Overview
Projects are initiatives designed to introduce change by implementing new or improved IT services in line with the College's goals and strategic objectives. This article describes how to classify project requests by budget, duration, scope, and resources required, and use that information within the IT governance process to approve, prioritize, and schedule them in line with the College's available resources.
Because projects consume significant resources both within the IT department and the College as a whole, they require additional oversight and management before being approved for implementation. It is expected that all project requests will originate with an executive sponsor, who is responsible for completing the TeamDynamix project intake workflow with important information such as prioritization, scoping, objective, business justification, and deliverable.
Project Classifications
Projects are classified as large, medium, or small based on budget, duration, resources required, and scope. The final project classification is based on the largest of these four criteria. For example, a project that has a negligible cost, a small implementation team, and a 5-month implementation timeline, but requires input and coordination from multiple departments across the College would be considered a large project based on the scope and complexity involved.
Service requests that do not meet any of these criteria are not considered formal projects, but may still require administrative approval and be subject to scheduling based on available resources.
Project Budget
When calculating the project budget, include all costs for development and implementation, as well as any licensing costs for the first year of operation.
- Large projects have budgets exceeding $150,000.
- Medium projects are budgeted between $50,000 and $150,000.
- Small projects have budgets above $10,000 but less than $50,000.
Project Duration
Durations are calculated as estimated total hours of development and implementation time for internal IT resources.
- A large project requires more than 1,000 hours (6 months) of IT time to complete.
- A medium project requires between 250 (2 months) and 1,000 hours of IT time to complete.
- A small project requires more than 40 hours but less than 250 hours of IT time to complete.
Project Resources
- A large project requires collaboration between 20 or more people across multiple departments
- A medium project requires the involvement of more than 5, but fewer than 20 people.
- A small project can typically be completed with fewer than 5 people
Project Scope
- Large projects require the involvement and coordination of multiple stakeholder departments with external vendors.
- Medium projects may require limited internal cross-departmental collaboration and coordination.
- Small projects generally impact only a single department or limited functional area with few stakeholders.
Getting Started
To start a project request, please begin by completing a project request on the service portal. Your request will be reviewed by a member of the project management team and, if approved, will be transferred to the project management system for further action.