Introduction, State IT Policy and Memoranda

Through this website, the California Technology Agency (Technology Agency) brings greater clarity to the information technology (IT) policies, standards, instructions, and guidelines regarding IT operations, security, project approval, and oversight. Additionally, the Technology Agency provides a single source for lookup of IT policy, standards, instructions, and guidelines. The Technology Agency will continue to review and update:

  • The State Administrative Manual (SAM), which contains statewide IT policy.
    • SAM Section 4800 contains general IT policy.
    • SAM Section 5300 contains information security and privacy policy.
    • SAM Section 6700 contains fiscal IT policy.
  • Technology Letters (TL) which, as defined in SAM Section 4819.2:
    • Convey official communications regarding state IT
    • Announce new (or changes to existing) IT policies and procedures
    • Announce new (or changes to existing) state IT services or standards
  • Memoranda which contain reminders, clarifications and notification of changes that may affect IT, but do not change state IT policies and procedures.
  • The Statewide Information Management Manual (SIMM), which contains the instructions and guidelines needed to implement IT policy.
    • Sections numbered from 05 to 80 contain standards, schedules, instructions, forms and templates that must be used to comply with policy.
    • Sections numbered from 110 to 200 contain guidelines, models and forms that state agencies will find useful, but their use is not required.

The instructions, standards, and guidelines are provided in read-only format. Forms, samples and spreadsheets can be downloaded, some as Microsoft Word and others as Microsoft Excel files.

Generally, updates are made to reflect changes in state IT policy, standards, and procedures, to ensure consistency between the policy (SAM) and the instructions and guidelines (SIMM), and to clarify IT policy and procedures.

Also contained on the Web pages are links to IT-related Governor's Executive Orders, Budget Letters, and Management Memos.

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