The TerpEngage team is small and dedicated, serving the entire UMD community while consistently working to achieve the university's strategic goals. They have designed the CRM project intake and prioritization process to create a sustainable system that supports and enables the completion of minor projects (i.e., quick wins), including functional change requests and/or enhancements. This approach helps the TerpEngage team increase transparency with stakeholders and prevents software systems from becoming outdated or unusable due to technological progress.
Through this planning process, available TerpEngage staff, including developers, administrators, project managers, business analysts, and consultants, will be dedicated to delivering quick wins. Resources, time, and effort will be allocated before project development begins; however, please remember that unrelated tasks and unforeseen circumstances may impact TerpEngage's availability. To manage workload capacity and delivery rates, the TerpEngage team will prioritize intake requests, backlogged work, and deliverables on a quarterly basis.
*Please note that this process applies to CRM project requests. For information about the Marketing Cloud project intake process, please visit the Marketing Cloud Landing Page or email mc-support@umd.edu for more details.
Submit a Project Request
CRM Quarterly Planning Schedule
The Process: How it works
Each step of the project intake and prioritization process will require collaborative efforts among the TerpEngage team and respective business units. During the initial stages of this process, representatives from the TerpEngage team will rely on communication and feedback from the stakeholders in order to complete the following:
- Review the project backlog and Project Intake submissions
- Provide business units with their list of known projects
- Communicate with business units to understand their prioritized list of projects
- Complete enhancement prioritization rankings with consideration of available resources
Phase 1: Submit a Request
- Any UMD staff member may submit a request for a minor project or enhancement.
- Requests must be submitted via the Project Intake Form.
Phase 2: Project Intake and Review
- The TerpEngage team will schedule a meeting with the relevant stakeholders in the quarter before the expected project delivery.
- The TerpEngage Director, developers, administrators, project managers, and analysts will review and confirm the initial requirements, as well as the current and desired future states of the stakeholder's business process(es).
- The TerpEngage team may request additional information or clarification from the stakeholder if needed.
- With the confirmed project requirements and details documented, the project request will undergo a prioritization assessment, where it will be ranked based on criteria such as the anticipated level of developer effort, the project's impact and alignment with university and departmental vision and values, its return on investment (ROI), and the urgency of the project's completion.
- The ranking will fall into one of the four following categories:
Phase 3: Stakeholder Feedback and University-Wide Prioritization
- On a quarterly basis, the TerpEngage team will consolidate and organize all submitted project requests, including those that may have previously been backlogged, and sort them into lists by respective business units.
- Each stakeholder will receive a copy of their respective list and will be asked to review and confirm their understanding of their prioritized projects.
- Stakeholders will have the opportunity to suggest re-prioritization of their projects and to inform the TerpEngage team of urgent or unplanned circumstances.
- After receiving input and confirmation from all stakeholders, the TerpEngage team will determine which projects will be initiated in the upcoming quarter and provide units with a roadmap to establish delivery expectations.
- TerpEngage and the Business Unit will create and sign a project charter to confirm anticipated deliverables.
Phase 4: Project Development and Delivery
- Minor projects and enhancements will follow the established project charters and TerpEngage processes.
- The TerpEngage team will aim to complete work within the anticipated delivery timeframe.
- Minor projects and enhancements are planned to be completed sequentially, based on the prioritized list, unless resources are available to accomplish multiple projects simultaneously.
- Ongoing stakeholder communication and feedback may be required, based on the direction of the project delivery.