FAQ

BTO focuses on the future state and achieving the vision of the university through transformation with these services:

• Communication
• Facilitation
• Assessments
• Business Systems Analysis
• Senior-level Project Management
• Executive Engagement
• Transparency
• Ownership
• Accountability
• Collaboration

Transformation usually affects everyone within an organization and, while existing PMOs are vital for the delivery of programs and projects, a Transformation Office enables the organization to establish a mandate for transformation and the ability to determine the highest priorities when it comes to implementing and effecting change. 

UCI BTO reports directly to the Provost and supports campus-wide projects promoting organizational change. 

Transformation is not only the way to deliver value, but also to accelerate the rate of decision making and execution within the university, as the start of a never-ending journey to continued excellence. 

The key focus areas of the Business Transformation Office are: 

• Executive level engagement, ownership, transparency and accountability for transformation delivery 
• Tactical short interval review of valuation, gating and progress to benefits realization 
• Maintaining accelerated momentum: clearing roadblocks and enabling opportunities to improve speed to value

• High-visibility projects that affect the entire campus
• Large projects
• Centrally funded projects
• Collaborative projects involving multiple units
• Projects designated by the Provost
• Add the areas from the scorecard
• Project governance
• Centralization of decision making and governance.
• Having an oversight governing body with decision-making capability.
• Prioritization of projects from a financial and governance perspective
• Provide enhanced risk reduction and mitigation

• BTO provides many services above and beyond project management
• BTO is centrally funded by the Provost and does not normally chargeback to the unit
• BTO lets you sleep at night because you don’t need to worry about your project
• Breaking through silos to create cross-unit collaboration and a connected campus
• Standardized project management processes and tools

• Improve project success
• Cost effectiveness and ROI
• High quality project results
• Increase collaboration between departments
• Facilitate projects affecting multiple departments
• Improve cross-campus communications
• Increase awareness of campus-wide initiatives

• Analyzes current business processes to make recommendations for improvements using industry standards and professional business knowledge
• Works with department to understand their unique needs
• Problem solving by understanding the current processes in place and identifying areas for improvement
• Improves communication to engage with others in a productive environment
• Engages in Technical Systems Analysis to examine current systems and identify improvements or enhancements
• Project team recommendation
• Analysis and development of business operations
• Business process documentation; including wireframes and standard BA deliverables

Centralized governance allows for clearer and more timely communication, which helps with properly setting (and updating) stakeholder expectations — this includes improved change management to address any scope/schedule/cost changes. BTO improves project visibility and prioritization (against other competing priorities), leading to more realistic, objective project goals.

Centralized governance and project insight: assigned PMs report to BTO ensuring individual project, as well as portfolio and program level performance metrics, are standardized, consistent, and directly visible. This allows for effective and efficient management — and resolution — of project risks and issues, improving the likelihood of the project team achieving project goals. Additionally, the director of BTO also chairs recurring meetings with key stakeholders across campus.