What materials will you need to manage a project? What constitutes a project proposal? The list of templates below was developed by the Project Standards committee as a guide to which templates you will need when.
Templates for the IT Capital process and the FAS/HUIT Project Review Board process can be found on the pages for those reviews.
| Phase | Element | Notes |
| Propose | Project Proposal |
A proposal will document the business needs and provide a potential solution overview Allows for the evaluation of whether to invest the time and effort in Discovery |
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ITCRB Proposal Package (If necessary) |
Where appropriate, the ITCRB templates can be used to request Central Administration funding of the project effort. Information about the policy, process and templates can be found here: IT Projects Capital Funding | |
| ITCRB Return on Investment Calculator | Used to derive ROI for projects, uses HUIT ITCRB approved formulas for Return on Investment. (No longer required for ITCRB projects, effective FY20 cycle.) | |
| Investment Pyramid | Used to define the classification of investment types (e.g. New, Enhancement, Operations). | |
| Discover | Discovery Deck |
Slide deck that describes the vision and key aspects of the project going forward, may include: |
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Discovery Deck - Not to proceed |
Slide deck that describes the lessons learned during discovery and the reasons for not proceeding forward with a project | |
| Business Case | An examination of a set of alternatives to assess them and their implications to the organization. | |
| Vision Slide | A simple way for a project to clearly articulate foundational principles clearly and consistently | |
| RFI | - Request for Information to collect information about potential vendor solutions | |
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ITCRB Request to Release Plan Funding (If necessary) |
If the ITCRB has approved your project but requires PRC approval to release Planning funding the ITCRB templates must be utilized: |
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| Solution Definition Deck [and Example] | Used when you have done enough discovery to realize that there is more than one high-level approach that would solve the problem, and you need governance to decide which approach to pursue. | |
| Plan | Implementation Plan |
Documentation for the Implementation of the project/program activities may include: Allows for the evaluation of whether to invest in the full implementation efforts |
| Charter | The project charter is a commitment document that describes the work that you will do for the requester. | |
| Communications Plan | - A plan for all the project communications including partner, user, project team and other stakeholder communications | |
| Issue Management | - Identify, set priorities, analyze, take action, report and resolve issues that are affecting a project. Project Issues are managed, tracked and reported in the Harvard University IT Service Now Project application. | |
| Risk Management |
- Risk Management helps a project team consider all the risks that might impact the project to ensure delivery. All project risks should be managed in Harvard University IT Service Now Project application. |
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| Business Benefit Gantt Chart | - Chart to show the benefits delivered by the project over time. | |
| High-Level Architecture |
- High-Level Blueprint of System - Product/Library Selection - Functional/ Service/ Architecture |
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High-Level Requirements |
- Requirements as necessary to define scope - Enough detailed requirements for first few sprints |
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| Responsibility Allocation Matrix and RACI Chart | - A simple, easy to use table that shows tasks and who (role or person) that is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. | |
| Service and Rate Plan |
- High level service support and operations plan - Anticipated support model - Plan to address post-go-live support costs |
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| RFP | - Request for Proposal to solicit bids for the procurement of goods or services | |
| RFQ | - Request for Quote to solicit price quotes for the procurement of goods or services | |
|
Not to Proceed Deck (if decided not to proceed) |
- Lessons Learned - Reasons not to proceed |
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Software Vendor Management Guide |
The practices and processes related to managing the selection of hardware and software processes. | |
| ITCRB Request to Release Implementation funding |
If the ITCRB has approved your project but requires PRC approval to release Implementation funding: - Follow ITCRB template - Subset of information in Implementation Plan - Formal Budget - Architecture Review |
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| Implement |
Status Reports |
- Status
Allows for the continued monitoring of the project/program and deliverable completion |
| Software Design | - Design of components/modules (synced with work in sprints) | |
| Service Handbook | - Documents service purpose, goals and success factors, with metrics | |
| Test Plan/Execution |
- Test Scenarios |
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| Training Package | - Plan for training existing and new staff on project objectives and deliverables | |
| Support / Troubleshooting Guide | - Operational information to enable support for incidents | |
| Release Plan |
- Resource plan - Communication plan - Change management plan - Deployment playbook |
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Requirements |
Requirements for scope (synced with work in sprints) | |
| Close | Service / Operational Level Agreement Reports | - Reports validating operational support of service |
| Lessons Learned | - Documentation of lessons learned during project life-cycle to feed continual improvement processes | |
| Project Completion Report Template | - Standard template for project completion report. This template is required for ITCRB funded projects. |