Demand Intake
Demand Intake is ProBeya's project request management portal. It provides a structured pipeline for submitting, reviewing, scoring, approving, and converting project ideas into funded projects. With built-in business case templates, status workflows, and pipeline analytics, it ensures that every project starts with proper justification and governance.
Overview
Without a formal intake process, organizations end up with too many projects, no clear prioritization, and resources spread too thin. Demand Intake solves this by:
- Providing a structured submission form with business justification requirements
- Enforcing a status workflow with defined transitions (draft → submitted → in review → approved/rejected)
- Supporting quick scoring for rapid prioritization
- Enabling conversion to project once a demand request is approved
- Tracking the pipeline with analytics for demand volume and throughput
Getting Started
- Navigate to Demand Intake from the PPM menu.
- Click + New Request to create a demand request.
- Fill in the title, description, business justification, and estimated budget/duration.
- Save as draft, then Submit when ready for review.
- A reviewer picks up the request, scores it, and moves it to approved or rejected.
How It Works
Demand Request Lifecycle
Each request follows a strict status workflow with validated transitions:
draft → submitted → in_review → approved → converted
└→ rejected
└→ withdrawn (by requester, from draft or submitted)
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being authored by the requester, editable |
| Submitted | Formally submitted for review, no longer editable |
| In Review | A reviewer has picked up the request |
| Approved | Accepted for funding and project creation |
| Rejected | Declined with a rejection reason |
| Withdrawn | Voluntarily pulled back by the requester |
| Converted | Successfully converted into a PPM project |
Request Fields
| Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Short name for the request | Yes (for submission) |
| Description | Detailed description of what is being requested | Yes (for submission) |
| Request Type | Category of demand (e.g., new project, enhancement, compliance) | Yes |
| Business Justification | Why this project should be funded | Yes (for submission) |
| Estimated Budget | Approximate cost in the organization's currency | No |
| Estimated Duration | Expected timeline description | No |
| Urgency | Priority level of the request | No |
| Strategic Objective | Link to the strategic objective this supports | No |
| Tags | Classification tags for filtering | No |
| Custom Fields | Organization-defined additional fields (JSONB) | No |
Submission Validation
Before a request can transition from "draft" to "submitted", three fields must be completed: title, description, and business justification. This ensures that no request enters the review pipeline without minimum context.
Review and Approval
Reviewers can:
- Start Review: claim the request and begin evaluation
- Approve: accept the request for project creation
- Reject: decline with a mandatory rejection reason
Each action records who performed it and when, creating a full audit trail of the approval decision.
Withdrawal
The original requester can withdraw their request at any time before it is approved or rejected. Withdrawal is only allowed from draft or submitted status.
Quick Scoring
The quick scoring feature enables rapid assessment of demand requests using customizable criteria. Scores help prioritize requests during portfolio review meetings.
Batch Actions
Perform bulk operations on multiple requests simultaneously — useful during pipeline review sessions where multiple requests need to be approved or rejected at once.
Business Case Templates
Create reusable templates that standardize the business case format across the organization:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Template name |
| Description | What this template is for |
| Sections | Ordered list of business case sections |
| Is Default | Whether this template is pre-selected for new requests |
Templates ensure that every business case covers the same evaluation criteria, making comparison and scoring consistent.
Attachments and Comments
Each demand request supports:
- Attachments: supporting documents, spreadsheets, or presentations
- Comments: threaded discussion for reviewers and requesters to collaborate
Pipeline Analytics
The analytics endpoint provides aggregate views of the demand pipeline:
- Volume of requests by status
- Average time in each status
- Conversion rate (approved / total submitted)
- Demand by type and urgency
Configuration
Status Transitions
Transitions are enforced server-side. The system validates that any status change follows the allowed transition map. Attempting an invalid transition (e.g., directly from "draft" to "approved") returns an error.
Custom Fields
Organizations can define additional fields via the customFields JSONB column. This allows adapting the intake form to industry-specific requirements without schema changes.
Permissions
- Any Member can create and submit demand requests
- Reviewers (designated role) can start reviews, approve, and reject requests
- PMO Managers can manage business case templates and view pipeline analytics
- Organization Admins have full access to all demand management features
Tips & Best Practices
Require business justification before submission. Requests without clear justification waste reviewer time and clog the pipeline. The mandatory field enforcement prevents this.
Use quick scoring in portfolio review meetings to rapidly stack-rank 20-30 requests. Score on strategic alignment, ROI, and urgency to produce a defensible priority list.
Review pipeline analytics monthly to track demand throughput. If the average time in "submitted" status is growing, you may need more reviewers or a faster review cadence.
Related Features
- Portfolio — view approved and converted projects in the portfolio dashboard
- AI Intelligence — use bootstrap templates when converting approved demands to projects
- PM Standards — apply governance frameworks to converted projects