Project Approval System
Manage Project Approvals and Project Intake in One System
Project approval systems use standardized, smart project intake forms, intelligent routing based on business rules, and create approval tasks for project stakeholders to validate projects that impact an organization financially and strategically. These systems can also include value-based approval criteria, calculate viability scores, provide audit trails, and more.
Without the proper safeguards in place, potentially risky and/or expensive projects can cause lasting harm to an organization. Using emails, spreadsheets, paper forms, instant messaging, informal one-on-one meetings, etc. doesn't provide the proper guardrails and oversight necessary to ensure projects are properly vetted prior to kickoff.
Designing a project approval process, creating project plan templates, establishing project intake, developing project request forms, assigning a risk team, creating business rules (e.g. if the project is greater than $50k, escalate to VP), developing a project scorecard, laying out an approval matrix, and determining final approval steps are all critical for reducing project risk and ensuring the best possible outcomes within set deadlines.
Managing project approvals with email, spreadsheets (even the latest online spreadsheet software), or software that's ill-equipped to handle project requests and approvals, scoring, and routing is inefficient and risky. Requests for projects can be improperly approved, fail to provide critical details, become lost, etc.
Automating the request process with workflow automation software has many benefits:
One key communication is how project management leaders and project team members will know if it's appropriate to submit something as a potential project. How does your organization define a project?
Example
When a project is requested, what is the review and approval process? Here are some items to consider that might save time before drawing out the process (if necessary) using a process or flowchart illustration tool:
You want to get as much information about the project upfront as possible in the project request form without overburdening the requester with unnecessary questions. Here are some examples of project details to gather at the outset:
When approvers are reviewing potential projects they need a methodology for making a decision. This will obviously be unique to the type of project and the organization but, generally, the methodology or formula should factor in the return on investment, payback period, strategic importance, competitive advantage, etc.
The accepted methodology should be part of the request process where either the requester or someone up the chain is assessing the project for these components, usually numerically. Often each component is assigned a rating and then the rating is totaled. Additionally, return and budget numbers are included as part of the analysis.
Approvers can now evaluate the request intelligently and either move the project forward, return the request for additional or corrected information, or simply reject it.
The project request portal is where users go to submit project requests and track existing requests. Managers also use the portal to manage their approval tasks and collaborate with users and other managers regarding specific projects. The portal also houses analytics information to check the performance of the approval process and identify bottlenecks, track against SLAs, look for trends, and see aggregate data on all projects.
We have a variety of resources to help you on your journey to an automated workflow.
To see how quickly you can begin automating your processes, request a demonstration or trial of Integrify.
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