IT Advisory Committee
The Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) reviews, evaluates and makes approval recommendations regarding IT proposals, priorities, policies and technology investments in support of University objectives.
ITAC membership includes representation from university departments and schools. The committee reports to the IT Governance Program Executive Sponsors, who receive regular updates, validate its direction, resolve escalated issues and, as needed, provide approval of policy changes and funding requests.
Responsibilities
- Review, prioritize and approve recommendations for IT policies, standards and guidelines.
- Review, prioritize and make approval recommendations for IT project proposals and funding.
- Review and provide recommendations on the annual IT capital budget requests.
- Receive updates and provide oversight on IT projects and capital budget expenditures.
- Review and provide comments on the ITS Strategic Plan as it is rolled out and subsequently updated. Ensure alignment of IT projects and capital budget requests with the ITS Strategic Plan and the university's Framework for the Future.
- Provide a forum to discuss and consider new IT requirements or emerging technologies.
- Contribute to the creation of a university-wide inventory of technology applications, projects and investments.
- Assist in communicating the university's IT strategies, priorities, policies and standards to the community.
- Provide direction to prevent, where appropriate, unnecessary redundancy or non-sustainable service implementations and their resulting inefficiencies and risks.
- Provide oversight to the Data Governance Program and ensure that related procedures and protocols align with the IT Governance Program.
- Resolve the escalation of issues which span departmental boundaries, escalating issues and funding requests to the IT Governance Program Executive Sponsors when appropriate.
- Champion effective information and IT security measures, policies and practices to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of resources are preserved.
Committee Membership
The membership of this Committee includes representation from university departments and schools, including:
- PMO Manager (chair): Jonathan Estwing
- Chief Information Security Officer: David Albrecht
- Provost Office Representative: Morgen Bergman
- Arts and Sciences Representative: Kevin Keith
- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Representative: Stephanie Hunt
- Heller School Representative: TBD
- International Business School Representative: Kathleen Keen
- Rabb School of Continuing Studies Representative: Alex Shadid
- Library Representative: Mark Paris
- Institutional Advancement Representative: John Xavier
- Student Affairs: Lauren Haynie
- Finance & Administration Representative: Vince Lim
- Human Resources Representative: Dana Sheehan
- Finance Representative: Kris McKeigue
- Campus Operations Representative: Sue Scannell
- Procurement Representative: Courtney Sampson
- Data Governance Leadership Representative: Ian Rifkin
- ITS Leadership Representative: Steve Knowles, ex officio
Administrative Technology Project Requests
An ITAC Project Request Form should be completed in the Brandeis Service Portal (TDX) for any administrative project (non-research/academic, non-Workday) requests. Please complete the form to the best of your ability; an ITAC member representative will determine if the request will be presented to ITAC for approval and prioritization. ITAC members can be found in the Committee Membership section above.
Technology Project Prioritization
The ITAC is empowered to represent the university for IT project resource approval and prioritization (both human and financial, and for the latter, both capital and operating).
ITAC exercises this responsibility via codified stage gates along the project lifecycle. This includes approving and prioritizing project briefs for discovery to occur, approving and prioritizing project charters for implementation to occur, and making decisions on in-progress implementations that encounter significant changes from what ITAC previously approved.
For a list of prioritized projects and stages, please refer to the ITS PMO Portfolio (pdf).*
* The IT Advisory Committee meeting agendas, minutes and forms are posted to Box (Brandeis login required).
If you have questions, please contact ITAC Chair Jonathan Estwing.