Overview

As of July 2026, all Major IT Development Projects (MITDPs) are required to have filled specific project leadership roles to drive successful project outcomes and optimize state investments in technology. This increases the likelihood that projects will deliver functional solutions for users.

Required roles across all phases

All projects must have staff assigned to the following roles at all times. For smaller projects, the same member of the Core Team may be able to fill more than one role.

Name of role	Description
Project Sponsor	Senior executive responsible for supporting the project team in clearing blockers and coordinating across stakeholder groups.
Project Lead	Responsible for leading the project day-to-day, overseeing prioritization, staffing, contract management, budget, reporting, and risk mitigation. *For smaller projects, this role can be filled by the UX Lead, Technical Product Manager, or Technical Lead / Architect.  See role details
Technical Product Manager	Directs the work of ensuring the solution is achieving user and mission outcomes and the team is working on the highest value outcomes; prioritizes the backlog and roadmap based on user, stakeholder, and technical feedback.  See roles details
Technical Lead / Architect	Directs the work of building and testing scalable, secure, and sustainable technology that can adapt & grow with changing user and mission needs.  See role details
User Experience (UX) Lead	Directs the work of understanding what your users need and designing content, tools, and processes to meet those needs  See role details

Required roles for the Delivery phase and Transition phase

All projects in the delivery or transition phases must assign staff for the following roles to support delivery management and quality assurance. These roles are optional at the start of the project, but are required to be added following the 90-Day Build.

Name of role	Description
Delivery Manager	Supports the day-to-day performance of the team, managing logistics, coordination across sub-teams, and continuous delivery.  See role details
Quality Assurance (QA) Lead	Directs the work of testing and monitoring the quality of the product, including the data it produces and its underlying infrastructure.  See role details

How this works together

The following diagram maps these roles across the Core and Advisory teams listed in the Launchpad’s guidance for Staffing and Leadership Strategy.

Items to note

• This requirement represents the minimum roles required at each phase of an MITDP. The project may always choose to have additional staff at the discretion of the team and agency.


• In many cases, existing teams will need to hire new staff to their agency in order to meet the specific requirements of these roles. MITDP Oversight understands that this may take more time, but will set up your project to succeed and significantly reduce the risk of failure.

  • Most of these roles will be newer to agencies and will not easily map one to one based on existing classifications. See below for more guidance on how to think about staffing these roles.

• As of the launch of this new requirement, these roles may be filled by State employees, contractual employees, or contractors. Two related notes:

  • DoIT encourages agencies to fill these roles with State employees (PIN or contractual) whenever possible. In most cases, the Project Lead role will need to be filled by a State employee.

  • If filling these leadership roles with contractors, the required roles (UX Lead, Technical Product Manager, and Technical Lead / Architect) must be hired through a contractor (or multiple contractors) that are separate and not financially obligated to any of the other contractors working on the team. This is necessary to ensure their ability to oversee the work of the project without financial conflicts of interest.

Position details

The following sections list the authorities, core responsibilities, and general qualifications for the required roles, and links to sample position descriptions you may find helpful for each of the required roles for your MITDP.

Project Lead

The Project Lead is responsible for refining the success criteria for the MITDP and ensuring the project achieves those criteria. Due to the nature of the authorities listed below, the person serving in this role must be a State of Maryland employee (PIN or contractual). Notably, the Project Lead has the following authorities:

• Authority to control all staffing allocations related to the project, including placing state employees and contractors in specific roles and removing them from others.
• Authority to define the core problems, definitions of success, and success metrics for the MITDP.
• Authority to direct the work of all vendors funded through the MITDP, including authority to make changes to contract scope, size, and duration.
• Authority to direct the work of all staff and contractors on the MITDP to ensure the project meets its success criteria.

If the designated Project Lead is not able to act on these authorities, the MITDP Oversight division may request corrective action.

