New ITS Prioritization Process

In the interest of continuous improvement, ITS seeks to establish a process that ensures the work prioritized each month is both achievable and aligned with organizational goals. To accomplish this, Becky has determined the best approach is to directly involve the developers in the monthly project and prioritization process.

How it will work:

• At the end of each month, Becky and her development team will meet to review all requests the Office of the Registrar has requested for prioritization.
• For each issue, they will assign story points, which represent the estimated amount of development and testing effort required.
• They will look at all issues holistically, considering story points, existing bugs, unfinished work from the previous sprint, and ongoing projects, to determine what can realistically be completed in the upcoming month.
• Items that are prioritized will be moved into a monthly Sprint, labeled by month (e.g., 2025.11).

What does this mean for our office?

• We must continue be strategic when thinking about the prioritization of our requests.
• If you have a need with an upcoming deadline, create a Jira request or bug in the Registrar Project Management (REGISTRAR) project with all required information (defined below). 
  • Requests will not be prioritized until all required information is included.
• Reach out to Jessica and Sara to alert us of the issue, and explain the impact and deadlines.
• Jessica and Sara will classify prioritized requests with a new fix version called “Next Sprint – Registrar Request” or  “Next Sprint – uAchieve Request”.  

Required Information for Prioritization

• Priority (Blocker, Very High, High, Medium, Low)
• Requests may be repriortized in the next sprint when comparing needs across the office
• Urgency: Add notes in Description field to explain impact and timeline to production
• Screenshots or mock-ups (with alt text)
• Examples (student IDs, course, etc.) for testing so developers can test before moving back to us for further testing
• Navigation – URL/path/ “breadcrumbs” to issue
• Link to recent related/similar Jiras

Priority Guidelines

Very High Priority

Must-do items that are urgent, broadly impactful, and often tied to external requirements.

Consider when:

• There’s a regulatory or compliance deadline.
• Affects all or most students in critical ways.
• Significantly reduces staff workload or eliminates manual processes.
• ITS is already engaged or coordination is critical.
• Major inefficiencies or errors are present.

High Priority

Important initiatives that improve operations or student experience, but may not be urgent.

Consider when:

• Strong policy driver or internal deadline.
• Broad impact (e.g., college or department level).
• Moderate staff time savings or improved accuracy.

Medium Priority

Useful enhancements or fixes that can wait or be bundled with other work.

Consider when:

• No external pressure but aligns with best practices.
• Limited impact to small groups.
• Modest time savings or incremental improvement.

Low Priority

Nice-to-have items or ideas that may not justify the effort right now.

Consider when:

• No compliance or policy driver.
• Minimal or unclear impact.
• Little time saved or few users benefit.
• Cosmetic or marginal improvement.

Project Updates