Recorded May 15, 2026

This episode of On Topic gets into the glamorous, soul-polishing world of how AV projects actually begin, which is apparently somewhere between a formal intake form, a support ticket that got out of hand, a hallway ambush, and someone discovering the room needs power, asbestos abatement, and lots of opinions.

The panel compares how different campuses define and initiate projects, from TeamDynamix and ServiceNow workflows to informal emails, consultation requests, facilities handoffs, and the dreaded "this was supposed to be a simple fix" scenario. A big theme is the messy boundary between support ticket, request, incident, problem, and project, especially when aging systems, construction needs, or money get involved.

They also get into the joys and failures of project management platforms, Project, Planner, Smartsheet, TeamDynamix, ServiceNow, and the eternal higher-ed struggle of trying to force real work, real communication, and real accountability into software that was clearly designed by people who have never been asked do any of that.

In short: projects should start with clear scope, timelines, goals, funding, stakeholders, and process. In reality, they start with an email that says, "quick question," and end with everyone arguing over whether it was ever a project in the first place.

Alternate show titles:

Is this directed to me?
Wow, that's big!
I don't touch tickets
What if I email you?
Hey, we're going to do this thing
We'll have the meeting eventually
Facilities doesn't do power
Requires a state employee to inspect the electrician
We get requests every which way from Sunday
We want to drive everybody to a ticket
Rapid fire from wherever-the-hell-it-came-from
That means it's approved and no one wants to do that sh*t
I don't do projects, I do stories and epics

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