The Applications Management Team recieves many requests for new developments every day, from new features on the website, to new functions on e-vision. In order to bring greater transparency to the work that is done by this team, we have developed a new prioritisation approach to the work, allowing the team to be responsive to requests for new developments in a fair, consistent and transparent way.
This new approach to work consists of:
- Capacity planning
- A project request workflow
- A prioritisation model
- A rolling work schedule
Capacity Planning
For the past 6 months, the team has been scheduling work 3 months in advance. This planning factors in time for day to day management of the systems, ongoing projects and planned leave which in turn highlights the amount of capacity available to take on new projects.
Project Request Workflow
For every new request, there are a series of steps that must be completed before the work is started. The steps are as follows:
1) A request is submitted.
- Requests are logged in Service Now
- The request is assigned to a member of the team
- An enhancement request form is sent to the requestor
2) An enhancement request form is completed.
- The requestor submits the form, giving further details about the request.
3) Evaluation.
- The enhancement request is assessed and the work is prioritised in accordance with the prioritisation model.
4) Resourcing.
- The skills and resources required for the piece of work are assessed.
5) Scheduling
- The work is scheduled in accordance with the assigned priority and the availability of time as determined by the capacity plan
6) Development
- Upon commencement of the work, a project lead or project board and project manager are assigned according to the needs of the project.
- Regular reporting takes place on the progress of the project until completion.
Prioritisation Model
In order to prioritise the requests that are recieved, every request is ranked against 5 criteria:
1) Is the request driven by a legal compliance issue?
2) What are the benefits of the proposed work?
3) Is the request aligned with University Strategy and Vision?
4) What are the risks of not doing the work?
5) Can we provide an acceptable service level if this work is not done?
Once ranked, the projects are added to the rolling work schedule and capcacity plan in order of priority.
Rolling Work Schedule
We maintain a rolling work schedule for the following 12 months, this details all of the projects that have been prioritised and are in plan. Projects showing on this schedule are then added to the capacity plan to ensure that staff resources are deployed accordingly.
