGROUND
Ms. Gutierrez is the state director for Student Nutrition for the NMPED. Ms. Gutierrez is responsible for administering federally mandated accountability requirements for all of New Mexico’s child nutrition programs.