ISG Interns Complete Key Internal Projects

Project management interns provided support and gudiance for the Applications Directorate

The University’s Information Services Group (ISG) hired two project management interns to support business process improvement within the Applications Directorate. In particular, the two projects focused on creating internal guidance within Project Services for conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) as well as reviewing the current Weekly Inter-Sectional (WIS) meeting processes.

Previously, the Applications Directorate lacked succinct, clear and transferrable templates and guidance on UAT that were accessible to everyone. This summer, intern Iona Roy conducted stakeholder outreach with Business Analysts and Developers and analysed existing documentation to identify requirements and current gaps in guidance. Following the analysis a cohesive set of UAT guidance and templates were developed and published on the InSite Wiki, available to all. The Wiki page includes multiple UAT templates, depending on the level of complexity, and accompanying guidance for how to use each template.

“I really enjoyed my internship and my time working with ISG. I felt like my work was varied and I learned a lot. Everyone was very supportive,” said Iona. 

Additionally, the Applications Directorate conducts recurring, operationally focused WIS meetings to review service issues and matters affecting staff and provide quality assurance support for programmes and projects that impact the Directorate staff, services or financial resources. WIS is currently attended by section heads of Development, Production, Projects and Service Management. WIS meeting notes are published each week and shared with all Directorate staff. The project management intern on this assignment, Amy Harley, focused on gathering and understanding stakeholder feedback – by means of a questionnaire and discussion groups – on the current WIS process. The analysis was used to create a findings report and offer six recommendations with associated actions to improve the WIS process, based on the findings. The recommended changes will be implemented as approved by the steering group.