Seal

Project Investment Justification

Highlights of Governance Transformation and Redesign Changes:

Revised Project Investment Justification Documents:

  • Project Investment Justification (PIJ).doc - with instructions and without instructions
    • Organized PIJ requested information in a more logical order, including embedded Excel worksheets with calculations, and reducing re-stated information and paperwork.
  • Project Investment Justification (PIJ) LITE.doc - with instructions and without instructions
    • This template is a smaller version of the PIJ which can be used for low risk projects such as Operational Infrastructure Upgrades (i.e. PC Replacement/Refresh, Network Upgrades).

Pre-PIJ Assessment Approval Process:

  • This process provides Agencies a mechanism to request approval in the very early stages of a project in the circumstance where a contract for outside resources is needed to perform project discovery.
  • After the assessment phase is completed, additional sections of the PIJ can be completed for full project approval.
  • This process is available for use by Agencies at their discretion, it is not mandatory.

For ASET approval or disapproval, the individual agencies have the responsibility for developing the business case for each of their projects. The Project and Investment Justification (PIJ) document provides the agency a standardized method to report new or enhanced IT projects and investments. The document is structured to report meaningful business and technical requirements, value to the public, costs, scope, risks and information on the agency’s management and technical skills.

IT projects greater than $25,000 require the preparation of a PIJ. Projects with development costs greater than $1 million, and other major or critical projects, are reviewed by the Information Technology Authorization Committee (ITAC) and must be approved before any money may be expended. Other PIJ projects must be approved by ASET before agencies may undertake, or commit to, any project expenditures. The budget offices will not authorize funding for projects without ASET or ITAC approval.

PIJ Review

A PIJ valued at less than one million dollars is reviewed by ASET and approved or disapproved by the State CIO. Any IT project valued over $1 million must be approved by the Information Technology Authorization Committee (ITAC). ITAC consists of public and private business and business IT leaders. The committee meets monthly to review IT projects and other Strategic IT issues as necessary.