REBIS UPGRADE AND ENHANCEMNT PROJECT
Project Charter For Certification
Executive Sponsor – Mark Tyndall, Acting Executive Director
Business Owner – Valerie Kranz-Burge, Systems Analyst
Project Manager – Tomas Rodriguez, IT Director
Original Plan Date: 5/7/2012
Revision Date:
Revision:
About This Project Charter DOCUMENT
Permission to plan the project and setting the governance structure
The Project Charter provides the project manager and project team with permission to proceed with the work of the project, within the scope delineated in this document. The Project Charter should be the outcome of a number of documents that went into the pre-planning for the project, and in many cases the agency IT Plan, Business Case for appropriations, Federal funding requests and the like.
Project sponsors sign the Project Charter signifying that they have agreed to the governance structure for guiding the direction for the further planning of the project, discovery and defining the requirements, acquiring necessary resources, and within that context the statement of work for any related contracts including a contract for the Independent Validation and Verification.
The Project Charter is also the foundation for the creation of the project management plan, and much of the thinking and writing for this charter will be immediately usable for that project management plan.
Project certification Initial phase documentation
The Project Charter is also used within the State of New Mexico IT Project Certification process as evidence of the project’s worthiness for the Initial Phase certification. The Initial Phase certification is especially critical to many state and agency projects because of its related release of the initial funds required for the project.
Initiation Phase funding is requested by an agency for use in developing project phases, developing Independent Verification and Validation (“IV&V”) plan and contract; address project review issues and/or to develop an overall project management plan. Note: Waiver of the IV&V requirement requires specific written approval by the Secretary of the DoIT.
DoIT “Project Certification” Memorandum July 2, 2007
The Project Charter and the Request for Certification Form are meant to provide a comprehensive picture of the project’s intention and initial planning, that includes the project’s place in the context of the State of New Mexico’s IT Strategic Plan, Enterprise Architecture, and DoIT project oversight process. See “IT Project Oversight Process” Memorandum July 5th 2007 on the OCIO-DoIT web site.
table of contents
About This Project Charter DOCUMENT i
table of contents ii
1. project background 1
1.1 Executive Summary -rationale for the project 1
1.2 Summary of the foundation planning and documentation for the project 2
1.3 Project Certification Requirements 2
2.0 Justification, Objectives and impacts 3
2.1 Agency Justification 3
2.2 Business Objectives 4
2.3 Technical Objectives 5
2.4 Impact on Organization 6
2.5 Transition to Operations 7
3.0 Project/Product Scope of Work 8
3.1 Deliverables 8
3.1.1 Project Deliverables 8
3.1.2 Product Deliverables 10
3.2 Success and QUALITY METRICS 11
4.0 Schedule Estimate 11
5.0 Budget Estimate 11
5.1 Funding Source(s) 13
5.2. Budget By Major Deliverable or Type of expense - 13
5.3 Budget By Project Phase or Certification Phase 13
6.0 Project Authority and Organizational Structure 14
6.1 STAKEHOLDERS 14
6.2 PROJECT GOVERNANCE PLAN 14
6.3 PROJECT MANAGER 14
6.3.1 PROJECT MANAGER CONTACT INFORMATION 14
6.3.2 PROJECT MANAGER BACKGROUND 15
6.4 PROJECT TEAM ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 15
6.5 Project management Methodology 16
7.0 Constraints 17
8.0 Dependencies 17
9.0 Assumptions 18
10.0 Significant Risks and Mitigation Strategy 19
11.0 COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR EXECUTIVE REPORTING 21
12.0 INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION - IV&V 22
13.0 Project Charter Agency Approval Signatures 24
14.0 Project Charter Certification Approval Signature 24
Revision History
Revision Number / Date / Comment1.0 / May 23, 2012 / Draft Submission to DoIT
iii
Project Charter [REBIS UPGRADE AND ENHANCEMNT PROJECT] 26
1. project background
1.1 Executive Summary -rationale for the project
The mission statement of the New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority (NMRHCA) is “to administer to current and future participants a high-quality and affordable health care program, to go beyond what is generally expected through dedicated, compassionate, expert, efficient, and innovative service”. The computer system that is used by the NMRHCA, that helps support this mission, is a system created in 1999. The Retire Eligibility Benefit Intake System (REBIS) is responsible for the intake and processing of the active and retired population of the NMRHCA. The system is operational however, there are issues that need to be addressed; security needs to be improved; system integrity issues to be improved; as well as user and system documentation that needs to be created.
