Facilitators of UMSN: Joel Scharboneau

At the University of Michigan School of Nursing we believe that success is a collective endeavor. We celebrate the unique talent and drive that propels our students and faculty to achieve as scholars as we recognize the skilled network of staff who support them along the way.

"Facilitators of UMSN" is a series that will spotlight some of the 118 staff members at UMSN who use their expertise to help members of the UMSN community work toward their goals as scholars, educators, and nurses. We hope you learn more about these talented and dedicated people through this series. 

UMSN Facilitator: Joel Scharboneau

Project intermediate manager

Hometown: Trenton, MI

Joined UMSN in November 2014

The Project Management Office was created winter 2017, so it is still relatively new. How do you describe the main goal of the office?

The main goal is to provide project management and business analysis service for school-wide projects. We will also provide tools to support administrative processes and dashboards to display all types of information.

How does the PMO contribute to the overall goals of the school?

In partnership with many departments, PMO contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of our school through process improvement. We hope to promote our brand by providing information and tools for the school and to show the school’s strengths.

How do you describe your job?

I’m a project manager. My job is to take in project requests to our office, assess the scope and size, and then manage those projects through their entire life. This often includes requirements analysis, designing and developing with our programmer, testing, and finally implementing the final product.  

Is there a cycle to your work, or is it pretty consistent?

It will be cyclical in the sense that most projects should follow the same key steps, but at the same time every project is on a different timeline and has a different scope.

What are your most pressing projects right now?

Speaking for myself, not PMO as a whole, the first is creating the Project Management System. This is a web application and database that can be used to submit requests as well as track, manage, and report on projects. This will allow projects to be submitted in a formal way and will eventually be available to all faculty and staff.

Another big project I am working on is the Grants Management System. We are creating another web application that will help us more efficiently track and report on all of our research grants. The system will use data from current university systems but will allow us to customize reporting to our own specific needs.

Who do you work with most outside of the Project Management Office?

Right now, the Grants and Research Office, and Admissions and Records. I have created dashboards using student and research data so that information related to those offices can be distributed more widely across the school.  

[The Data and Dashboards webpage provides data about UMSN for faculty and staff.]

What do you like most about your job?

I really enjoy process improvement, so I like the fact that I can work with subject matter experts within the school to find process improvement opportunities.

My job enables me to be involved in so many different areas of the school. I really enjoy getting knowledge of different areas and a broader view of the school as a whole.