Each project must have a designated project lead at all times, even if no other required roles are filled. The project lead is accountable to agency leadership and MOD for the overall execution of the project and performance of the team, ensuring the project is delivering the intended value for users and the State. Generally, once the project is staffed, the Project Lead will also hold one of the other roles, often the Technical Product Manager (but can be any of the other leadership roles on the team).

Responsibilities

• Responsible for the MITDP achieving its success criteria.
• Responsible for ensuring all external stakeholders are up to date on the progress, blockers, etc., and aligned on the outcomes.
• Responsible for managing the project budget and deadlines.
• Responsible for managing the performance of vendors and staff on the team, including taking prompt corrective action in cases of underperformance.

Qualifications

8+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: product management, software engineering, service design, and/or product design.

Includes experience with all of the following areas:

• User-centered, iterative product development
• Managing high-performance, cross-disciplinary teams
• Managing stakeholders across agencies
• Managing contracts and vendor performance

Knowledge of:

• Conducting user research directly with end-users
• Developing secure, scalable, and reliable systems

Technical Product Manager

The Technical Product Manager directs the work of prioritizing features based on iterative feedback from users, stakeholders, and technical experts.

The person in this role has the authority to serve as the strategic owner of development, accountable for the MITDP’s product lifecycle. They also have the authority to control the priority of items in the backlog, and the allocation of items to individual team members. If the designated Technical Product Manager is not able to act on this authority, the MITDP Oversight division may request corrective action.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for understanding the users, user value, and mission or business value of the product, based on qualitative and quantitative data.
• Responsible for defining and aligning team and leadership around a product vision, strategy, roadmap, and backlog, based on input from users, stakeholders, and policy or technical constraints.
• Responsible for defining both incremental and substantive product improvements and feature sets, including defining value and success criteria from a user and business perspective.
• Responsible for creating and translating the roadmap and product requirements into actionable backlog items. Includes ensuring the team has a shared definition of done for the work and has a process to test and validate delivered user stories.
• Ensuring the team is always working on the highest value outcome and that progress against outcomes is validated with quantitative and qualitative evidence.

Qualifications

8+ years of experience in product delivery experience with:

• Leading product teams supporting systems that are in production, particularly at a similar scale to the project
• Leading product teams launching new products or capabilities
• Aligning products and business processes
• Creating and managing a prioritized backlog and roadmap

Knowledge of:

• Modern technologies
• User-centered development practices

Technical Lead / Architect

The Technical Lead / Architect directs the work of building and testing scalable, secure, and sustainable technology that can adapt & grow with changing user needs.

The person in this role has the authority to control the code and the infrastructure, as well as the engineering process on the team and the priority of technology-related items in the backlog (like technical debt remediation chores). If the designated Technical Lead / Architect is not able to act on this authority, the MITDP Oversight division may request corrective action.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for ensuring the engineering team (regardless of whether they are internal or external) is delivering the user-facing functionality the Technical Product Manager prioritizes
• Responsible for ensuring the engineering team (regardless of whether they are internal or external) is delivering the non-functional quality attributes (secure, reliable, performant, defect-free, disaster-recoverable, maintainable, etc.)
• Responsible for vetting and selecting specific technical solutions for meeting product requirements.

Qualifications

8+ years of experience with software development

Experience with:

• Developing software, particularly using technologies relevant to the project
• Working in a legacy ecosystem
• Designing architecture and leading technical strategy
• Translating technical plans into actionable work
• Managing software engineers

Knowledge of:

• Modern and legacy technologies, particularly those relevant to the project
• Operating technology systems at scale, including IaaS

Focused on:

• Practical and maintainable solutions
• Ensuring a high-quality user experience
• Secure, scalable, and reliable systems

User Experience (UX) Lead

The User Experience Lead directs the work of understanding what your users need and designing better content, tools, and processes to meet those needs

The person in this role has the authority to control how user research is conducted and the user research backlog. If the designated User Experience Lead is not able to act on this authority, the MITDP Oversight division may request corrective action.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for understanding the users, user value, and business value of the product, based on qualitative and quantitative data.
• Responsible for defining the overall service experience, UX, and UI of the product and features and translating them into specific requirements for implementation.
• Responsible for planning and executing learning initiatives, both ad hoc and ongoing, in order to ensure the team has the necessary information to make product decisions.
• Responsible for translating the roadmap and product requirements into actionable tickets and ensuring we have the right tickets to complete the work.
• Responsible for leading design staff on the project and ensuring their work is high-quality and in line with product experience strategy.
• Responsible for ensuring the product meets accessibility requirements.

