Directorate of Student and Education Support
Student Business Systems Team initial project proposal form
Name of Project:
Project Proposers:
Date:
Type of Project
Small project/service enhancement
Medium project/core or critical service enhancement
Large/New service projects
In-year emergency or compliance issues
What is the project?
This should contain a short introduction to the project, including a description of the problem the project is
trying to solve.
Who benefits and how?
Eg Students, academic staff, professional services staff.
Better experience, compliance, efficiency savings etc.
What are the risks/consequences of not doing it?
What would you or other teams within the directorate need to do to deliver the project?
Outline of work that would need to be undertaken by staff in the Directorate to deliver the project, Is this in
addition to existing duties? How much is already done? How long do you estimate it would it take?
Do you have any resources you can contribute?
Can you contribute towards the costs of the project?
If so, please provide an estimate of your potential contribution and an estimate of the cost of staff time spent in
requirements documentation, process change, UAT, training etc
Guidance Notes
During the initial stage you should try to keep the proposal as short as possible 2 sides A4 maximum, if the
project is prioritised then a more comprehensive Project Initiation Document will need to be completed.
All project proposals to be scrutinised and prioritised will be scored against the Prioritisation Panel criteria you
should consider these when completing the proposal. We also recommend that before completing the form
you discuss it with one of the panel members who will be able to advise you on the forms completion, Student
Business Systems will be able to advise you on which panel member is most appropriate for your area.
When completing the form please be as specific as possible and give examples, so if you have said it required
for compliance please specify the Act of Parliament or external body we need to be compliant with and why we
are not compliant currently.
Type of Project
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Small project: service improvement/enhancement involving small change(s) to existing architecture,
e.g. additional fields, or small changes to processes e.g. additional alternatives. No business-critical
deadline
Medium project: core (or critical) service improvement/enhancement, involving small/medium
change(s) to the system architecture, e.g. implementation of additional functionality or additional
complexity of process; and/or requires some integration. There would usually be a business-critical
deadline and extensive testing would be necessary.
Large/New service project: defined as substantial change, a high integration requirement or the
creation of a new service - and/or anything larger-scale than the above. Often requires capital
expenditure (CAPEX) with procurement of software or services from external sources.
Even if you can completely fund a project the panel will want to be satisfied that
 There are no integration issues that will require resources to be used that are working on other
projects.
 There are no support issues that will require input from ITS once the system is implemented.
 The project does not duplicate the work of another system we own without a clear reason as to why
this is necessary.