Project Process

We are committed to driving a culture of continuous improvement across the university

In order to maximize resources, prioritize projects, and ensure that a project is in alignment with UBC’s strategic goals, all potential projects will go through our project pipeline.

Step 1: Submit Project Intake Form

Once a project is identified, leadership in your unit will submit a Project Intake Form that captures the most relevant information, such as project name, sponsor, purpose, organizational unit, process impacted, and a high-level overview of the expected benefits.

If you require support in filling out the Project Intake Form, please contact the Transformation & Strategy.

Step 2: We’ll review your submission

Our team will then review the project and gather additional information, which may include:

• Appointing a project manager
• Estimating start and completion dates
• Defining the problem or opportunity
• Building the business case
• Clarifying goals and metrics
• Refining the scope
• Analyzing stakeholders, risk, and constraints

Step 3: Governance will evaluate the project

After being reviewed by the team, the project will be presented to the Governance team — which is comprised of senior leaders representing Finance and Operations, HR, IT, Enterprise Risk and Assurance, and the UBC Sauder School of Business — and evaluated against pre-defined criteria and other projects. With the information provided, Governance will determine its order of execution, as well as scope, funding, and resourcing.

 

Project Prioritization

There are many competing projects in an organization as large and complex as UBC and having a well-defined prioritization process ensures that we are doing the right work, in addition to doing the work right.

Once your project has been submitted via our Project Intake Form and reviewed by our team, it will then follow a prioritization process in order for our Governance Committee to determine the most efficient way for us to allocate resources.

Our process will ensure that:

• The project aligns with UBC’s strategic goals
• A business case has been developed to confirm funding is secured for the project
• Impacted operations are also properly funded and aligned with UBC’s goals
• A project manager is assigned to the project
• An operations manager is assigned to sustain operations after project delivery
• Communication to stakeholders is properly planned
• Change management is considered as part of the project

Project Prioritization Matrix

Governance, which is comprised of senior leaders who represent stakeholder groups across the university, will evaluate and score your project based on the following set of criteria:

Benefits

• Strategic fit: What is your project’s link to UBC’s strategic goals?
• Net financial savings: Are there net financial savings generated?
• Other benefits/efficiencies: What are other qualitative benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction, productivity, or employee morale?
• Required service/product: Is your initiative mandatory due to compliance, legal, or fiscal requirements?
• Value to the customer: Does this project enhance the service offered to the customer?
• Importance to risk mitigation: Will your project help mitigate risk, and what is the impact of doing nothing?

Process

• Process complexity: How complex is the process in scope?
• Frequency of process execution: How frequently is the process in scope executed?

Change Management

• Degree of impact from change: Is the proposed change small and incremental, or large and disruptive?
• Organizational change capacity and maturity: Is your unit change ready or change resistant?
• Readiness – leadership/sponsorship: Are leadership and sponsorship defined, and are they ready to actively and visibly lead and sponsor these changes?
• Readiness – project management: Is a project manager assigned, and is there a structured project plan for managing tasks, resources, and budgets?
• Readiness – change management: Is there an effective Change Management plan in place, and allocated Change Management resources?

Project Evaluation Examples

The following examples illustrate how projects will be measured and compared using our assessment tools.

Project Prioritization Radar Chart

The Project Prioritization Radar Chart compares projects against each other based on our metrics.

In this example, while Project 2 scores better in terms of overall benefits, such as net financial savings, and customer value, it doesn’t score as well in readiness. Since it is not ready to launch yet, Governance may decide to go ahead with Project 1.