321-2022

Background

On February 2, 2011, City Council approved Resolution #36844 creating an independent five-member citizen committee for City of Portland technology projects. On July 12, 2019, City Council adopted changes to City Code Chapter 3.15.090 to establish the duties and authorities of the Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Technology Officer respectively as they relate to Technology Project Oversight. On June 29, 2011, Council adopted an update to BTS Administrative Rule (A.R.) 4.01 – Technology Project Intake as well as a new rule (BTS A.R. 1.07) on Technology Project Oversight.

As stated in BTS A.R.1.07, technology project oversight for the City of Portland may include citizen oversight and quality assurance.

Citizen Oversight

The citizen members of the Technology Oversight Committee (TOC) are:

            Representing                           Member

            Mayor Wheeler                       Wilfred Pinfold, PhD, CEO urban.systems, Inc.         

            Commissioner Mapps             Jimmy Godard

            Commissioner Ryan                Leland Knell

            Commissioner Rubio               Dyanna Garcia

            Commissioner Hardesty          Victoria Trapp

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) – provided by external contractors – is a required component of projects under the purview of the TOC. The role of the QA consultants on a project overseen by the TOC is to provide guidance and oversight to the City staff on the technology project, but ultimately to report the QA’s unbiased findings to the TOC.

Responsibilities

The TOC is staffed by the Office of Management & Finance (OMF) Business Operations Division. OMF Bureau of Technology Services (BTS) provides expertise to support the TOC through the duration of projects overseen by the TOC. Customer bureaus whose projects are under the purview of the TOC are responsible to provide accurate and timely project information to OMF and the TOC from the time of project intake through TOC monitoring to project completion.

Office 365 Implementation project

Portland Police Bureau

Project Description:              

The goal of this project is to provide the Police Bureau with the ability to collaborate with the rest of the City using the Microsoft Office 365 product. Police email accounts will be migrated to Office 365 and eliminate the need to upgrade their on-premises Exchange email servers (warranty coverage expires October 2022).

Major accomplishments January through March 2022:

The confidence level in project scope, schedule and budget are all high. In March the project hired and onboarded an independent QA consultant and completed a change management analysis. In its next stage, the project will collect requirements, get testing licenses, draft a sustainment plan, and obtain steering committee approval of its Implementation Plan.

Currently this project is in the discovery phase, where the goals are to get the project team established and establishing roles and responsibilities. Once established, the team will draft a sustainment plan and complete the architectural design phase.

Upcoming milestones:

• Complete Architecture Design

• Procure Licenses for Testing

• Complete Change Management Plans

• Draft Sustainment Plan

Risks and concerns:

• Size of installation file is large and may require time to download and install.

• Challenges supporting an ever-changing Microsoft environment.

• Microsoft engineers suggested that what City is attempting has not been done elsewhere, and Oregon State Police confirmed this.

• Phase 2 and 3 timelines unknown until after current phase complete.

• Schedule highly dependent on resource availability.

• Test tenant setup delayed due to MS technical issue.

Grading:

Body-Worn Cameras project

Portland Police Bureau

Project Description:              

The City has decided to adopt body-worn cameras to improve public trust, police accountability, risk management, and training opportunities. Council appropriated one-time funding of $2.6M for the body-worn cameras program and Council approved the release of an Request for Proposals (RFP) on February 9, 2022.

Major accomplishments January through March 2022:

The confidence level in project scope is high, and confidence in project budget and expected completion is medium. The Technology Oversight Committee reviewed the RFP in March and provided feedback to the project team. Vendor demos are expected to take place in May, and the City plans to conduct a pilot test in the Fall of 2022.

Upcoming milestones:

• Vendor Demos

• Tool selection and contract negotiation

• Quality Assurance consultant onboarding following the selection of a solution

• Facility Preparation

• Training

Risks and concerns:

The project is scheduled to be finished by December of 2023. The confidence of achieving this date is medium as projects tend to have lots of schedule movement initially, especially on projects like this with high public scrutiny.

• Schedule confidence medium

• On-going program budget is unknown and uncommitted

• Facility infrastructure requires upgrades

• Unknown project costs

Record Management System (RMS) project

Portland Police Bureau

Project Description:              

This project will upgrade the Police Bureau’s Record Management System, Versadex, such that files are pushed to the vCloud for storage. The intent of this project is to streamline processes and reduce costs. A prior RMS project was suspended due to a loss of funds in 2020, so the Police bureau is behind by multiple software versions of this key platform. Both the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and Gresham Police Department have already switched to the vCloud version.

Major accomplishments January through March 2022:

The project’s timeline is still unknown since projects like the Police Office 365 project and the Body-Worn Cameras project are a higher priority. The project will have a more clearly defined schedule upon kickoff.

Upcoming milestones:

• Project Planning
• Contracting and onboarding a Quality Assurance consultant
• Develop and install interfaces
• Prepare RMS production

Risks and concerns:

• Delay due to other priorities (Police Office 365 Implementation and Body-Worn Cameras)
• Internet pipeline capacity will need to be increased for cloud solution