This IRM defines the UWR process and the policy for submitting and responding to work requests.

The provisions of this IRM apply to the UWR process from the initial work request development through final disposition.

This IRM addresses standards and policy for the preparation, submission, approval, coordination and control of work request documents and responses.

This IRM is available through the BPRM WRMS website and the IRS IRM website.

This IRM applies to all Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury organizations and other official affiliates requesting or providing Information Technology (IT) products and services from IT.

The Chief Information Officer ultimately is responsible for this IRM.

This framework uses the IRS Internal Management Documents System to establish controls. This IRM section constitutes one of the controls.

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for overseeing all aspects of our systems that operate the nation’s tax infrastructure.

The BPRM Division of ACIO Strategy and Planning maintains the application, Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) which includes PPM-Work Request Management System (WRMS) (PPM-WRMS) module, and the training to facilitate and support the UWR process. All requirements for designated IT products and services, beyond the scope of the break/fix IT tickets and service requests via OS GetServices tickets, shall be documented through the UWR process on a work request via PPM-WRMS. All work requests will be processed using the established UWR process standards and PPM-WRMS module. All persons needing access to PPM-WRMS must first be registered for the module based on their role in the UWR process. Registration must be done in compliance with the OL5081 application

All Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury organizations and other official affiliates requesting or providing Information Technology (IT) products and services from IT.

The IRM provides the fundamental knowledge and procedural guidance for employees who submit or respond to request for any Information Technology (IT) product or services. By following the processes and procedures provided by this IRM, employees be able to better understand the completely understand the essentials of the UWR process.

Any BOD or FOD requesting IT support and resources, including IT itself, is a requestor organization. The requestor organization has the following responsibilities:

The requestor creates and submits the work request on behalf of the requesting organization. In most cases, the requestor contact and submitter are the same, but if appropriate can be separate contacts. The requestor contact is a subject matter expert for the requestor organization's business needs and requirements described in the work request submitted. Pre-coordination is strongly encouraged because it is a critical activity in the work request submission process and can improve the quality of the requirements. Pre-coordination encourages early engagement of requestor, impacted organizations and IT suppliers potentially impacted by the work request. The requestor is responsible for:

The requestor contact may designate (as needed) one or more additional impacted organizations and contacts as subject matter experts to ensure that all relevant high-level requirements/business needs, designs, processes, business rule sets, or business rules are identified prior to submission. The designated additional reviewers will be notified via e-mail to review the request before it is submitted. The requestor contact initiates the process and is responsible for the following:

The additional requestor reviewer has the following responsibilities:

The request approver is the central requestor organizational point of contact for the UWR process. Request approvers are designated personnel in the requesting organization. The request approver is the individual designated as having the authority to approve a work request for a particular requesting organization. The request approver is responsible for the following:

An individual BSP Office Coordinator is assigned to work requests created by their respective BOD/FODs once the request has been approved by the Requesting Organization. Their role, as it relates to the UWR process, is to review the work request for completeness and assess the justification to determine whether or not to submit the request for ERB approval if the Requested Implementation Date (RID) falls within the ERB Filing Season Review period.

The BSP Coordinator may approve a work request for submission to the ERB and IT, defer the request until a later date, deny the request or send the request back to the Requestor for more information.

A member of the Executive Review Board (ERB) Team who reviews and evaluates work requests tagged for ERB Approval (which has been approved by the BSP Office) and schedules the request for formal ERB Reviews. The ERB Coordinator is responsible for ensuring the request is ready for review, scheduling the review, and conducting the review with the ERB. The ERB determines whether to approve the request for submission to IT, defer the request, deny the request or send the request back to the Requestor for more information.

If the request is being submitted during the ERB Review cycle, the following additional information is required and will be the primary factors in obtaining ERB approval:

Any IT Associate Chief Information Officer (ACIO) organization or resources supporting the UWR process and management of work request via PPM-WRMS is a IT Support organization. The IT Support organizations have these responsibilities:

The BPRM organization is the process owner of the Unified Work Request process. BPRM supports IRS IT through demand and risk management, managing Enterprise Intake and leveraging the Integrated Release Plan and other repeatable processes to support risk-based decisions. This group shares demand and risk factor data and processes across IT, and specifically integrates demand processes and data with Enterprise Services. The primary BPRM staff that supports the Unified Work Request process is the Enterprise Intake (EI) Branch. EI is comprised of the following offices:

Any IT organization that provides information technology products and services to another organization is a supplier organization. Their responsibilities include:

The IT Supplier ACIO coordinator is the central supplier organization's point of contact for the UWR process and is the requestor approver counterpart. Their responsibilities include:

The IT ACIO Supplier Approver will have:

The IT Supplier Division/Domain coordinator is the central supplier organization's point of contact for the UWR process and is the requestor counterpart. The IT ACIO Supplier Division/Domain coordinator responsibilities include:

The division approver will be responsible for approving the estimates from their division on the ICA Detail Request. Estimates are rolled up to the ACIO coordinator in the ICA Summary Request which is approved by the ACIO Approver. For ACIO organizations without a separate division coordinator, the ACIO approver may assume this role.