Qualifications

8+ years of experience with service, UX, and / or product design

Experience with:

• Managing product designers and user researchers
• Facilitating user research, usability testing, and workshops
• Low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototyping in collaboration with product managers and engineers
• Leading efforts related to discovery and uncovering user needs

Knowledge of:

• UX research methods
• Design systems
• Content strategy
• Iterative, user-centered product development

Focused on:

• Delivering value for users and ensuring a high-quality user experience
• Making research- and data-informed decisions
• Human-centered design
• Product design

Delivery Manager

The Delivery Manager supports the day-to-day performance of the team, managing logistics, coordination across sub-teams, and continuous delivery.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for ensuring dependencies within and across teams are handled properly.
• Responsible for ensuring all team members know what work they need to do and have the resources and information necessary to execute it.
• Responsible for monitoring and continuously improving team health, performance, and communication practices, including collaboration across staff, contractors, and stakeholders.
• Responsible for ensuring risks are identified, communicated, and mitigated across the project lifecycle.

Qualifications

6+ years of experience managing agile projects

Experience with:

• Running development teams, including writing technical tickets, supporting sprints and / or prioritized backlogs, and leading ceremonies, particularly at a similar scale to the project
• Building out work processes for new teams or new ways of working

Knowledge of:

• Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and/or other iterative development practices
• Iterative, user-centered product development
• Modern technologies

Focused on:

• Ensuring all members of the team know what they need to do
• Driving progress
• Proactive and consistent communication

Quality Assurance (QA) Lead

The Quality Assurance Lead directs the work of testing and monitoring the quality of the product, including the data it produces and its underlying infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for defining and running QA processes for the product, including feature, system, and regression testing.

• Responsible for defining QA criteria for individual tickets and QA test sets.

• Responsible for leading QA staff on the project and ensuring their work is high-quality and following the testing plan(s).

Qualifications

6+ years of experience with product QA

• Experience with:

• Building out and running QA programs for systems that are in production, particularly at a similar scale to the project

• Managing QA staff

Knowledge of:

• Modern technologies

• Human-centered design

• QA and testing tools

• Usability testing

Focused on:

• Repeatable, scalable, documented testing regimens

How to fill these positions

Filling these roles with new staff who have new skillsets can be a significant challenge, and we’re here to help. We’ve listed several pathways for hiring and/or contracting this talent below; for more details please reach out to dlmodmissioncontrol_doit+web@maryland.gov.

While we understand that there might be some overlap between your existing staff capabilities and the needs of the MITDP, it is more likely than not that you will need to hire new staff members to adequately fill these roles. Use the role descriptions in the section above to think about how these requirements relate to the current capabilities at your agency.

As a reminder, as of the launch of this new requirement, these roles may be filled by state employees (PINs or contractuals) or contractors. However, DoIT encourages agencies to fill these roles with PINs or state employees (PINs or contractuals) whenever possible.

If filling any of these leadership roles with contractors, the required roles (UX Lead, Technical Product Manager, and Technical Lead / Architect) must be hired through a contractor (or multiple contractors) that are separate and not financially obligated to any of the other contractors working on the team. This is necessary to ensure their ability to oversee the work of the project without financial conflicts of interest.

Eventually, DoIT intends to require additional roles to be filled by state employees, but this requires PINs that we know agencies do not currently have. We will notify agencies if and when this policy changes.

