Project Demands & Project Requests

Creating a Project Request	Attaching Documents to a Project Request
Managing and Reviewing Project Requests	Reviewing and Evaluating Project Requests
Promoting (Converting) a Project Request into a Project

 

Introduction 

Many companies face the challenge of having to deal with high volumes of project ideas either in progress or on hold, making it difficult to manage priorities.

It is imperative to tackle each problem at the root and to sort and define priorities right from the ideation stage.

Geniusproject's demand management capabilities allow you to collect and organize these project ideas and offer you the tools to better define priorities using ranking criteria.

In Geniusproject’s [Demand Management] module, project requests can be tracked and managed by allowing you to:

• Streamline the collection of new work and project requests.
• Provide a thorough and documented review process.
• Establish common criteria for incoming requests and simplify the ability to make a choice.
• Collect, track and review all requests through a central repository.
• Define common metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs) and risk factors for evaluating performance.

Using Geniusproject’s process management tools, companies can design unique request, approval and tracking workflows to capture specific information and standardize the collection of new project requests or ideas across departments or even the entire organization.

Geniusproject’s Project Requests module allows users to manage the project pipeline and prioritize projects according to strategic alignment and constraints.

A project request is a way of recording an idea or an opportunity that could, one day, become a project, so it is not lost. The form is very simple and can be very easily converted into a project at any time or integrated as part of a workflow. 

 

Creating a Project Request

To create a new project request:

• Navigate to the [Project requests] tab on the Module navigation menu.
• Select "New request" from the contextual navigation menu.

• A new Project Request form will be displayed.

 

Header	Project request	Enter the detailed name of the request. This field will be used as the project name when promoting the idea. Mandatory.
	Responsible	The person submitting the request or currently in charge of the request according to the workflow. Please note that, when the project request is created, Geniusproject automatically fills the Responsible field with the current logged on person’s ID, the version number is set to "1" and the creation date is the current date.
	Status	The current status of the request according to the workflow. The default status will be defined by the workflow and the request will be assigned to the appropriate person.
	Action	The action button used to change the current status of the request according to the workflow.
	Deadline	Indicates whether the request is delayed according to the workflow. Green = OK and Red = Not OK.
	Modified	Creation date or the date of the last modification to the document.
Project Request Tab	Where you define the goal and time range of the project request.
	Objective	Enter The objectives of the newly proposed project.
	Planned start date	Enter the expected start date of the project if the request were to be approved and promoted to a project.
	Planned end date	Enter the expected end date of the project if the request were to be approved and promoted to a project.
	Rich text	Detailed description of the project request.
Participants Tab	You can assign a project (request) manager as well an internal and external team. You can assign live or generic resources to the project request.
	Project leader	Select from the Resource list.
	Internal Project team	Select from the Resource list.
	External Project team	Select from the Resource list.
Classification Tab	Classify your request on the [Classification] tab. Here you will find up to 14 single or multi-value classification fields, depending on your setup. These classification groups are very helpful for reporting purposes. Only 4 of them are static fields in Geniusproject: Type, Customer and Priority.
	Type	Select the type of request. The list of available options is defined in the setup.
	Customer	Select the customer associated to the request (if there is one).
	Priority	Select the priority of request. The list of available options is defined in the setup.
	…….	Any other classification according to setup.
Critical Success Factors Tab	The critical success factors section allows you to define how important and aligned a request is with your business as well as document any potential risks.
	Budget	This information comes from a budget document created separately.
	ROI	Enter expected return on investment for the project.
	Workload	This information comes from a budget document created separately.
	Project Ranking	This is a computed field. The value is computed using the weight and values of all of the critical success factors listed below. See: "Define critical success factors" and "Project ranking calculation" in the setup section. The higher the value the more important the project is for your organization.
	Critical success factors (up to 10 fields)	Enter value according to critical success factors defined by your administrator. See Define critical success factors and project ranking calculation in the setup section.
Attachment Tab	To attach any necessary documents relevant to the project request.

 

 

Attaching Documents to a Project Request

As with all other forms in Geniusproject, it is possible to attach one or several files to a project request on the [Attachment] tab.

 

To attach a file to a project request:

• Navigate to the Attachment tab labeled with the  icon.
• Click on the "Choose File" button to browse through your files and folders and select a file.
• Repeat these steps for each file you would like to attach to the form. 

 

Managing and Reviewing Project Requests

Depending on the workflow definition, each project request will follow a review and approval process. Different views are available to track project requests, such as the "My requests" view, designed to track the status of your personal requests.

 

To change the status of a request that is assigned to you:

• Open the project request in edit mode.
• Click the Action button to change the status.

• Select the new status in the dialog box. Depending on the workflow definition, it could be required to include a comment in the dialog box. The workflow could also require that you approve or refuse the document for the next status.

Throughout the review cycle of the project request, the different stakeholders can modify or complete the request, depending on the workflow.

Geniusproject also offers tools to evaluate the different requests and choose the best ones.

In order to compare requests, it is important to have reliable, standardized data available for each of them. However, each organization has its own strategies and constraints. To accommodate these differences, Geniusproject allows organizations to define their own evaluation criteria for project requests and projects.

See "Define critical success factors" in the ADMIN guide to learn how to define critical success factors definition.

To facilitate the comparison of these requests, they are ranked using the value or score that has been determined for them by measuring their critical success factors; the higher the score the more valuable the project or idea.

The Critical success factors tab contains the request data used to calculate the project or idea’s value. In the Budget & ROI section are fields to capture "Budget", "ROI", "Workload" and "Risk factor".

In the Project Ranking section are fields to capture "Risk", "Funding", "Duration" and "Complexity".

Geniusproject provides you with views and charts designed to help users compare the different project requests and make the best choices.

The bubble charts are very popular to compare requests using three different criteria. The criteria used can be changed simply by clicking on the dropdown list and selecting from the options.

 

 

Promoting (Converting) a Project Request into a Project

Once a request has gone through the defined approval/revision workflow for project requests, it can be promoted from its approved state into a new project.

It is specified in the definition of the Project Request workflow, who can promote a request to a project and which status it can be promoted from. 

To promote an approved project request to a project:

• Click Actions and select Promote into project.

Since it is possible to manage multiple project environments using Geniusproject , users will be prompted to specify which database the request is being promoted into.

• Select the correct "Projects" database.

• Next specify whether to use a template for the new project.
• If not using a template, leave the field blank and click OK.

Geniusproject will automatically launch the new project description document for this new project. See: Create a project to learn more about the Project Description form.