Business Problem and Opportunity
REBIS is a system that has been in place since 1999, there are areas of REBIS that are in need of attention, those business problems are as follows:
- Documented business process. The REBIS system was developed in 1999 and the documented business cases that map to business processes are non-existent. Trying to understand why a business process was created and implemented is hard to determine. The traceability to any documentation that relates to the REBIS system is missing and makes understanding the system difficult. Sometimes reverse engineering is needed to understand the code of a certain business process.
- Integrity of the system. It was recognized early on that the REBIS system needs better integrity checks built into the system. The missing integrity checks result in allowing the Customer Service Representatives to accidently enter erroneous data without the system stopping them from doing so. An example of this is signing up a retiree with a family plan and not enrolling any family members such as the spouse and dependents. The current system Integrity checks are on the back end when running the eligibility files at the end of the week by the IT staff. When the error is caught by the staff it is corrected immediately however most corrections happen just before the files are sent to the contracted provider making this a tedious task.
- REBIS Interface needs to be replaced. The REBIS interface is based on the Microsoft Access Forms that dates back to 1999. Though changes and improvements have been made to the interface, the interface is disorderly and hard to navigate and is in need of a refresh.
- Application coding dates back to 1999. The underlying code to the REBIS system was developed in 1999 and is in need of being updated for efficiency and integrity reasons. The system is written in Visual Basic and the anticipated code for the new system will be C#.
Upgrading and enhancing the REBIS will provide the following opportunities:
- The opportunity to better understand our own business processes. By developing business requirements that will allow us to develop a system that is efficient and traces to documented business process.
- The opportunity to have a more efficient way of conducting business. By revisiting our business processes and determining what does or does not work in the current system will give the NMRHCA efficiencies not built into the current system.
- The opportunity of better safeguard retiree information. Much of that data is protected by HIPAA regulations and a new system would be built with this in mind.
- The opportunity to address some of the current ‘work a rounds” by developing new code. The current system requires at times a “work around”, process or code that where not originally part of the current system.
- The opportunity to have Executive level information readily available without ad-hoc reporting from the IT staff. An example is an Executive Dashboard which would be an interface that reports standard pertinent information by simply selecting a report from a list of reports.
1.2 Summary of the foundation planning and documentation for the project
The foundation for the planning of the “upgrading and enhancing” of the REBIS systems can be traced as far back as August 2, 2007 when an independent technical needs assessment was performed by the SEGAL Company on the behest of the NMRHCA in order to determine if there was a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system that could replace the aging REBIS system. It was determined that there was not a COTS solution. The closest COTS solution would have been a very expensive Pension system that would require a great deal of re-engineering to make get it to a suitable solution for the NMRHCA thus this solution was not viable.
1.3 Project Certification Requirements
Does the project fit into the criteria for certification? Which and how?
CRITERIA / YES/NO / EXPLANATIONProject is mission critical to the agency / Yes / The system processes information for health care benefits for fifty thousand retirees as well as their dependents, and spouses.
The system also processes payments from over three hundred employers that contribute to the NMRHCA for benefits of their retirees.
Without the REBIS system retirees under the NMRHCA benefit plan would not have access to their health care coverage.
Project cost is equal to or in excess of $100,000.00 / Yes / The projected cost is $1,946,300
Project impacts customer on-line access / No
Project is one deemed appropriate by the Secretary of the DoIT / Yes
Will an IT Architecture Review be required? / Yes
2.0 Justification, Objectives and impacts
The justification and objectives section relates the project to the purpose of the lead agency and describes the high level business and technical objectives for the project. The section also includes a high level review of the impact to the organization, and of the concerns for transition to operations.
2.1 Agency Justification
IDENTIFY AGENCY MISSION, PERFORMANCE MEASURE OR STRATEGIC GOALS TO BE ADDRESSED THROUGH THIS PROJECT
Number / Description /Agency 343 / Agency mission:
The New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority is committed to providing an affordable, high-quality, comprehensive health care program for present and future eligible retirees and their dependents.
Goals:
To provide a Retiree Eligibility and Benefit Intake System (“REBIS”) that supports the agency’s mission. The system must be:
· Accurate – The system must provide accurate retiree information. An example of this is ensuring that the input screens provide integrity checks on the data.
· Efficient – The system must be designed in a way that is intuitive and built on code that will allow for the least amount of system latency possible.
