1. Conception

• The idea of a project is born from the identification of a need not covered by the ULB's IT services offer. The conception phase aims to examine the relevance of a technical response to the identified need:

  • low return on investment (ROI) 👉 prefer the implementation of an organisational solution;

  • high return on investment (ROI) 👉 conduct a high-level needs analysis and formally introduce an IT request;

• The request is processed by the IT Demand Mgmt Committee;
• If it is categorised as a project or micro-project, the PMO assigns a project_id which formalises the registration of the project request in the institutional project portfolio;
• The applicant/future Project Leader is then invited to present the outline of the project or micro-project to the IT Project Framing Committee, which assesses the ROI and makes recommendations for the organisation of the project;
• The Sponsor/Project Leader, informed of the IT architecture, cybersecurity and governance requirements to be respected within the project, then officially registers the Mandate;

 2. Organisation

The organisation phase starts after validation of the Mandate by the PMO. The Project Leader officially then officially registers the Project Charter, taking care to integrate the recommendations of the IT Project Framing Committee.

The PMO then verifies the availability of the resources necessary for the execution of the project via the Capacity Planning. If there are resource conflicts, the project must go through the prioritization stage by the governance bodies. The PMO must then validate the Project Charter.

If a government procurement is required, a first draft of the specifications is prepared by the Project Leader on the basis of the high-level needs analysis.

The list of stakeholders - including support and operational teams - is narrowed down.

The change management strategy is defined by the Project Leader in collaboration with the Sponsor.

3. Execution

The execution phase is divided into several key steps:

1. The Kick-off meeting;

2. Thorough analysis of needs;

3. where appropriate:

   • finalisation specifications;

   • call for government procurement;

   • external supplier contract;

4. Technical analysis;

5. Design of the solution;

6. Formalization of specifications through BPMN diagrams, Word documents and/or Excel files;

7. Configuration/development of tools;

8. Testing;

9. User documentation (front/back-end);

10. Deployment procedure

This phase is accompanied throughout by communication and change management.

The proper execution of the tasks is checked by the Project Leader (RASCI matrix). The Project Leader reports:

• to the Steering Committee, which monitors the project through the Health Report Card;
• to the PMO, which reports to the governance bodies and, for projects rated A+ or A, defines the project management methodology and ensures close monitoring.

4. Hand-over

The Hand-over phase aims to transfer knowledge and responsibilities from the project team to the teams in charge of the service.

Before the solution goes into production, the project team:

• produces the technical documentation of the implemented solution (architecture diagrams, documented code...);
• upgrade the functional documentation of the solution (BPMN flows, specifications, etc.);
• completes, with the collaboration of the operational team, the ULB Support FAQs and the standard answers for front/back-end users of the solution. It also ensures that this documentation is properly communicated to the business teams concerned;
• helps the support and operational management teams to complete the Knowledge Base and, if necessary, to adapt the central support request form;
• provides "Train the trainer" training;
• presents the solution at the standup meeting of the support team.

This transfer of knowledge is registered by means of the Acceptance Report. It is only after this step that the request to the Change Advisory Board (CAB) to go into production can be examined

5. Closure

The IT Services Catalogue is updated by the Servicing Division.

The project team continues to support the operational team in the early stages of the service. The duration of this support varies according to the size/complexity of the project.

This is followed by a review of the lessons learned.

The official closure of the project is recorded by the PMO in the Institutional Project Portfolio.