What is the purpose of the Preliminary Assessment?

In the preliminary assessment, Agencies/state entities will answer several yes or no questions in the areas of risk, business value and organizational readiness. The preliminary assessments are completed prior to developing subsequent Stage/Gate deliverables. The preliminary assessment allows the Department of Technology to provide guidance via instructions located in SIMM to the submitting Agency/state entity on the required content for their project approval lifecycle stage/gate deliverable.

The answers provided in the preliminary assessment will also be evaluated by the Department of Technology in order to communicate requirements related to additional deliverable content, identify areas to provide guidance, leverage statewide lessons learned for similar projects undertaken by another Agency/state entity, and suggest any risk resolution strategies to be utilized prior to moving on to the next stage. One of the advantages of the preliminary assessment is to help recognize and mitigate project risks early and to introduce the first opportunity for scalability to the PAL.