Hi Rob,
There's two tracks to this, how it works out the box and how it could be used.
Out the box:
From what I understand this flag when combined with the idea review process allows the idea to skip the review stage and go straight to approved and converted. (see image below)
As far as I can see that is its purpose and isn't bedded into the product in terms of any other business logic.
I imagine if you tried to use this process as is, users would just take the easiest route and always set it to fast track.
Thus as is, could be a little dangerous especially if simply having a active project code allows spend.
Generally you'd want to add constraints i.e. pre-approval added for fast track or "under $50k it's ok".
Plenty of ways to make this slicker and safer.
Real world example:
Looking at it from a governance view, if you approve projects on a monthly/annual basis you could use this flag and a process to manage project initiations trying to skip the normal business process due to time constraints on delivery.
You'd use it to get it reviewed asap, to ensure resourcing and funding is available sooner.
It also gives you a chance to adjust the portfolio proactively if needed
I used to help run the project initiation and we always had urgent projects needing start up sooner. We couldn't get everyone together more than once a month so we'd just email the business case out to get confirmation on resource and yes/no from the business groups. At the next meeting, we'd review the impact further and work out funding gaps.
Inspired by that here's a simple example
- submissions via ideas, review portfolio in a monthly meeting and approve/reject new
- If idea submitted with "fast track" selected then email portfolio manager(s) to review and approve/reject now.
- otherwise do nothing (wait till monthly meeting)
- fast track ideas shown in monthly meeting (what was the impact to portfolio, what do we now need to stop, resource capacity etc)
We can take that simple process much further, but I hope it's enough to illustrate a use case.
Idea review process for reference