IS Project Management Process

About the Project Management Process

Project Management Team Members

Submitting a Project Proposal

Submitting a Project

Read About the Project Management Process, if you have not done so already.

Part 1

Begin by reviewing the following questions (which you will need to answer in IS Project Proposal Part 1). Discuss these with your colleagues, supervisor, and/or other potential partners for this project, and then fill out and submit IS Project Proposal Part 1.

Proposal Part 1 is located in FirstClass under Wellesley Conferences / Committees / IS Project Management / IS Project Proposals / IS Project Proposal Part 1

• Who is the Sponsor(s)?
• Describe the Problem, Need or Opportunity
• What is the goal of the project?
• What is your proposed solution? (if you already have ideas on how to solve this issue, please list applications or tasks already considered)
• Who would be the Project Participants? (list all departments and /or groups that may be involved in the solution)
• Who would be the constituents served? (list both the number and departments or groups that will benefit from the solution)
• What are the known costs (list any items that have known costs associated with them, such as software licenses, hardware, etc.)
• What additional resources would be required (identify any other resources that may be necessary to carry this idea through to the end, such as additional ongoing staff, space considerations, etc.)
• Is this the result of a College mandate?  Mandated by whom?
• What is your need-by date or intended time-frame (include specific dates if known, otherwise please estimate when this is needed and how long you think it might take to prepare for launch)
• How would your department prioritize this idea? (please rank this idea in relation to other projects being submitted or worked on within your group)
• What other projects are dependent on or related to this one?
• Why are you submitting this idea now? What prompted this submission? Why does this need to be done now as opposed to later?

After submitting Project Proposal Part 1, you will receive an email reply within a few days from the Project Management Team (PMT) asking for more information or stating that this project falls outside the scope of this process.

Part 2

Once you’ve been notified by the PMT to begin IS Project Proposal Part 2, continue with your research preparation to be able to answer the following questions:

• What are the key products (deliverables), results, services, or capabilities that will be produced at the conclusion of a successful project?
• What is not included (i.e., What are you going to leave out?)
• How does this support the mission of the department and/or the College?
• What alternatives have been considered?
• Why have you rejected the alternatives?
• How critical is this to your department?
• How critical is this to the sponsor?
• How critical is this to the institution?
• Rank the Critical level (High, Medium, Low)
• What if the "need-by" date/time frame is not met?
• What are the consequences if this project does not happen?
• What assumptions about resources, policy, schedules, technologies, services, products, staff, etc., exist? (i.e., an existing vendor relationship, specific product identified, participation by constituency, dependency on other projects, dependency on existing support/systems, other persons actions)

Part 2 gets submitted to the same FirstClass conference as Part 1.

Review and Approval

Project Proposals submitted Monday through Friday, will be reviewed on the following Wednesday afternoon by the PMT and IS Director of Planning and Communication (DPC). A member of the team will contact you by the end of day Thursday.

Projects that are approved by the PMT will be placed on the agenda of the IS managers Resource and Scheduling (R&S) meeting the following Tuesday. Following this meeting you will be contacted by the DPC, with a proposed Project Manager and project start and end dates. Project Proposals 1 & 2 are then moved into their own folder in the active IS Projects conference.

Project Planning, Communication and Assessment

The DPC and Project Manager will write up a complete and detailed Project Plan which includes milestones, due dates, and communication schedule, to be posted in the appropriate project folder within the IS Projects conference.

Once the project is underway, the Project Manager must update the milestones and due dates spreadsheet regularly. Upon completion of the project, the DPC and Project Manager will review and assess the entire project and submit a written evaluation.