Rebalance Project Intake for Small Enterprise
Tip the scale of supply and demand in IT’s favor.
- Small IT departments commonly face a project supply-demand imbalance: a limited supply of IT resources to address an ongoing excess of project demands.
- This imbalance not only makes it difficult for IT leaders to prioritize high-value work, but it also contributes to poor project completion rates, over-allocated staff, and dissatisfied stakeholders. The enterprise may be forced to hire a project manager, costing upwards of $145,000, and effectively eating up IT’s budget.
- Unless the business is willing to adequately resource IT to keep up with demands, it’s up to small IT leaders to find a solution that makes workloads more manageable and enables IT to focus on the most valuable initiatives.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- A simple yet disciplined approach to intake discipline represents the best opportunity for small IT leaders to reconcile the imbalance between supply and demand in order to ease IT workloads and improve project success rates.
- Intake discipline doesn’t require a high degree of project portfolio management (PPM) rigor or formal approval from senior executives. You can start alleviating supply-demand pain points right away by introducing small increments of change to your workflow. You can introduce more layers of change and rigor as your capabilities evolve and workloads become more balanced.
Impact and Result
- Streamline the intake workflow into a single funnel to protect your team against over-allocation and enable better portfolio oversight into work in progress.
- Improve stakeholder relations by setting realistic expectations for the lifecycle of each request and providing increased transparency into IT’s processes.
- Understand available resource capacity of IT staff in order to drive the throughput of the highest value requests.
- Reduce project waste from 10% to 5%, saving up to $44,000.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
10.0/10
Overall Impact
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Magnussen Home Furnishings Ltd
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Not looking at the tool as a project with a finite end and value. Having the connection to the Analyst, Matt, resulted in a course correction for ... Read More
Workshop: Rebalance Project Intake for Small Enterprise
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Develop an Optimized Intake Workflow
The Purpose
- Identify and map project sources.
- Establish an effective triage process for project requests.
- Develop a view of available capacity to keep approval and prioritization constrained to that which is achievable.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A centralized intake workflow that fosters collaboration between sponsors and the PMO.
- An appropriate request follow-up process that sets realistic expectations for stakeholders.
- A simple methodology for tracking resource allocations at a high level.
Activities
Outputs
Undergo a PPM needs assessment
- Current state picture of your PPM capabilities
Review and configure request form
- A customized request form with the right amount of friction for your organization
Establish an optimized intake workflow
- A PPM triage process that effectively informs requests forward
Develop lightweight methods for tracking resource availability
- A resource management strategy for aligning approvals with available capacity
Module 2: Prioritize New Requests to Drive Portfolio Throughput
The Purpose
- Determine the appropriate steps in a progressive prioritization process for your organization.
Key Benefits Achieved
- An effective cadence for prioritization to help ensure your efforts are always aligned with the highest value priorities.
Activities
Outputs
Establish an approval and prioritization scorecard
- Approval and prioritization scorecard
Define prioritization cadence, stage gates, and authority rights
- Detailed steps in the prioritization process for who is responsible for what, and when they’re responsible for it
Pilot the workflow using Info-Tech’s tools and templates
- A customized tool for tracking and prioritizing new requests
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 2-phase advisory process. You'll receive 3 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Create a standardized intake process
- Call 1: Scoping call
- Call 2: Identify standardized intake workflow
Guided Implementation 2: Develop intake capabilities
- Call 1: Review and refine intake processes