Project Prioritization Made Easy Randall Alberts, PMP, SSBB Sr. Project Manager Georgia State University

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Randall Alberts Sr. Project Manager Project Management Office Manager Project Management Professional Six Sigma Black Belt ITIL v3 Foundations

Georgia State University Located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia Approximately 28,000 students 6 Colleges at the University Central IT staff with 185 employees Some distributed IT staff in the colleges

The PMO’s Arrival Prior to 2003 – no Project Management Office (PMO) New CIO – new directive to build a PMO Started with Sr. Project Manager Hired one, then a second project manager Worked to gain PMP certification for all Project Managers

What is a project? PMI’s Definition Problem? A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, ser vice, or result Problem? Could be many items we are working on Patch vs. Network Upgrade What about Learning Objects?

What is a Project at Georgia State IT Leadership looked at the projects on-going in the organization Looked at the length of time it takes to complete a project Decided on a definition that could be easily explained to customers

Georgia State Project Definition Must meet at least one of the below Criteria: Greater than 80 person-hours to complete Requires Cross Departmental resources High visibility for university Expense other than personnel time (including equipment, software, contractors, etc.)

PMI Process Phases Point of Project Prioritization Monitoring and Control Planning Closeout Initiation Executing

Project Approval Process Any new project request, must have a completed Project Charter Developed by customer and IS&T Have a long and short form available to use depending on the size of the project Customer must sign off on the Charter - Becomes the contract for the project A copy of the document is given to the customer for reference Charter developed with Customer

Project Charter Process Entered into project tracking system vPMO from Level 5 Partners Cut and paste from Project Form into the application PMO handles 1st pass verification of charter Charter gets locked for approval and ranking

Project Ranking Spreadsheet Model v1 – completed by IS&T Directors Excel spreadsheet Answer choices determines project score Calculate to 100 point scale Problems with v1 Where was customer input IT was determining customer priority

Project Ranking v2 CIO developed a IT Steering Group made up of Provost, Associate Provosts and Vice-Presidents Group given direction to prioritize projects and set direction for IS&T Edited spreadsheet to better align with University Strategic Goals

IT Steering Group Group meets about every 3 weeks (at least once each month) Sets direction for IT division Reviews project charters and approves / disapproves / request for more information If approved, ranked and placed in the portfolio

Spreadsheet Model Asks multiple choice questions that gives a numerical score based on answers to questions Broken down into 3 sections Spreadsheet has a max of 100 points Based on Educause presentation at Educause 2005

Urgency Questions related to the need of the project and fit into the University Goals Strategic goals defined by the President and posted on the University Web site Is it required or a nice to have? When is the project needed? How urgent? When is the project needed includes information like it’s needed as part of Government regulations or critical software patches. Hard Deadline is a simple Y/N question. It does not apply to the ranking, but shows up in the portfolio.

Impact What impact will the implementation of said project have on the university or IT Who will be impacted? Improved ability for user / provider? What is the state of the current system? Can be positive or negative impact on users?

Financial Deals with the funding and resources needed to complete the project What is the staffing effect? Project Costs? Positive ROI?

Project Rankings Once projects are ranked, they are then listed highest to lowest Grouped into 3 categories High Medium Low When new projects are added, all projects below are moved down

High Priority Projects Top Ten Ranked Projects Available resources will be applied to meet the defined project timeline

Medium Priority Projects Next 15 Projects On these projects IS&T would work to meet the defined deadlines, however their timelines may slip depending on the resource needs of the higher priority projects.

Low Priority Projects Low Projects 26 and above These projects may get some work cycles applied if available, but only if the resources were not needed on higher priority projects or on operation and maintenance tasks

On-hold Projects Projects that can not be completed at the time May be due to resource constraints or solution issues Will be moved off of the portfolio list and projects below will move up in priority When projects are move back into an active status, then they are slotted back in at their previous priority level

Draft Projects Staff and customers encouraged to put in a project charter, or project idea as soon as possible Projects may stay in a draft state for months or years in some cases If projects are determined that they are not needed, then they will be removed and not move forward Helps give an idea of projects that are on the horizon and helps with resource forecasting

Resource Planning Staff are told that they should work on higher priority projects first Rankings have been able to reduce customer complaints about projects not progressing to customer expectations If there is a concern about where a project is ranked, then can go back to the ITSG for reevaluation of the project Projects have gone to closeout in the ITSG, but rejected since the customer feels that the requirements were not met.

Change Requests Usually handled by the project team or Project Sponsor Large changes to scope will need to go back through the ITSG Can lead to project reprioritization or cancellation of the project

Project Closeout When projects are completed, a final status report is entered into the project management tracking system Project closeout through ITSG When project is removed projects move up one slot

Contact Information Randall Alberts ralberts@gsu.edu 404-413-4303