Purchasing Hierarchy Project: timeline and events

The Purchasing Hierarchy project team is preparing for the user acceptance testing (UAT) phase of the project, which is planned to begin in Hilary term 2026. This is a key opportunity to make sure the system meets the needs of departments across the University before it goes live. 

The project team has already completed extensive internal testing to ensure the system is stable and ready for wider validation. Now, we’re inviting departments to help confirm that the system works well in real-world scenarios. 

We’re looking for volunteers 

We’re inviting expressions of interest from departments to take part in testing the changes to the hierarchy design. We’re aiming for a broad mix of participants, but please note, we may not be able to support every department who is interested in participating.  

If you would like to take part, please complete the registration form by Wednesday 24 September. 

What does user testing involve?  

All participants will be invited to an online user testing briefing session before testing begins. This will cover how to access the system, run the tests, and log your results. 

You’ll be asked to complete the tests within a one- or two-week window, this includes testing for department, divisional roles and central finance roles. The project team will represent central finance within the tests. There will then be another two weeks to allow time for any issues raised to be resolved and retested. 

Each participating department should aim to complete tests across four key roles: 

• Requester 
• Budget Holder 
• Quality Checker 
• Finance Approver 

These roles can be fulfilled by different individuals or by the same person, depending on your department’s setup. We anticipate testing will take up to 4 hours for each participant, possibly longer, depending on the number of scenarios the department would like to test and how many people are involved in the testing from the department.  

Once departmental testing is complete, scenarios will pass through divisional approvers and then to the project team, who will complete the central finance role testing to ensure full testing of the end-to-end processes. 

The project team will be available to support you throughout the process via email or Teams calls. 

What will you be testing? 

There are multiple test scenarios covering various real-world processes, including: 

• Raising different types of requisitions  
• Approval workflows for general ledger and project requisitions 
• Special item handling (e.g. radioactive materials) 
• Amendments and cancellations
• Purchase order generation and approvals 

You can view the full list of scenarios below. You’re welcome to suggest additional scenarios you’d like to test. Just let us know when filling in the relevant section of the registration form.  

Scenario description list

A full list of the planned test scenarios. Please note: this list is subject to change and intended to give you a feed for the extent of the testing required.

1. No self-approved requisitions (where the requester is the approver, the requisition must be approved by another person) 
2. Approver is in multiple approval roles and doesn’t receive multiple notifications 
3. Requisition for a new supplier 
4. Multi-line requisition within a single department, including different cost centres or project 
5. Multi-line requisition across multiple departments  
6. Multi-line requisition with same budget holder across multiple departments 
7. Project-based requisitions and associated approvals 
8. Special items requisitions (radioactive, schedule 5, live animals, human tissue and other controlled items) 
9. High-value requisitions over £125k – divisional approval 
10. Split line distribution across cost centres or project 
11. Add additional approval step 
12. Confirmation requisition 
13. Requisitions using overseas suppliers (foreign currency and zero-rated tax equipment or substances) 
14. Internal trade requisition 
15. Amend requisition not yet approved 
16. Amend partially approved requisition 
17. Approve requisition using user worklist 
18. Reject requisition using user worklist  
19. Delegate approvals and approve 
20. Request more information during approval 
21. Scheduled PO generation 
22. Manual PO generation 
23. Amend PO in Buyer Work Centre 
24. Change the requisition value with PO 
25. Cancel a requisition with PO 
26. Cancel a line in a requisition with PO 

On Thursday 24 July, the project team held a session designed to help support and manage the upcoming changes for Principal Investigators (PIs), who are now being asked to approve requisitions. It covered:

• What’s changing and what PIs will be asked to do
• How to communicate effectively with PIs about their new responsibilities
• Practical examples and tactics to manage resistance and build confidence
• Training options and comms templates available to support your department

Watch a recording of the session

View a pack of resources to help you engage your PIs

Watch a recording of the session

Watch a recording of the session