Terms of Reference

Purpose

Advise Executive leadership at UBC on the relative priorities of IT investment requests and make recommendation on which projects should proceed based on the UBC strategic plan, institutional objectives and risk.

Objectives

Offer assurance to UBC’s stakeholders, and governance bodies, and approving authorities under Policy FM11 - Capital Planning Policy that the projects that are recommended to proceed are appropriate given the balance of risk, opportunity, and available funding by:

  • Recommending to the IT Advisory Council (ITAC) and the UBC Executive a scoring rubric that is aligned with the UBC Strategic Plan and other institutional elements such as the risk management plan.
  • To determine relative priority and weighting, apply the rubric to proposed projects that have an Aggregate Estimated Value of $250,000 and greater where central funding or impactful use of central resources will be required. 
  • Providing a recommendation to the ITAC and UBC Executive on the prioritized list of proposed projects with reference to potential available funding and people.
  • Provide recommendations to the Associate Vice-President, Information Technology & Chief Information Officer and other approving authorities under Policy FM11 – Capital Projects Policy regarding which investment requests should be approved to proceed to business case development.
  • Fully considering stakeholder input.
  • Review reports on the overall accuracy on projected costs and outcomes vs actuals.
  • Provide oversight of management of capital projects fund.
  • The CIO has discretion to bring additional projects forward to the committee as required.

Discussion Inputs

  • UBC Strategic Plan
  • University risk register
  • IT Strategic Plan
  • IT 5-year capital roadmap
  • Relevant contextual information about the institution

Discussion Outcomes

Advice to the IT Advisory Council (ITAC) and the UBC Executive including:

  • Scoring rubric to identify relative priority
  • Recommended list of proposed projects for approval
  • Relative priority
  • Expected change impact on the institution
  • Likelihood of success with proposed implementation approach
  • Appropriateness of funding and other resourcing assumed by the university

Membership

The IT Capital Planning Committee consists of:

  1. Vice-President, Finance & Operations (Chair)
  2. Associate Vice-President Finance & Operations, UBC Okanagan (Vice-Chair)
  3. Associate Vice-President, Facilities
  4. Associate Vice-President, Finance & Operational Excellence
  5. Associate Vice- President, Information Technology and CIO
  6. Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation
  7. Associate Vice-President, Student Housing & Community Services
  8. Provost representatives
  9. Dean representatives, UBC and UBC Okanagan
  10. Executive Director, Academic Initiatives
  11. Faculty representatives
  12. University Librarian

In addition to the Advisory Council members, the meetings are attended by the following UBC attendees:

  1. Deputy CIO
  2. Director of Finance, Provost, Office of the Vice-President
  3. Assistant to the Comptroller, Office of the Comptroller
  4. Associate Director, Portfolio Management, OCIO
  5. Associate Director – Finance, IT
  6. IT Portfolio Analyst, OCIO
  7. Committee administrator, OCIO

Meeting Format

  • The IT Capital Planning Committee will meet quarterly, or, as required.
  • Each session will be comprised of a review of new or emerging project requests, the current capital budget envelope utilization, and, a presentation of the existing project dashboard.
  • Each session will review the scoring of the proposed IT project portfolio with discussion and finalization of the proposed project list and relative scoring for presentation to ITAC and the UBC Executive.
  • The CIO will be responsible for preparing the discussion materials and for the facilitation of each session, in discussion with the Committee Chair.
  • The Council will have quorum when at least 50% + 1 of the members are in attendance. Delegates will not be accepted.

IT Capital Committee Chair/Vice-Chair

The role of the Chair is to:

  • Set the meeting agendas
  • Coordinate with the CIO about the preparation of meeting materials and presentations
  • Lead the meetings
  • Ensure meetings are documented and minutes are circulated promptly
  • Present recommendations to the UBC Executive and ITAC