Enterprise IT Governance Policy

• Table of Contents
• 100.00 Introduction
• 200.00 Policy
• 300.00 Procedures
• 400.00 References
• 500.00 Definitions

100.00 Introduction

Information Technology (IT) represents a significant investment as well as a significant enabler of the University mission, requiring effective governance and planning.

200.00 Policy

200.10 Board of Regents policies governing the use of university information technology apply to all University faculty, staff, students, and patrons. All users of University information technology must comply with MSU Enterprise policies as well as Board of Regents policies, state and federal law. References to associated policies and laws are provided in section 400.00.

200.20 An enterprise IT governing body shall be established to oversee enterprise information technology planning, prioritization, development, and implementation.

1. The enterprise IT governing body shall have representation from each campus’ Provost, Student Services, Research, and Administration & Finance offices.
2. Each campus CIO shall advise and inform the governing body.
3. The enterprise IT governing body shall meet at least semi-annually.
4. The enterprise IT governing body shall set long-term goals and priorities.
5. The enterprise IT governing body shall prioritize projects and requests for central IT services to align resources with strategic priorities, as detailed in the Enterprise IT Resource Management Policy.

200.30 Each campus shall develop, maintain and follow a long-range strategic plan for the maintenance, growth, development, improvement, and replacement of IT investments.

200.40 Central IT departments shall coordinate enterprise IT planning efforts and strategies for most effective use of resources across the University.

200.50 IT units shall participate in strategic planning and align their IT operations with the campus IT strategic plan.

200.60 Campus IT strategic plans shall align with University and related strategic plans.

300.00 Procedures

Individual campuses maintain campus-specific standards and procedures that implement this policy. Campus-specific standards and procedures are currently under development; when published, the links to those pages will be provided here. Constituents will be required to comply with any standards and procedures developed for their campus:

No specific procedures or standards currently exist for this policy.

400.00 References

Report broken links to uitmarcom@montana.edu.

• Montana University System strategic plan: Refer to MUS Board of Regents, available at http://www.mus.edu/board/default.asp or the MUS 2011 Strategic Plan, available at http://www.mus.edu/data/StratPlan/StrategicPlan.asp.

500.00 Definitions

“Central IT department” refers to the centrally-funded IT unit on each campus that serves campus-wide needs and/or University IT infrastructure.

“Committee” refers to any formal or informal group, such as an advisory group, task force, ad hoc group or council comprised of any combination of faculty, staff, students, or community members.

“Constituent” refers to any individual or group associated with the University including students, staff, faculty, or patrons as well as any contractors, regents, committees, councils, groups, agencies, departments, entities, campus, or community.

“Enterprise” refers to all Universities, colleges, and agencies of Montana State University.

“Enterprise Chief Information Officer” refers to the top level information technology leadership role based on the Bozeman campus whose responsibilities include information technology leadership of the four MSU campuses.

“Enterprise IT governing body” refers to a University-wide IT decision-making group proposed to oversee and govern enterprise-wide IT issues, needs, recommendations, and prioritizations.

“Information Technology” or “IT” refers to any resource related to the access and use of digitized information, including but not limited to hardware, software, devices, appliances, network bandwidth and resources.

“IT unit” refers to any group or individual that provides distributed IT services, support, or infrastructure, including academic and research IT support groups.

“IT investment” refers to any expenditure on information technology, such as personnel time and effort, hardware or equipment, software purchases or licensing, upfront purchases and ongoing maintenance costs, network bandwidth or other services.

“University” refers to any and all campuses, agencies, departments, or entities within the Montana State University enterprise.