The point at which a body of work becomes a "project" and would begin to benefit from the application of a defined methodology is not always clearly defined. Some groups define a project simply as any task that is expected to consume more than a certain number of staff hours to complete. Others base the decision on budget while others rely on a simple decision by department managers. Irrespective of how the decision is made, all projects undertaken by OIT must:

Be defined as temporary with a clear beginning and end.
Not conflict with OIT strategy.
Address one or more strategic goals of the department for which the project is being implemented, UCI, or the UC system.
Be assigned to a single project manager to oversee project activities and ensure completion.
Meet defined goals and objectives within budget and time constraints.

When making the decision to initiate a project within OIT, the following work is not considered a project:

Tasks that require less than 80 staff hours to complete.
Customer support or troubleshooting production problems.
Bug fixes.
The maintenance phase of projects (after production roll out).
Non-project related administrative time.

However, this work may be converted to a project if OIT management determines that formal governance of the activities needs to be more closely managed or documented.

Other factors to consider when determining when a task becomes a project:

Work that involves high risk (e.g., "This task only requires about 20 hours of programming but if it fails then Admissions won’t be able to process enrollment applications").
Work that requires access to sensitive data (e.g., student data, PII, HIPPA, etc.). The controls built in to the SDLC will be required for the audit trail.
Work involving complicated interaction with units outside OIT (e.g., a system that needs to transfer data back and forth to the Police Department but only when a student is involved and the student financial records need to be updated).
High cost projects. This could include third-party systems that do not require extensive programming but the software acquisition and annual licensing costs are high.
High visibility tasks (the so-called "VIP projects"). These are tasks that are highly visible within the organization and require careful attention to process and governance.

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