· Secure – The system must be designed in a way that will allow end user access based on end user roles.
· HIPAA compliant - The NMRHCA must meet HIPAA standards and this project supports agency and State security policies and procedures by recommending steps for the NMRHCA’s IT team to take in order to achieve a more secure environment in order to safeguard retiree information.
2.2 Business Objectives
Use the following table to list measurable business objectives
Number / Description /Business Objective 1
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE 2
Business objective 3
Business objective 4 / Accurate Retiree Information – The system must provide accurate retiree information that is submitted to its health care carriers by the NMRHCA. Accuracy will be measured by the number of retiree corrections reported by the health care partners to the NMRHCA.
Correct Retiree Pension Deductions – The system must correctly withdraw pension deductions from retiree pensions that pay for retiree health care benefits. Accurate pension deductions will be measured by the number of incorrect monthly pension deductions reported.
Executive Dashboard – The system will provide an Executive Dashboard to the executive staff that will accurately provide up to date information on retiree information such as the number of retirees per health plan as well as financial information such as accurately tracking employee payments. The objective will be measured by the accuracy of the data in the reports that are identified in the planning phase.
HIPPA Compliance - HIPAA applies to all “covered entities,” which the law defines as health plan administrators, health information clearinghouses, and healthcare providers that transmit information electronically. The design of the REBIS system must address the HIPAA regulations and the NMRHCA must be able to show that HIPPAA has been addressed through design documents and policy that help to prevent, detect security events and allow for the correction of HIPAA Security violations.
2.3 Technical Objectives
Number / Description /TECHNICAL OBJECTIVE 1
TECHNICAL OBJECTIVE 2
TECHNICAL OBJECTIVE 3
TECHNICAL OBJECTIVE 4 / IEEE Standards - To design a Retiree Benefit Intake System that is based on IEEE engineering standards for software engineering that will be measured through the code review process.
Business Requirements - To design a system that meets the business requirements of all divisions of the agency measured through the approved business cases.
Reliable and Efficient System - To design an efficient and reliable computer environment that supports the Retiree Benefit Intake System measured through the amount of system latency and system downtime.
HIPPA Compliance – The system will be responsible for the transmission of personal information, thus files will be encrypt and comply with HIPAA rulings. Any new hardware, hardware firmware, software, operating systems and the application
2.4 Impact on Organization
The impacts on the organization are areas that need to be addressed by the project through its planning process. They may not be internal project risks, but they can impact the success of the project’s implementation.
Area / Description /End user / SME’s - Identifying Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) in all departments and scheduling the SME’s to give adequate dedicated time to the project. This will reduce the risk of missing any critical requirements for the system.
Buy In – Recording all end user reactions, comments, and issues as it pertains to the look and feel and, most importantly, the functionality of the new system. This will reduce the risk of non-acceptance of the new system due to functionality and design.
Participation & Cooperation – Ensure that participation from all internal staff is required. This will reduce the risk of non-acceptance of the new system due to functionality and design.
Business Processes / Project Oversight – Ensure the creation and demand participation by the executive team on the Project oversight committee along with the contractor, project manager, the IV&V consultant, and the DoIT. This will reduce the risk of not addressing any issue that may arise and keeping the executive team apprised with what is needed for the project in a timely manner.
Change Control - Provide a great level of effort and detail in identifying the projects deliverables to a level of detail that will lessen the risk of project scope creep. In addition the old and new systems will be running in parallel until a complete migration to the new system can be accomplished. The migration to the new system will be defined through the project plan.
It Operations and staffing / Staffing – The SME for the IT department will be our Systems Analyst and will cause her duties to shift to the IT Director when her expertise and input are needed for the Project.
Operations – Operations will continue as normal. It is currently envisioned that the new system development will take place on new development and testing servers as well as moving to a new production environment. This approach will reduce the risk of impacting the current operations environment.
Testing – System testing will happen through the development lifecycle of the project with the understanding that some testing will be done after normal business hours. Thus having the appropriate staff to test the system will be required based on the test.
Other / Outreach – Contracted medical providers, pension plans, and contributing employers will be informed about the project and will be kept up to date on the progress and implementation of the system. Medical providers and pension plans will be included in the testing of the files that they are dependent on that the system will generate.
2.5 Transition to Operations
The transition to operations areas include items that are asked in the certification form to assure that the project has accounted or will account for these matters in its planning and requirements specifications.