Weekly Update for the Week of 2/18/2013

Student IDP Sessions Illustrate Scale of Change, Flexibility of Process

The Student work stream finished its second week of Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP) sessions, and thus far, the process has proven to be flexible enough to address significantly different business needs of the different PeopleSoft modules.

During week one of IDP sessions, for example, the Student Records group began by mapping a high-level of all the SR business processes and then dove into the Course Catalog. Moving forward, they will focus on specific business processes, keeping in mind the big picture and the impact of changes downstream.

The Student Finance group, on the other hand, kicked off their IDPs by diving directly into a specific business process: the Self-Service functionality related to billing. The IDP methodology and deliverables will be the same from both groups; the difference is the tools and techniques used.

In the case of business processes that are self-contained, well-defined, or simply required by law, it may be possible to move through IDP more quickly -- and the methodology is flexible enough to accommodate the needs and work styles of the group and business process in question.

Identity Management (IdM) Presents Implementation Plan 

Arash Forouhari (UMN), project director for Identity Management, presented his implementation plan to ESUP’s Leadership Team last week. Forouhari outlined his vision for replacing the University’s X.500 environment with Oracle Identity Manager (OIM). The work stream analyzed in depth how both PeopleSoft and non-PeopleSoft data feeds integrate with IdM to provision users to downstream systems such as Active Directory or Gmail. 

Cross-functionality at work in IDP sessions

With Student IDP sessions officially underway, both Portal and Reporting team members have participated in a number of sessions, including Student Finance Self-Service and Student Records. Project directors William Dana (UMN) and Walter Terrell (CCI) were eager to reflect on the successful interactions in their first week. “It has been tremendously beneficial to have Reporting, Technology, and Portal participating in the IDP sessions,” Terrell said. 

Portal to Host Design Thinking Workshops

The Portal team is inviting participation from the University community to their design thinking workshops. The workshops build on what the team learned from the kickoff (kickoff summary document: z.umn.edu/portalkickoff).  In partnership with the College of Design, participants will cycle through a process of observation, brainstorming, synthesizing, prototyping, and evaluating towards the goal of identifying and ranking possible features and design elements for the new U of M portal. No experience necessary. 

The workshops will be held throughout the University system in March and April and will build on the information generated from the Portal Project Kickoff. The first workshop is March 5. More information and sign up will be available at z.umn.edu/portal on Wednesday.  Space is limited and registration is required.

Quick Hits and Reminders From Across the Work Streams

• The Application Development work stream is welcoming two new members to the Program this week. Stop by and say hello if you’re in 150 Williamson!
• The HRMS work stream has been busy preparing for their IDP sessions, which are slated to begin in March in WBOB. As a result, the HRMS team members are coordinating efforts to move their daily operations into WBOB.
• The Reporting and Data Management work stream will start their BI Roadmap Discovery sessions this week. These sessions are open to all, but people involved in data, reporting, and analysis may find the most benefit. Check the ESUP consolidated calendar for session times and locations (http://upgrade.umn.edu/p/calendar.html). In addition, the work stream continues to coordinate efforts with the Data and Reporting fCOP, which will begin in March.
• The Integration work stream will use the Data and Reporting fCoP as the official communication conduit for collecting information on UMN impacted application systems, disseminating information concerning data structure changes and tracking readiness for integration testing.
• The Change Management, Communications and Training work stream will engage participants within each work stream to assess potential changes that might impact faculty across the University system.

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