A key element during the initial review of a project is the Project Scorecard. The scorecard considers and ranks the project in several key areas to help reviewers determine the strategic value, overall impact, and probability of successful completion of the project. Initial values for the scorecard are provided when the project is submitted and the values are adjusted as the review progresses. Keep in mind that a high score does not necessarily mean a high priority for the project–the scorecard is just one factor in determining a project's priority. The project scorecard considers the following criteria: | Factor | Weight | Description |
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| Strategic Value | .20 | An indication of how the project addresses the goals of the entire University, UCI campus, or requesting unit. | | User Priority & Commitment | .05 | An indication of how critical the project is to a department and the project's benefit to to constituents. Includes a measure of the functional unit's engagement and resource allocation for leadership, planning, analysis, testing, etc. | | Criticality | .20 | A value representing the overall criticality of the project to campus mission. Legal requirements and mandates can drive criticality since these are often accompanied by penalties for noncompliance. | | Risk Mitigation | .10 | A value representing the overall impact on mitigation of risk factors. When determining risk avoidance, the probability of threats, the vulnerability of the system to those threats, and the impact if the threat occurs, should all be considered. | | Impact |
| & Visibility | .20 | The relative size of the population that will be impacted by the project. When counting users, students, faculty, and staff are all included. | | Savings & Efficiency | .15 | The relative value of the project in terms of actual revenue or indirect costs in the form of staff work hours or other efficiencies. | | Readiness to Move Forward | .10 | The readiness of OIT and the functional unit in terms of active project leadership, available in-house technical expertise, momentum, support, community buy-in, project plan completeness, potential for success, etc. |
A ranking number is assigned to each category factor using a scale of 1 to 5. A definition of each level is available at Project Ranking Criteria. Each category factor is given a weight or percentage representing the importance of that category to the evaluation process. The Project Ranking Tool has been developed to facilitate deriving these rankings. All requests are evaluated using the same evaluation rating process. A sample of the ranking structure used for project "MyProject" might be: Strategic Value | Weight = .20
Rank (1-5) = 4
Total = 0.80 | | User Priority and Commitment | Weight = .05
Rank (1-5) = 4
Total = 0.20 | Criticality | Weight = .20
Rank (1-5) = 5
Total = 1.00 | | Risk Mitigation | Weight = .10
Rank (1-5) = 3
Total = 0.30 | | Impact and Visibility | Weight = .20
Rank (1-5) = 4
Total = 0.80 | Savings and Efficiency | Weight = .15
Rank (1-5) = 3
Total = 0.45 | Readiness to Move Forward | Weight = .10
Rank (1-5) = 3
Total = 0.30 | Total | - Ranking Total = 3.85
- Project rankings are compared against other projects in order to determine the relative importance of the project.
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Assignment of ResourcesProjects are assigned to OIT staff as resources become available, starting with the highest priority project, but the following are also considered: - OIT considers existing projects, work effort needed for the project, dependencies, and developer skill and availability when assigning resources.
- It is possible for a project further down on the priority list to start before one higher up, if required resources for the higher project are not yet available.
- A campus department may provide funding for a project so that OIT can hire additional programming staff to work on the project.
- OIT Review Committee works to commit resources for larger projects well in advance of project start dates as these resources are harder to schedule.
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