With the development of the Project Delivery Guide, the Department of Capital Project Delivery has established standards for project governance that allow for consistent, repeatable, predictable decision‐making processes. Projects will be organized into three categories and governed accordingly:
- Projects with approved budgets greater than $25 Million
- Projects with approved budgets between $3 Million and $25 Million
- Projects with approved budgets of less than $3 Million
- For a complete summary of project governance
Each category of project will be subject to a different Project Governance structure. All projects with a value greater than $3 Million (Large Projects) will be governed at the project level by a Steering Committee, chaired by a Co-Executive Sponsor, while projects with a value less than $3 Million (Small Projects) will not require a Steering Committee or a project‐level Executive Sponsor.
The following notable differences occur on projects at different governance thresholds:
- All projects greater than $3 Million are governed at the highest level by the Board of Trustees
- Projects greater than $25 Million receive oversight from two Trustee committees – the Financial Planning Committee (FPC) and the Institutional Capacity Committee (ICC)
- Projects greater than $25 Million are also reviewed by the Board Subcommittee of Capital Projects before Board of Trustees approval.
- All Projects greater than $3 Million require a Steering Committee and co-Executive Sponsors
- Projects less than $3 Million are governed at their highest level by the Provost and Vice-President of Operations, with FPC providing Fiscal Year project approvals. Steering Committees are not required.
For all projects featuring a Steering Committee, the Steering Committee will be led by co-Executive Sponsors representing the Provost or their designated representative and Vice-President of Operations or their designated representative. All Steering Committees will include representatives from Facilities Services, the Vice President for Operations Office, the Provost’s office, and the chair of the User Group, in addition to members designated by the Executive Sponsor. Similarities between projects above and below the $3 Million threshold are:
- All projects fall under the purview of the Subcommittee of Capital Projects. The Capital Projects Committee reviews and provides feedback on projects prior to approval presentations to the President and Board of Trustees.
- All projects include a User Group, which partners with the Capital Project Delivery project manager to provide project leadership. On smaller projects, the User Group may include only one individual, who is by default the chair representing the group.
- On all projects, the external consultants, design teams, and contractors are supervised by the CPD project manager, who is responsible to work with University stakeholders to understand and communicate decisions and direction to external consultants, architects, and contractors, and to filter input from University Technical Groups to ensure that criteria provided to external vendors can be accommodated within project budgets.
- All overseas projects should consider local project management in addition to UChicago management. Refer to the University's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Policy.
The differences in Project Governance structure between the three project categories are illustrated graphically on the following pages.