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Projects

About the Projects Website

The projects web site supports:

  • Communication – keeping stakeholders informed about their projects and the activities within the projects
  • Efficiency - encouraging best practice in the management of projects by providing exemplars, tools and templates
  • Documentation – providing a reliable filing system that is secure and accessible
  • Standardisation – using the tools provided ensures that project information is presented in a familiar and recognisable format

For further information on creating projects or maintaining project information please read the Methodologies or How To sections of this site.

Background

This website is based on project work that IS Applications Division has done with business partners over many years.  The template documents were originally based on ideas in the UK Government’s Prince methodology and real world experience of running business change projects. Templates are regularly updated in line with industry best practice and feedback from project managers and stakeholders. 

The site is intended to provide a flexible rather than a prescriptive approach to project management.  All the templates are provided in editable formats so it is easy to modify them for your particular needs. Project Managers can also add or remove templates as appropriate to their needs.

If you find it useful to modify the templates it is possible that other Project Managers with similar project content might benefit from your changes. We would ask you to Feedback your ideas so that we can incorporate them into the site for others to share.

Accounts and Security

All staff can maintain their project information on this site.  In the interests of Freedom of Information (FOI) documents published on this site will be by default open to anyone.  Staff therefore must ensure that any sensitive data, including information about identifiable individuals, is placed in the restricted area of the site.  Please see the Records Management Section Website for further guidance.  Only authorised users are allowed to create or update documents

Experience with previous versions of the projects website has indicated that the following security model is appropriate for most projects:

  • a security group for Editors who have read and update access to all projects on the site
  • a security group for Viewers who have read access to all documents on the site including those in restricted areas.

The advantage of this simple security model is that it is easy to operate and it gives adequate levels of security for the majority of projects. In exceptional circumstances it may be appropriate to establish an independent security group within a section of the programme web site. That is, security can be set at the level of the business area, programme or individual project, for both editing and reading secure documents. If you wish to discuss the security requirements for your particular project or programme please contact apps-projects@lists.ed.ac.uk in the first instance.