University of Illinois System

Project Prioritization & Scheduling

Prioritization Process - First Prioritization Stage

The first prioritization process occurs at the subcommittee level during the review of a proposal. Subcommittees consider the project justification and cost of a proposal on its own merits but also in the context of all other submitted and approved projects in their functional area. Subcommittees consider the resource capacity of stakeholders for staffing projects when evaluating proposals, working with the affected organizations to understand staffing plans.

If a functional or technical area is included in a proposal, that area needs to answer the following questions:

  • Is a resource available to perform the task in the requested timeframe?
  • If not, can one be made available at a later date, based on the current list of approved projects?
  • If not, can outside resources be provided at a higher cost?

Prioritization Process - Second Prioritization Stage

The second prioritization process occurs as all approved projects in each functional area are reviewed quarterly by the respective subcommittees to assess the prioritization of all projects in their area. This prioritization process produces a numeric ranking of all approved projects which will be provided to ITPC. Once this prioritization is complete, subcommittees can determine if other projects should be put on hold or rescheduled so resources can be made available for what will presumably be a higher priority project within the subcommittee's respective functional area.

On a quarterly basis, prior to the scheduled ITPC meeting, the ITPC cross-functional group provides to ITPC a prioritization across all projects scheduled for ITPC review at its next meeting. This is to provide guidance to ITPC regarding funding and resource allocation across functional areas. The ITPC is responsible for the prioritization of all approved ITPC projects across all areas. The committee will review the subcommittee's and cross-functional group's prioritizations and determine prioritization across functional areas as needed.

Portfolio Scheduling

Upon approval by ITPC and AAPC (if required), projects are moved into the ITPC project scheduling queue to await scheduling. These projects are classified as Approved - To be Scheduled in the monthly reports. Depending on the nature of a project, a managing organization will be designated for each project. This managing organization will be responsible for the scheduling and execution of the project. On the majority of projects, the managing organization will be AITS, but there are also several projects being managed by other organizations.

Subsequent to the ITPC project review and project prioritization sessions, AITS, utilizing the information provided by the ITPC, cross-functional group, and subcommittees and the resource capacity information for specific skill types will generate a detailed quarterly project schedule and a high-level annual plan. Resource capacity needs to be considered for all participating organizations (AITS, functional office, other technical, consultants, DS, end users, etc.) and will be an important factor in scheduling projects. This scheduling process is specific to projects that have a significant AITS component. The overall ITPC process may approve projects that have no AITS components. While AITS will not schedule the projects being led by other managing organizations, these projects will be slotted in the plan with the advice of the other organizations so the plan is inclusive of all ITPC projects.

The short-range quarterly plan will be updated monthly to accommodate emergency requests and adapt to changes in project timelines. Again, at the end of each quarterly ITPC prioritization, the high-level annual plan will be recast incorporating the most current data provided. The high-level annual plan will be maintained for long range planning purposes and as a tool to inform clients of expectations regarding the scheduling of all approved projects.