Planning and Prioritization Cycles

IT Partners operates on a six-month planning and prioritization cycle (PPC) to focus our efforts in developing new technology and data products; supporting and updating existing products, platforms, and processes; and improving, maintaining, and monitoring our technology and data infrastructure. 

Once the plan of work is set for a PPC, significant new project requests are not considered until the next PPC.

We engage college and unit leadership to identify the plan of work for two PPCs each fiscal/academic year: July-December (calendar year Q3/Q4) and January-June (calendar year Q1/Q2). Engagement and prioritization is completed in May-June for the July-December PPC and Nov-Dec for the January-June PPC. Unit priorities are taken into account as IT Partners works with Gies senior leadership to finalize the plan of work for the upcoming PPC. 

Our work falls into one of these categories:

  • New Product: Implementation of new vended platforms or the development of custom applications or data products. 
  • Updated Version: Added or revised features to existing platforms, applications, or data products. 
  • Ad Hoc-Support: Low-resource requests from units that don't require a full project plan and are normally time-sensitive. We build time into our planning cycles for these requests so that we can be responsive to emerging needs. ITP project management staff will determine whether a new request made in the middle of a PPC qualifies as an ad-hoc request or needs to be considered as a project for the next PPC. 
  • Cyclical Maintenance: Support for cyclical processes in the college that require effort on a regular cadence. 
  • Consulting: Business process improvements, training, and other consulting activities.
  • Infrastructure Update: Design, development, improvement, monitoring, security, and maintenance of application and data infrastructure.
  • Internal Logistics: Work to improve internal IT Partners processes and workflows that support our work.

You can view a dashboard (opens in new window) with the status of our current plan of work.


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The Overview tab includes a breakdown of projects by Status and Stage. It also includes a list of project status updates from the last week. Full project details are available via drill-throughs.

 

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The Completed/Near Term tab displays a list of all completed and near term focus projects. Completed projects are those projects where IT Partners has completed work and the deliverable is available to clients. Near Term Focus projects are those projects where IT Partners is actively doing work in the next 3-4 weeks. To maximize staff capacity, sometimes lower priority projects move into the near term as staffing capacity dictates.

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The Future/Requested tab includes a list of all future and new project requests. Future Projects projects are those projects that have been identified and prioritized, but where there is no work planned in the next 3-4 weeks. When a project moves from Future Projects to Near Term Focus, our project manager will notify the client. Requested Projects projects are those projects that were not identified as part of this six-month planning cycle, but have been requested by clients. They are listed here for reference when prioritization for our next six-month work cycle begins.

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The All Projects tab includes a list of all projects currently in IT Partners queue. The list includes client, project manager, priority, project status, project stage, description, and most recent status update. 

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The Ad Hoc Requests tab is a list of all ad hoc requests that have been received during the PPC, including the staff member making the request and relevant platform(s). Available filters include target month, task status, project, Gies unit and last modified date.

 

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The Internal ITP Tasks tab includes all IT Partners Staff tasks required to support the operations and infrastructure underpinning our application and data solutions. We provide these in the spirit of transparency and to give an idea of the scope of this support. 

 

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The Project Brief is available by drill-through from any of the project lists. It includes high-level details about the project, recent status updates, and a list of all the project milestones and objectives. 

If you have any questions about an existing project, please reach out to the project manager listed in the dashboard. All new project and ad-hoc requests should be directed to:

  • Gies Technology Advisory Committee for all procurement or implementation of new technology platforms in support of academic programs.
  • Meagan Hennessey for all requests related to custom applications, existing vended applications, workflows, and websites.
  • Collin Ruud for all requests related to data analytics, reporting, or visualizations.
  • Help Desk for all requests related to hardware, Microsoft Office365, Teams, Box, Team Dynamix, or Knowledgebase. 

For new requests, we may engage your unit leadership to assess prioritization levels if the new request conflicts with established priorities, so please make sure your unit leadership is aware of your needs before making the request.