The IT Supplier Resource(s) responsibilities will include:

Users can generate a variety of reports using PPM-WRMS. Reports are generated and distributed to management on a regular basis to inform stakeholders on the status of individual work requests and the overall performance of the UWR process tool. Work requests can be printed from PPM-WRMS by the end user, as well as dashboards and search results. PPM-WRMS will contain standard real-time dashboards containing information to be used to manage work requests for the following roles:

Each PPM-WRMS user has the capability to create different information views using the product dashboard views comprised of standard portlets of information. Please see the WRMS Dashboards, Reporting and Frequently Used Searches documentation that can be located on the BPRM WRMS website.

Additional specific searches can be saved at the user level to configure and provide the transparency to work request information as needed.

Enterprise Reporting – Enterprise level reports have been defined and created. Details will be included in the WRMS Dashboards, Reporting, and Frequently Used Searches supplement to the WRMS User Guide.

The Work Request Types are:

The requestor submits a work request that was approved by their organization for submission to IT.

Any request still in draft stage may be withdrawn or deleted by the requestor.

Once approved by the requesting organization and before submission to IT, the request is reviewed by the BSP office to determine if the WR is complete and to assess the justification to determine whether or not to submit the request for ERB approval if the RID falls within the ERB Filing Season period. The BSP Coordinator may approve a work request for submission to the ERB and IT, defer the request until a later date, deny the request or send the request back to the Requestor for more information.

When the BSP approves the request for ERB review, a member of the ERB team will ensure that the request is ready for review, determine whether to approve the request for submission to IT, defer the request, deny the request or send the request back to the Requestor for more information. The following information will be required to obtain the ERB approval.

Once the WR was approved by the requesting organization and has completed the BSP/ERB process, the system assigns the work request to the Primary Coordinator queue for assignment:

The EI process allows the IRS organizations to register IT demand as represented by the Work Request (WR), New Ideas, Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF), and DME Investments Proposals and Agile Enterprise Intake form for IT products and services. The EI process provides transparency for all stakeholders and facilitates a standardized submission and response, while supporting the coordination between requesting organizations and suppliers in all process and phases.

While the New Ideas, TEOAF and DME proposals are part of the EI process, New Ideas and Investment Proposals are processed separately from work requests by BPA, as mentioned earlier in Section 2.2.1.3.8.1 of this IRM. For further guidance on Investment Proposal processing within EI, please refer to Proposal Requestor training.

Please reference the Enterprise Intake Process for a more detailed description of this process.

Once an ICA Summary is created and assigned to the ACIO organization by the Primary Coordinator, the ICA Summary Request is systemically assigned to the specific ACIO coordinator queue for assignment.

The ACIO Dispatchers with privileges to the ACIO coordinator ICA Summary queue will be notified and required to assign the request by name to an ACIO coordinator.

The ACIO Coordinator will review the parent work request including the responses to the work request determination questions for analysis of impact to their organization.

The assigned ACIO Coordinator will create an ICA Details Request for each potentially impacted ACIO Division/Domain - additional details can be found in the WRMS User Guide.

If appropriate, the ACIO Coordinator can:

Once all ICA Details Requests are completed, the ACIO coordinator will review, consolidate and approve the responses and estimates for final disposition for the ACIO organization. This includes recording a summarized response and, if approved, the scheduled implementation date.

In the event the ICA Details responses are not in agreement, the ACIO coordinator will use an internal process to secure a consolidated decision regarding the ACIO commitment to delivering the product or service.

Once an ICA Details Request is created by the ACIO coordinator, the ICA Details Request is systemically assigned to the specific Division/Domain coordinator queue for assignment:

Upon assignment of an ICA Details Request, the Supplier Resource will review the request and all associated requests and documentation, to provide estimates for costs and resources:

The following table depicts status code values that occur during the work request lifecycle.

The following table depicts status values for the ICA Summary requests.

The following table depicts status values for the ICA Detail requests.

A denial escalation is initiated by the requestor selecting to escalate a work request that has been returned as denied. The requestor must also:

Impacted Suppliers determine a WR cannot be delivered and respond documenting the reason/justification for denial.

The BPRM IA validates the legitimacy of the denial from the IT Supplier and notifies the Requestor via e-mail and formally executes the denial systemically thru PPM-WRMS.

The Requestor determines whether to accept the denial or to escalate the WR that has been denied. The Requestor has 14 days from the date of denial to either complete the Escalation process or agree with the denial. The WR will be closed if not acted upon by the Requestor within the 14 days.

If the Requestor accepts the denial, no further action is required by the Requestor.

