Overview
I spent the summer with the Information Technology Division (ITD) at the Texas Department of Transportation, supporting the lifecycle of technology contracts and services that keep the agency running. The work sat at the intersection of contracts, data, and end users: deciding what to renew, what to retire, and making sure the underlying records and tickets were accurate and complete.
A large portion of my time was spent on Keep or Drop determinations for existing technology contracts. I helped gather input from end users and contract managers, analyzed multi-year usage and spend data, and rolled the results up into presentations for ITD leadership. Alongside that, I supported the closeout of roughly 300 tickets at the end of their lifecycle by attaching receipts and ensuring documentation was in place. I also collaborated with other interns to produce technology how-to videos that could be reused across the division for training and onboarding.
Role & Team
As a Summer Engineering Support intern, I worked within ITD alongside contract managers, project managers, and operational staff who owned ongoing technology services and tools. My role combined stakeholder outreach, data analysis and documentation of contract and ticket activity.
For the Keep/Drop effort, I reached out to end users and contract managers to understand how specific tools were being used, whether they were still needed, and what the impact of dropping a contract would be. When responses stalled, I learned how to follow a clear escalation path so decisions could still be made on schedule.
In parallel, I used tools like PPM Pro to audit projects and verify that project managers were updating key fields that fed into the contract lifecycle. I also supported ITD by finalizing and closing tickets with the proper receipts and attachments, and I joined a small intern group that designed and recorded short how-to videos to help staff with common technology tasks. The summer culminated in a final presentation to ITD leadership, where we walked through our collaboration process, findings, and recommendations.
Highlights
- Supported Keep/Drop determinations by contacting end users and contract managers, documenting business justification, and escalating open items so contract decisions could move forward.
- Analyzed historical contract data from previous years to understand usage, timing, and lifecycle trends, then turned those findings into clear visualizations for presentations to higher supervision.
- Used PPM Pro to audit active projects and verify that project managers were updating status, dates, and other fields that feed into the contract process, helping ensure leadership had accurate data.
- Finalized and closed around 300 tickets by attaching receipts, validating entries, and confirming that each ticket met documentation requirements at the end of its lifecycle.
- Collaborated with fellow interns to script, record, and edit technology how-to videos for ITD, creating reusable training assets instead of one-off support for common tasks.
- Delivered a final presentation to ITD leadership that walked through the end-to-end project lifecycle, how we collaborated with stakeholders, and the key patterns we saw in the data.
Tools & Methods
Tools & Platforms
- Excel for sorting, filtering, formulas, and building charts for contract data
- PPM Pro for project and contract lifecycle auditing
- Ticketing and financial systems for receipts and closeout documentation
- SharePoint and internal portals for file storage and reference material
- Screen capture and video tools to produce short how-to tutorials
Methods & Approach
- Stakeholder outreach to end users, contract managers, and project managers
- Data cleaning and reconciliation across multiple sources and years
- Building visual summaries to make trends easy to understand for leadership
- Lifecycle thinking from initial request through ticket closeout
- Storyboarding, scripting, and iterating on training videos as a team
Challenges
One of the main challenges was that data and decisions were scattered across people, systems, and emails. Some contracts had clear owners, others did not. In some cases there were duplicate records or missing fields, and getting a definitive answer on usage or business need required several rounds of follow up.
To manage this, I built simple tracking approaches in Excel, documented who had been contacted and when, and followed the escalation paths when responses were delayed. That kept the Keep/Drop effort moving and provided a clear record for supervisors who wanted to see how decisions were reached.
On the training side, the challenge was to turn an informal “ask someone” process into repeatable content. That meant sitting with subject matter experts, validating every step on real systems, and editing the videos so they were short, focused, and easy to use as part of onboarding rather than long one-time presentations.
Outcomes
- Improved visibility into the contract lifecycle by pairing end-user feedback with historical data, which helped leadership make more confident Keep/Drop decisions.
- Reduced friction at the end of the ticket lifecycle by closing tickets with complete receipts and documentation, which made audits and reporting easier.
- Delivered reusable training assets in the form of short how-to videos that ITD could use for new hires and refreshers instead of repeating one-off support sessions.
- Gained early experience presenting to leadership, explaining both the technical details of our process and the business impact in clear, concise language.