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

2. Copyright Statement
Copyright Randall Alberts [2009]. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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.)

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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?

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

19. 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

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

21. 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.

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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

28. Contact Information
Randall Alberts