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Streamlining Success: One Year of the IET Project Intake Process

Quick Summary

  • The IET Project Management Office (PMO) streamlined its Project Intake Process in May 2024 to formally evaluate, prioritize, and support new initiatives.
  • The new 5-step process ensures projects are adequately clarified and resources are optimized before work begins.
  • This system helps IET build a project roadmap, avoid resource conflicts, and ultimately increase the success rate of complex endeavors.

Whether big or small, there’s a process to help your project succeed in Information and Educational Technology (IET). Since May 2024, the IET Project Management Office (PMO) has been using a streamlined Project Intake Process to ensure projects are evaluated, prioritized, and supported from the start. Now one year in, the process is helping project leaders set their work up for success and enables the organization better identify efficiencies and optimize resources.

“The Project Intake Process is intended for anyone who has a project they need to get done,” explained Julie McCall, Project Management Office (PMO) Manager.

What Counts as a Project?

A key part of building the intake process was agreeing on what qualifies as a “project.” According to the PMO, a project is:

“A unique and temporary endeavor (not recurring, has a start and end date, and is not a standard service offering of a group or individual) with specific deliverables (e.g., new product or service) produced by a cross-functional project team convened solely for the purpose and duration of the endeavor.”

To qualify as a project, one or more of the following must be true:

  • Takes more than 320 hours to complete
  • Requires collaboration across two or more teams
  • Spans six months or longer
  • Impacts multiple areas of campus
  • Involves external vendors or contracts
  • Depends on other projects
  • Has complex problems or unknown solutions
  • Has hard deadlines due to mandates

Submit a Project in 5 Steps

IET PMO has made the submission process a breeze with 5 easy steps.

  1. Submit the IET Project Intake Form (about 15 minutes to complete)
  2. PMO reviews your submission and follows up if needed
  3. PMO scores the project based on urgency and impact. May recommend a PM/analyst support.
  4. Department head approves or rejects the project
  5. If approved, project is added to the portfolio and then prioritized by the IET Leadership Council (IETLC)

McCall recommends submitting projects several months before the target start date to allow time for planning and staffing. The earlier, the better.

Better Resource Management

The intake process helps IET work smarter and more efficiently, ensuring projects have a higher chance of success. When filling out the intake form, project leaders are encouraged to:

  • Clarify the problem and proposed solution
  • Assess potential risks and impacts
  • Confirm initial review with their manager/supervisor or IETLC member

“We're trying to avoid those last-minute projects and resource conflicts by building a project roadmap,” explained McCall. “If you know something is coming up, go ahead and submit it.” Submitting early can help avoid delays due to resource constraints.

What’s Working—and What’s Next?

McCall says the process is off to a strong start. Next steps include creating a unified project portfolio across all IET units and refining the executive review process. In the meantime, the PMO will continue raising awareness of the intake process and encouraging submissions.