Northeastern's CIO uses an electronic survey to find out which IT projects his users really want. For all of Bob Weir’s technological accomplishments at Northeastern University, it’s in the crucial area of getting stakeholder buy-in that the vice president of IS says he has been most successful. Using a simple methodology called the Murphy Tool (named after Weir’s employee, Tom Murphy, who thought it up), Weir is now better able to gauge which enterprise projects to invest in and which ones to pass on. “How do you compare whether you should replace an HR system or upgrade the network?” he asks. “Those are hard things to compare.” With the Murphy Tool, Weir surveys the top 40 senior leaders at NU on how they would value their individual IT project needs and what would be the critical success factors and associated risks with each project. Criteria such as competitive advantage or financial benefits are weighted differently, using a point system that assesses each project’s value. With this new data, driven solely by Weir’s constituents, he can see where he has strong business support for projects and where he doesn’t. “It allows you to say, Something scored low, and that’s because we’re not ready to do this,” he says. The tool also lets everyone speak the same language on a project because all of the key stakeholders are fluent in what qualifies a project to be approved at the outset. “By having that articulation, we all know the critical success factors that are unique to the project and Northeastern,” Weir says. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe