Low Risk/Complexity Medium Risk /Complexity High Risk/Complexity
Low total cost, e.g., $1 - <$100K Intermediate total cost, e.g., $100K - <$1M High total cost, $1M+
Incremental effect on goals and objectives of a single department or unit Clear effect on one or more of the business goals of multiple departments or units Effects strategic direction of department or unit, or university-wide goals
Small project team, e.g., 1-4 people Intermediate sized project team, e.g., 5-10 people Large project team, e.g., >10 people
Small number of departments/units, e.g., 1-2 dept's Intermediate number of departments/units, e.g., 3-4 dept's Large number of departments/units, e.g., >4 dept's
Short project, e.g., 1 day - <6 months Average project duration, e.g., >6 months - <24 months Long project duration, e.g., 24+ months
Proven and tested technology, techniques, and procedures Technology is developed but not in widespread use or is new and recently released Leading edge technology still in development, not released
Widely and commonly available Limited availability or still in beta testing In alpha testing
Project team experienced with technology, needs no training Project team only familiar with technology, may need training Project team unfamiliar with technology and needs education and training
Schedule is not fixed and therefore flexible Schedule can tolerate some variation/td> Schedule is fixed and can not be changed
None to a few (1-2) schedule dependencies Several (2-5) schedule dependencies Many (>5) schedule dependencies
No external resources needed Less than 50% of project resources from external sources More than 50% of project resources from external sources
Business analyst collects requirements from most stakeholders. Fairly confident captured all requirements Project lead collects requirements from sample of stakeholders. Fairly confident captured primary requirements Project lead collects requirements from project team and sponsor only. Not confident captured all requirements
No externally mandated requirements Externally mandated requirements outside the project owner organization from department(s) within the university Externally mandated requirements outside the project owner organization and outside the university
Pilot phase, with end user involvement and testing planned Alpha/Beta testing is conducted by a representative group of end users on the developer's side and sometimes by independent team of testing None or developer testing only
Continuous (i.e., for entire project lifecycle) project metrics defined with quantifiable measures Mid-project or only end of project, project metrics defined. Some non-quantifiable measures used, e.g., improved process No project metrics defined or non-quantifiable measures used
No sensitive data, or data does not persist outside of the origin system it was obtained from Data persists outside of the origin system it was obtained from and is encrypted Data persists outside of the origin system it was obtained from without encryption