IT controlling and portfolio

IT in the Federal Administration is subject to two types of controlling: Strategic Controlling and Operational Controlling.

IT controlling

Operational IT controlling (ICO) is used to monitor and document the achievement of goals, cost-effectiveness and resource use for ICT solutions throughout their entire life cycle. It fosters transparency, establishes consistent assessment criteria and provides decision-makers with the key information they need. ICO focuses in particular on ICT projects, programmes and applications and is carried out at department and office level by an IT controlling officer. Uniform implementation of ICO is ensured by the ‘Directives on the Projects and Portfolio of the Federal Administration in the Area of Digitalisation and ICT’.

The Federal ICT Portfolio

To ensure that the information required for ICT steering and governance is consistent and complete, the DTI Sector has specified in its ‘Directives on the Projects and Portfolio of the Federal Administration in the Area of Digitalisation and ICT’ that all projects and specialist applications (with the exception of small projects and small-scale applications) must be maintained in the Federal ICT Portfolio and thus in the federal portfolio controlling tool PFCT.

W007 – DTI Directives on the Projects and Portfolio of the Federal Administration in the Area of Digitalisation and ICT

Project assessments and key projects

The ‘DTI Directives on the Projects and Portfolio of the Federal Administration in the Area of Digitalisation and ICT’ also stipulate that an independent project assessment must be carried out before ICT projects with a total cost of more than CHF 5 million are approved. Furthermore, ICT projects and programmes are classified as key projects if, due to their resource requirements, strategic importance, complexity, impact or associated risks, require greater overall management, steering, coordination and control.

Federal Administration key projects