How is a dimension on a project ranked?
While objectivity is difficult to achieve, the project ranking process is intended to be as close to reflecting common and agreed upon assessment criteria as possible. The 1 to 5 ranking values are defined in the following rubric:
- Strategic Value - An indication of how the project addresses the goals of the entire University, UCI campus, or requesting unit.
1 | The project addresses no strategic goals at any organizational level. |
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2 | Strategic goals are defined but this project does not meet them. |
3 | Project meets strategic goals for a functional unit. |
4 | Project meets campus wide strategic goals. |
5 | Project meets campus- and system-wide strategic goals. |
- User Priority and Commitment - An indication of how important the project is to a department and its benefit to to constituents. Includes a measure of the functional unit's engagement and resource allocation for leadership, planning, analysis, testing, etc.
1 | Functional unit is not ready to commit required resources to implement project. |
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2 | Function unit is generally aware of resource requirements but has not yet identified resources required to implement. |
3 | Functional unit fully understands the resource requirements but has not yet committed resources. |
4 | Functional unit is ready to implement and has identified required resources but is not yet able to commit due to other priorities. |
5 | Project is one of the functional unit's highest priorities. Unit is committed to implementing the project and resources have been identified. |
- Criticality & Risk Mitigation - A value representing the overall criticality of the project to campus mission and goals or reduction of risk factors. Legal requirements, mandates, or risk mitigation can drive criticality since these are often accompanied by penalties for noncompliance.
| 1 | Project is not critical to business functions. No obvious reduction of risk. |
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| 2 | Work arounds exist, making this project less critical to business. Minor, but measurable, reduction of risk. |
| 3 | If project is not done, high financial costs will be incurred but business can still be conducted with alternative solutions or manual work arounds. Moderate reduction of risk. |
| 4 | If project is not done, other high value projects will slip or will need to be cancelled. Significant reduction of risk. |
| 5 | If project is not done, the campus will be at risk of litigation, out of compliance with mandates, or incur high financial penalties. Nearly complete elimination of risk. |
- Impact & Visibility - The relative size of the population that will be impacted by the project. When counting users, students, faculty, and staff are ll included.
| 1 | 1 to 25 users impacted slightly. |
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| 2 | 1 to 25 users impacted with significant improvements. |
| 3 | 25 to 1,000 users impacted. |
| 4 | 1,000 to 5,000 users impacted. |
| 5 | 5,000 or more users impacted. |
- Savings & Efficiency - The relative value of the project in terms of actual revenue or indirect costs in the form of staff work hours or other efficiencies.
| 1 | No measurable cost savings or revenue gains, or the project will result in additional costs that will not be offset. |
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| 2 | Cost savings or efficiencies are possible but difficult to quantify and not included in proposal. |
| 3 | Project clearly creates savings, improves efficiencies or increases revenue but only down the line and measures may not be very accurate. |
| 4 | Project saves significant monies, creates measurable efficiencies, or generates revenue for a functional unit. |
| 5 | Project saves significant monies, creates measurable efficiencies, or generates revenue for the campus or system level. |
- Readiness to Move Forward - 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.
| 1 | Project cannot be scheduled due to poorly understood requirements or missing specifications. |
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| 2 | All technical issues are understood but planning is not complete and resource requirements are unknown. |
| 3 | Planning is complete and project could be scheduled but funding or staff have not yet been identified. |
| 4 | All OIT resources are available but functional unit is not ready to engage. |
| 5 | All required resources are available and OIT and functional unit are ready to proceed. |