In 2025, as the University of Southern Queensland navigated a sweeping organisational restructure marked by redundancies, resignations, reclassifications and widespread uncertainty, a critical Academic Workload Model review was reaching implementation stage.

The legacy system was no longer fit for purpose, its original builders had departed, and a new digital home had to be found. With just three months to go-live, a small project team was formed to take on the challenge of building the solution within the University’s Service Management platform. The team comprised a developer brand new to the model and subject matter experts facing imminent redundancies and role changes. Roles began to shift in real time, decision-making roles didn’t exist or hadn’t been filled yet, and ownership of the model remained unclear. Despite this, design, configuration and testing had to continue at pace as deadlines drew nearer.

This presentation explores how we delivered a high-impact institutional solution in the eye of the storm: where we succeeded, where we could have done better but more importantly, where the organisation failed to notice risk. This is a cautionary tale of what large-scale change can overlook and a reminder that goodwill is not a governance strategy.