Modernizing State IT Delivery Through Agile Program Management at Maryland

Customer Challenge

The Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) sought to improve its statewide IT project and program management capabilities to deliver more efficient, consistent, and innovative technology solutions. With over 3,000 users accessing multiple applications and public-facing systems handling peak volumes exceeding 2 million hits per month, Maryland faced challenges in governance, cross-agency collaboration, risk management, and meeting aggressive delivery expectations. Legacy program management processes lacked repeatability and transparency, hindering predictability and limiting the ability to manage complex portfolios spanning multiple state agencies with diverse IT needs.

Navitas Solution

A centralized Delivery Program Management Office (DPMO) was established to provide robust governance, standardized processes, and comprehensive program management support across Maryland’s IT portfolio. Using Lean-Agile methodologies and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), the DPMO implemented quarterly Program Increment (PI) planning with integrated technical dependency tracking and stakeholder collaboration. Experienced program managers, scrum masters, product owners, and business analysts facilitated daily standups, sprint planning, demos, and retrospectives to ensure agile teams delivered functionality aligned with business objectives. The DPMO also focused on risk identification and mitigation through comprehensive documentation and maintained transparent communication channels via risk registers, stakeholder registers, and regular status reports. Operational support included managing defect triage workflows and escalation protocols utilizing tools like JIRA to accelerate issue resolution.

Results

The DPMO successfully established repeatable program management standards that enhanced project predictability, delivery quality, and cross-agency alignment across a diverse IT portfolio. Agile adoption increased efficiency and responsiveness, enabling multiple teams to deliver coordinated releases on quarterly cadences with clear work breakdowns into epics, user stories, and milestones. Transparent risk and communication management reduced project uncertainties and improved stakeholder confidence. The modernization of program governance and delivery practices empowered Maryland DoIT to better meet citizen and agency technology needs with scalable, reliable, and innovative solutions, supporting thousands of daily users and millions of public interactions statewide.

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