Project Proposal

							       Applications Division Project Proposal 2011-12
PROJECT NAME                     Name of Project - please make this as meaningful as possible.
Project Sponsor                  Name of senior manager in the business area who ultimately will be
                                 responsible for the project ensuring that it gives value for money.
Programme                        Name of Programme see
                                 http://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/programmes/index.cfm for current list
Programme Owner                  Name of the senior manager(s) in the business area who have overall
                                 responsibility for the programme of projects.
IS Programme Manager             Name of the senior manager in IS who has overall responsibility for
                                 delivery of the programme of projects.
Authors ( Business )             Name of person in the business area who has developed the proposal
                                 on behalf of the Project Sponsor.
Authors ( IS )                   Name of person in IS who has assisted the business author to prepare
                                 the proposal and who has verified the estimates and costing sections of
                                 the proposal. This will normally be the Programme Manager.
Date                             Date the proposal was completed.
Section One – PROJECT DETAILS
1.1 Executive Summary

Please provide a brief summary of the project including: background, current situation, business
objectives, timescales and expected benefits. The summary should as a minimum address the
questions: why execute this project? What will the project achieve? For whom and when? What
benefits can be expected from the project and what will the success criteria be?

When the project starts, this information may be used on the project home page published on the
University Projects web site at: http://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/

1.2 Business Objectives
Clearly state the objectives of the project in terms of the business requirements to be addressed. An objective
should be a concrete statement describing what the project is trying to achieve. Each objective should be written
so that it can be evaluated at the conclusion of the project to see whether it was achieved or not. A well-formed
objective will be Specific, Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (SMART). The table
below is provided to give a summary for the section, in many cases no further description will be required. If your
objectives require more detailed descriptions than can be easily accommodated in the table please include more
detail in section 1.7
No.      Description
1
2
3
1.3 Project Deliverables (including any scope limits)
Deliverables are the things that the project has to deliver in order to achieve the business objectives. Consider
how each deliverable can be tested or otherwise shown to meet the business objectives. Provide as much
relevant information as is available. In projects misunderstandings can arise if there are limits to the scope of the
project that have not been clearly stated e.g. the solution will only be available to a certain group of stakeholders
or the functionality provided will be limited to a particular aspect of the business. It is important therefore to state
any scope limitations against individual deliverables where these apply. Typical project deliverables are:
         New or changed business process or service
         New or changed IT service or infrastructure (including any delivery mechanisms such as MyEd
          channels)
         Procurement and implementation of a business solution from a third party supplier
         Documentation and training
      Business case or report recommending change
No.      Deliverable (and description of any limits to the scope)
1
2
3
1.4 Project Timescales - Milestones and Multi Year Projects
Milestones – a milestone is a scheduled event signifying the completion of a major project activity. Milestones
are used as project checkpoints to review how the project is progressing and re-evaluate the work. The most
important project milestones should be identified here. If a project milestone has a time dependency such that if
it is delivered later than the required date then the benefit will not be realised or be deferred by an unacceptably



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       Applications Division Project Proposal 2011-12
long period it is referred to as a ‘hard milestone’. Usually these milestones will be based on the University’s
business cycle but can also be driven by legislative requirements or availability of resources. Please list any
hard milestones and the reasons for the dependency, e.g. milestone X must be completed by July 2012 in time
for start of academic year or milestone Y must be completed by April 2012 to comply with legislative
requirements.

Multi-Year Projects - the University planning process requires resources to be allocated against an annual
programme. In some cases projects will not fit conveniently within the University’s financial year. This may
simply be a timing issue around a short well defined project e.g. a new service is required in the Autumn and
work has to start in the previous financial year in order to achieve a hard delivery milestone so the project will
straddle two financial years. However it may be that we are embarking on a large change project that will take
several years of concerted effort to achieve.

For these large projects it is often the case that the estimates for resources for later years can only be done in
outline at the beginning of the project. This is acceptable and the costing template should be used to indicate
best estimates. From year 2 onwards, proposals for multi year projects must be reviewed during the annual
planning round so that deliverables and resource estimates for the relevant planning year can be revisited and
updated if necessary.

For multi year projects please indicate the major stage breakdown of the project by financial year and the timing
of outputs. e.g. deliver business case by December, Tender by April, Choose Supplier by September, Implement
first set of business process by September following year, etc. Detail of later years may be sparse but the
expected work programme for the coming year must be sufficiently defined so that resources can be allocated
appropriately.
Milestone       Milestone description (including reason if Milestone Date is hard)
Date


Financial       Breakdown of Project Stages/Deliverables by Year
Year
2011-12
2012-13
1.5 Project Stakeholder(s)
Stakeholders are people or organisational units who have an interest in the execution and outcome of the
project. The Project Sponsor, the sponsor’s business unit and IS Applications Division are the primary
stakeholders. This section is for identifying the other major stakeholders. As a minimum any group(s) of users
that will be affected by the project should be identified as should any other service providers (IS or business)
that will be consulted or have a role to play in delivering the project or subsequent services.
Stakeholder                          Description of stakeholder and role in project                       Informed
                                                                                                          Y/N



