David Nero, Director of Technology, City of Boston Dept. of Innovation and Technology

1. Project Data Driven Decision Making
David Nero, City of Boston

3. Agenda
Background on City of Boston DoIT
Evolution of Software Tools
Using Data in Decision Making
Budget Development
Financial Management
Project Oversight
Project Pipeline Monitoring
Lessons Learned
Questions/Open Discussion

4. BACKGROUND ON
THE CITY OF BOSTON

5. City of Boston DoIT Project Management
• DoIT (formerly MIS)—Department is a critical part of
the City’s ability to provide services to constituents 2 full time
PMs in 2008
• Growth of City’s Capital Investment in technology
rose from $2,750,000 in FY 2007 to $19.5 million in FY 8 full time
2013 PMs in 2013
• PMO established in 2008—constant evolution with
tools, processes, execution

6. City of Boston DoIT Project Management
• Adopt processes and implement a “system of
record” for DoIT ideas and projects 111 “ideas”
for FY 2012
• Train PMs and staff on the use of PMO practices and
the importance of using a system of record 171 “ideas”
for FY 2014
• Leverage data and analytics to assist in decision-
making has become critical in overall resource,
project, and budget management

7. EVOLUTION OF
SOFTWARE TOOLS

8. Evolution of Software Use in DoIT
2007—Nothing--No one knows
the full picture from a
project/investment
perspective
2008--Creates a spreadsheet, 2012
then potentially outgrows it and 2010
moves to an Access Database 2008 Enterprise
2007 Enterprise
System
Excel to Project and
2010--Access Database is Nothing Portfoltio and
Access
replaced by a COTS System Analytics
Project/Portfolio Management Platform
application
2012--Analytics tool is added

9. The Road to Data
BEFORE AFTER
Spreadsheet of projects updated by a Use of an Enterprise Project Software
single resource on behalf of the tool to manage investments and
department projects—system of record
No “depth” of data Using Analytics platform to generate
reports for management of the
Manual reporting and analytics department and PMO
become time consuming and
impossible to maintain Increasing need for data as portfolio
grows
Increased demand for data by
decision makers and stakeholders

10. USING DATA IN
DECISION MAKING

11. Budget Development
Creating a process using a central source of data
Managers create Requests are analyzed Budget is submitted
“ideas” for investments based on their and explained via text,
with budget estimate amount, their graphs, context,
and justification precedence, their discussions
complexity, and the
resource required

12. Financial Management
Graphical report with details is
generated and distributed
each week to remind
department directors of the
overall capital financial status
Multiple dimensions can be
viewed—by director, by
capital, obligated vs
unobligated
Quick snapshot of where
budget vs obligations stand

13. Project Oversight
Set a target of all
projects updated
every 2 weeks
Pie chart quick
shows where
updates stand
Detail uses sorting
and colors to draw
attention to
important data for
this report You
can
delete
these
coins.

14. Project Pipeline Monitoring
Data shows where the ideas stand in their overall process
Analytics help directors understand how ideas are flowing, where there might be
bottlenecks, and overall volume in the pipeline

15. Lessons Learned by DoIT
Data and analytics are only as good as the processes being
used to manage them
Data and analytics should be USED, not looked at
Staff and stakeholders must embrace the concepts of a
system of record for data
Decision makers must be flexible and always be looking to
improve the data

16. Questions? Need More Information?
Feel free to contact us.
David.nero@cityofboston.gov
City of Boston
Department of Innovation and
Technology
Boston City Hall