IT Program Documentation

Introduction 

This is a list of governance documentation that must be created for a large IT program (>20M). 

Documentation must

• be signed by the Program Board
• filed professionaly (paper wet sigutures and electronic .pdf formats)
• kept up to date 
• readily available in neat packages

Program Goverance

• Program Board – Terms of reference.  States the reason for the existance of the board, the authority, the membership, and the frequency of meetings
• Advisory Boards – Terms of reference.  Advisory Boards must always report to the Program Board
• Program Strategy.  Large IT projects should only be attempted becuase the strategic gains outweigh the delivery risks
• Stakeholder matrix.  The stakeholder matrix is a RACI chart that shows the responsibile Business Owners for each Business Module, and preferably each major Business Scenario.  The provider of the IT solution will not define the specific Business Owners in the contract.  Internally it must be known who has the correct authority to sign of scenarios
• Program Board – minutes of meetings.  The minutes must follow a stardard (and comprehensive) agenda and must be documented and filed professionally.

Program Management

• Program Charter.  Breif overall charter that defines the program boundaries.
• Program Organisation Chart
• Program Budget
• Program Schedule
• Program Risk & Issues Management
• Program Quality plan including Acceptance Criteria
• Program Document management
• Program Variations management
• Prorgam Resources plan
• Program Status reporting

Project Management

• Project Scope document
• Project schedule
• Project risks and issues
• Project status reports

Conclusion

The process of creating and signing off this documentation forces the Program Board to truely commit in writing to decisions of authority and responsibility.  My advice is to keep the documentation as light weight and flexible as possible.

Links

http://onprojects.net/project-prince2-pmbok-toolkits/prince2-templates/