Talent pipeline support

The Maryland Digital Service (MDDS) has capacity - although limited - to assist agencies with a variety of tasks to bring on new staff through any of the vehicles below. As resources permit, MDDS can provide the following services:

• Draft or review position descriptions, job announcements, and interview guides
• Review staffing RFPs, RFIs, and contracts / work orders / etc
• Promote open roles to various civic tech networks and refer candidates to agencies
• Conduct resume reviews and interviews and give feedback on candidates

Hiring as Agency employees

If you have available PINs, we encourage you to staff these roles with PIN or contractual state employees whenever possible. As described above, MDDS can provide various services to support you in hiring qualified staff.

Estimated time to hire: Varies depending on agency process and resources. In some cases, 1-3 months.

Agile 2.0 Contract Vehicle

You may use the Agile 2.0 contract vehicle from the Department of General Services to hire the required staff. The contract has several options that may fit your needs:

1. It includes labor categories for Product Manager, User Experience Designer/Service Designer, Engineers, Delivery/Scrum Master, and QA lead, and can be used to fill these new required roles.
2. It also allows you to contract whole delivery teams (Functional area 2), rather than individual staff (Functional area 1).
3. Work orders are awarded in a round robin method—the highest ranked vendor gets the first award, and so on—removing secondary competition and the need for re-review by BPW, which should make filling open roles faster.

To use the Agile 2.0 contract, start by submitting an intake ticket through doit.intake@maryland.gov describing your needs, or reach out to dlmodmissioncontrol_doit+web@maryland.gov for further guidance on what might be best.

Estimated time to hire: TBD

Digital Services Contract Vehicle (ADEPT)

​​ADEPT is an efficient way for agencies to access highly experienced vendors capable of delivering digital services at scale. ADEPT work orders are assigned through a rotational work order process. Two of its service areas align particularly well with the needs of MITDPs:

• Discovery Sprints, User Research & Design: Activities performed in short cycles (sprints) to gather real-world data and feedback, guiding continuous improvement and ensuring alignment with user needs.
• Application Systems and Software Development: Services to provide agile development, software engineering, and digital service delivery platforms, executed through collaborative, iterative methodologies. ​​​​​​​​
  To use the ADEPT contract, start by submitting an intake ticket through doit.intake@maryland.gov describing your needs, or reach out to dlmodmissioncontrol_doit+web@maryland.gov for further guidance on what might be best.

Estimated time to hire: Four to eight weeks from completion of Work Order

Enforcement

This requirement will be enforced the same way other MITDP requirements are enforced: through the monthly health assessments and the resulting project statuses and risk levels reported to DoIT and agency leadership. In practice, this means:

1. Agencies will indicate the staff members filling each of these roles and provide their resume, LinkedIn, or other background information as and when requested by DoIT. In addition, agencies are expected to update DoIT if the staffing assignments change over time.
2. Oversight will review the provided information. Among other things, we will be assessing:
   1. Which roles are vacant, how long have they been vacant, and what is the impact of that vacancy based on the phase and current performance of the project?
   2. Do the identified staff members appear to have the necessary experience to successfully execute their responsibilities, as described above? Regardless of experience, do they appear to be successfully executing their responsibilities?
   3. How much time are the staff members able to dedicate to their responsibilities? Are they wearing multiple hats or working on multiple projects? If yes, is it having an impact on the project?
   4. Are the roles filled by employees or contractors? If contractors, are all of the staff from the same company? Are there any State employees with the access and knowledge to ensure the product decisions being made are in the best interests of the State?
3. Oversight will report to DoIT leadership on their assessment of the above and any resulting risks to the project. This information will be incorporated into the reports shared back with the project team and the portfolio summaries shared with the MITDP-owning agency leadership.
4. If we are particularly concerned about the results of the monthly assessment for any specific project, we will reach out to the project or agency to discuss the situation.

If a project is performing poorly and consistently unable to fill these roles, DoIT may intervene, up to and including recommending freezing the project’s funding.

We recognize that these new requirements place a burden on agencies, but we cannot approve the spending of taxpayer dollars on projects that do not have the necessary staff to deliver value for the State and Marylanders.