About the Information Services Board

The Legislature created the Information Services Board (ISB) in 1987 under RCW 43.105. The ISB is responsible for IT planning, acquisitions, policies and standards. The ISB reviews IT projects as required by Washington's investment and portfolio management policies.

ISB members provide authorization and oversight for managing large IT projects administered by executive branch agency staff. Among their many responsibilities, ISB members develop state IT standards and govern acquisitions, review and approve the statewide IT strategic plans, develop statewide or interagency technical policies, and provide oversight on large IT projects.

They are a 15-member board that includes technology leaders from the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, a representative from higher education, a statewide elected official other than the governor and the private sector. Eight of the members are appointed by the governor, including the director of the Department of Information Services who is an ex officio member.

Agencies
Agencies are responsible for compliance with ISB policies through the RCWs. Additionally, the ISB expects agencies to:

• embrace IT portfolio management and its subtext of providing quality project management;
• report honestly and transparently about the status of each project; and
• present in-depth analysis with enough lead time for the ISB to consider the issues and ask meaningful questions.

Projects
Projects which meet specific criteria are presented to the Board on a recurring basis. The following are common components for presentations to the Board:

• agencies must present their project plans to the ISB and receive approval before releasing the Request for Proposal (RFP) or beginning design and development work on the project;
• the agency must appear before the ISB periodically to report on the project status (i.e., issues, risk mitigation and any variances to scope, schedule or budget);
• agencies must submit other information when the ISB makes such a request;
• agencies with level 3* projects must provide copies of key project documents, including the feasibility study, any external quality assurance reports, plans for project management, risk management, change management and closeout , as well as evaluation reports to the ISB;
• the project must have external quality assurance;
• the assigned MOSTD consultant must participate in all steering committee and project status meetings; and
• the agency must include all level 3* investments in the IT portfolio.

Committee structure
Four committees report to the ISB on enterprise initiatives. These committees give focus to key IT initiatives by bringing together executive representation to:

• develop policy recommendations for ISB consideration and adoption;
• bring enterprise IT issues to the ISB and propose solutions;
• provide leadership and foster cooperation;
• enable agencies to develop and implement cost-effective enterprise approaches;
• promote IT coordination and statewide integration through the development of strategic plans; and
• help align agency technology efforts with the Washington State IT Strategic Plan, the Priorities of Government (POG) and the Government Management, Accountability and Performance (GMAP) initiative.