Business Project Intake Workflow Checklist Template

I have seen intake checklists grow until completing one became a small project. The template asked for architecture, budget, benefits, risks, milestones, and a launch date before anyone had confirmed who was stuck.

That is not an intake checklist. It is a project plan wearing a false mustache.

A useful business project intake workflow checklist protects six things: one door, a minimum story, useful questions, a visible capacity check, a recorded decision, and a clean handoff.

Submission checklist

• One official channel accepts every new request.
• The person closest to the problem can submit without a translator.
• Email, chat, and meetings may point to the record but do not replace it.
• The requester receives confirmation and can see the next review step.
• Leaders follow the same submission rule as everyone else.

One organization that had a mandatory portal and an unofficial executive spreadsheet. The portal was governance. The spreadsheet was power. Everyone learned which one mattered.

Minimum viable data checklist

• What happens today is written in plain English.
• The people affected are named as roles or groups.
• The cost, delay, error, risk, or frustration is concrete.
• A better outcome is described without requiring a solution.
• A reachable owner can answer follow-up questions.
• Timing constraints are reasons, not invented dates.

If those facts are missing, return the request with the exact question. Do not reject it with “insufficient detail.” That phrase makes the requester guess which ceremony word you wanted.

Use requirements gathering software to keep questions and answers beside the original story. Do not rewrite the witness into a cleaner ticket.

Triage and capacity checklist

• Duplicate and overlapping demand is identified.
• Strategic alignment is connected to a named objective.
• Operational or customer impact is compared consistently.
• External deadlines and irreversible harm are separated from preference.
• Technical and business capacity are both estimated.
• The reviewer states what other work would move.

A score can organize the conversation. It cannot own it. If the weighted formula says 8.42, a person still chose the weights and a person still has to say no.

Decision and handoff checklist

• The request receives a recorded yes, no, or not yet.
• The reason and decision owner remain attached.
• A not-yet decision names the condition for review.
• Approved work has a bounded first release.
• Delivery receives the original story, questions, estimates, and decision.
• Success is checked against the changed workweek after release.

Put the request into software project intake before delivery creates its own version. A ticket can organize work. It should not become the only surviving memory of why the work exists.

Rollout checklist

• Executives demonstrate the new path with real requests.
• Stakeholders practice using live examples, not a slide deck.
• Review timing and escalation rules are published.
• Work entering delivery outside intake is measured.
• Returned requests are tracked by missing fact.
• The process is adjusted when the official path creates a new bypass.

Download the free Project Intake Evaluation Worksheet for a printable version you can use without an email gate. It includes space to score your current workflow and name the first repair.

The larger repair sequence is in how to fix a broken business project intake process. This checklist stays useful only after the organization agrees which door and decision record are real.

The checklist is working when it makes the path shorter and the decision clearer. If it creates a new specialist whose job is helping people complete the checklist, remove a page.