If the Requestor does not accept the denial, The Requestor can “escalate” the WR

The Requesting Organization is responsible for elevating the issue of the denial up through management to the executive level. The requesting executive will negotiate with the executive representative of each domain/division that has denied the WR. The Requesting Organization has 14 days from the day of denial to complete negotiations and achieve consensus regarding the denied WR and notify the IA. If concurrence among all impacted executives cannot be reached, then negotiations can be continued at a higher level or the WR will be denied. If negotiations continue at a higher level, the Requesting Organization will notify the IA to allow additional time. Please see BPRM UWR SOP #002 - Escalating a Denied Work Request of the WRMS Guidance and Procedures Handbook for more detailed guidance. The WRMS Guidance and Procedures Handbook can be accessed from the WRMS website - User Guides.

Supplier Denial of a Work Request: The supplier Domain/Division(s) has evaluated a WR and has concluded that the WR cannot be fulfilled. The Supplier notes the reasons/justification for denial, and elects to “Deny” a WR.

BPRM Intake Analyst Denies a Work Request: When a Supplier denies a WR, the BPRM Intake Analyst will review the notes and reason for the denial. then follow-up, if needed, with the Supplier Organization to understand the reason why the work request cannot be fulfilled. The BPRM Intake Analyst will notify the Requestor of the denial and the reason for the denial via e-mail, prior to executing the denial escalation. These proactive steps may avoid the need to deny the WR.
After reviewing the notes and reason for denial, and consulting with both the Supplier and Requestor Organizations, the BPRM IA will deny the WR.
The work request is then routed to the Requestor for review. The Requestor can either accept the denial or disagree with the denial. The Requestor has 14 days from the date of denial to decide. If the WR is not acted upon within the 14 days, the request will be closed with the final status of “Denied”.

Requestor initiates the Escalation/Executive Negotiation:
A denial escalation is initiated by the Requestor for a WR that has been returned or denied. (See the WRMS User’s Guide for more details on WR Escalation.)
When escalating, the Requestor is responsible for elevating the denial information up the appropriate executive level within their organization. The Escalation of a Denied WR form (Escalation of a Denied WR Form) must be completed and provided to the appropriate supplier organization and attached to the WR. Executive signatures are required on the form regardless of the decision to either uphold or overturn the denial. If it is resolved to do the work, the requestor organization must notify the IA who will then reissue new costing assignments to the impacted ACIO organizations.

Once negotiations are complete, the Requestor Organization will notify the BPRM Intake Analyst with the results as either ”escalation approved” and work will be done, or “approved with modifications”, or “denial confirmed”, and will include documentation for all impacted executives (i.e., approval/concurrence.) BPRM facilitates the coordination and summary of findings and updates the information to the work request. If it is determined the WR will be denied, the BPRM Intake Analyst will complete the denial action. If the executives agree to reconsider the WR then the BPRM Intake Analyst will issue new costing assignments to impacted ACIO organizations.

The process originates with the supplier resource responsible for providing cost and time estimates for a particular ICA Detail associated with the work request. The supplier resource thoroughly documents the basis for the request and forwards it to the supplier division coordinator.

After validating that all the required information has been provided, the supplier division coordinator forwards the request to the primary coordinator.

Based on guidelines described in WRMS Guidance and Procedures Handbook - SOP, specifically BPRM UWR SOP #003 - Requesting & Entering a Disposition for a Response Due Date (RDD) Extension, the primary coordinator determines whether to:

Once the extension is approved, the Primary Coordinator updates the RDD and notifies the requestor that this has been done.

A request for an RDD extension begins with the supplier resource, that individual identified on an associated ICA Detail request as being responsible for providing cost and resource estimates.

The first step, before formally requesting an RDD extension, is for the supplier resource to contact the work request requestor, discuss the work thoroughly and outline the need for the extension. This will obviously facilitate swift acceptance of the requested extension.

Once the matter has been discussed between supplier and requestor, the supplier resource must, return the ICA Detail to the supplier division coordinator (the individual responsible for assigning the ICA Detail Request). The supplier resource must include the following in the ICA Detail Request notes:

When the Supplier Resource Returns the ICA Detail and escalation request to the supplier division coordinator, the supplier division coordinator:

Upon receiving a request for an RDD extension the Primary Coordinator will:

Organizations may log advance demand for IT services in out years, well in advance of the expected delivery of service. When this is the case, the work request may be submitted to IT well before complete requirements are known and any IT response is expected. In these cases the default 90 day response period is certain to be exceeded. In this situation, or in any case where the requestor knows in advance that a supplier response later than 90 days is acceptable, the following procedure should be applied:

Please note that the supplier has the discretion when determining what is considered "complete requirements". The supplier organization may decide to return the WR if the requirements are not sufficiently detailed to allow them to properly evaluate the impact of the work. IT always has the option to return a WR when they determined that the requirements are insufficient. It is strongly suggested that the requestor pre-coordinate with the Primary Coordinator and the supplier organization(s) before submitting a WR where the requirements do not allow them to properly evaluate the impact to their organization.