1.6 Project Risks
A risk is the possibility that something can go wrong and interfere with the completion of the project.
Assumptions, constraints and dependencies are other factors that can affect a project. It is best to describe
these other factors as risks. e.g. if a project depends on another project X being completed first this can be
stated as “the risk to this project is that project X may not be done”. Please identify the most important risks, i.e.
those with the greatest Impact and/or Probability of Occurrence and any actions that will be required to manage
each risk.
No.      Description                           Impact/Probability and Risk Management Approach
1
2
3
1.7 Other Relevant Information about the Project (including accessibility
    requirements and references to illustrate the capabilities to be delivered)
Please provide other relevant information about project. This may include:
       Additional business or technical context for information provided in earlier sections of the proposal
       Accessibility requirements and how these may be addressed
       References to other document or web resources which illustrate the capabilities to be delivered




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       Applications Division Project Proposal 2011-12

Section Two – PROJECT CATEGORY and JUSTIFICATION
2.1 Project Category
Please indicate the category of this project by putting a brief statement beside the appropriate category. The
categories are:
        Essential External (EE) - externally driven projects that must be done as they are based on regulatory
         compliance or technology obsolescence, e.g. HESA returns, Tax Year-end changes or an upgrade to
         the version of the Oracle database. To confirm the classification the justification must include the
         impact of delaying the project to a later year.
        Essential Internal (EI) - internally driven projects that must be done as a result of a major university
         decision or organisational type change such as introduction of the new curriculum or a change to the
         structure of the academic year. Projects that are the most important one for a particular business area
         or a perceived to deliver very high benefits do not automatically qualify for this classification.
        Very Important (VI) - projects that business areas really want to do as they give major benefits, deliver
         service improvements etc.
     Funded (F) - projects whose costs are being fully funded through another source such as an external
         grant, the University Bond or by the sponsoring department themselves. For these projects it is
         particular important to verify that the sustainability of the resulting services i.e. how will these services
         be funded when the project is complete.
Project Category          Reason
 ( EE/EI/VI/F )

2.2 Project Justification
The business case for doing the project should ideally be aligned to University (or College/Support Group)
Strategic Goals, Enablers or Themes. The University Strategic Plan for 2008-2012 is published at:
http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/strategic_planning/ Other important justifications for 2011/12 include Operational
Efficiency, Income Generation and Cost Reduction
Strategic Goal,           Description of how project meets the Strategic Goal, Enabler or Theme
Enabler or Theme



Other                     Description
Justification




Section Three – PROJECT BENEFITS, COSTS AND PROCUREMENT
Provide the estimated project benefits and costs over a 5-year period on the basis of the information currently
available. Section 3.2 is the overall project costs and benefit summary and should be taken from the Detailed
Benefits and Costs Worksheet completed to accompany this proposal.
3.1 Benefits (over 5 years)
Tangible Benefits – please provide information on the reasoning and method used to arrive at the benefit
figures e.g. where a time saving has been identified please identify how the £ amount was calculated, providing
details of any assumptions made regarding nos. of staff impacted etc.
Intangible Benefits – benefits where there is no associated financial saving are considered to be intangible,
e.g. increased access to the user community. Please provide details of any intangible benefits and associated
assumptions.
Benefits Realisation – please give details of any monitoring that will be put in place to ensure benefits are
realised.
Tangible - Description and Value                                  Assumptions


Intangible – Description


Description of monitoring required to ensure benefits are realised




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       Applications Division Project Proposal 2011-12

3.2 Benefits and Costs Summary (over 5 years)
 5 Year Summary             IT Services           Support Groups            Colleges inc                 Total
                                                                              Students
      Benefits                    £                        £                      £                       £
       Costs                      £                        £                      £                       £
                                                                        Benefit/Cost Ratio =       0.0
3.3 Funding/Resource Requirements
The project may be dependant on funding which has still to be secured e.g. money for new software package
purchase or maintenance and/or funding to provide additional staff resources to execute the project or provide
longer term support for the services delivered by the project. Please provide details below of funding or resource
requirements and confirm whether or not the sponsoring business area has secured the additional funding
and/or staff resources required.
Funding/Resource Requirement                                   £Value        Funding Arrangements and
                                                                                    Provider(s)



Have you considered outsourcing as a potential source
for some or all of the services to be delivered by this
project? Please provide details. Guidance on Outsourcing
3.4 Procurement Requirements (including Outsourcing)
Where no external procurement is anticipated this should stated as “Not Applicable”. It is the Project Sponsor’s
responsibility to inform Procurement Office so that they can plan any assistance that may be required for project
procurement activities.
Total Cost of            Description of Goods and Services to be Procured ( All                   Procurement
Goods & Services         procurement activity must be in line with the rules laid out                Office
(over 4 yrs)             Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook. Guidance on                         Informed?
                         Procurement )                                                               Yes/No
< £50 k
> £50 k




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