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Attack of the Rampaging Stakeholders

Attack of the Rampaging Stakeholders. Half a spec, half a spec, half a spec onward!. Your Presenter. Andy Clark HR/CS Technical Lead, Application Support Center, Virginia’s Community Colleges 7 years of PeopleSoft Higher Ed experience 30 something years of IT experience 12 years as PMP.

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Attack of the Rampaging Stakeholders

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  1. Attack of the Rampaging Stakeholders Half a spec, half a spec, half a spec onward!

  2. Your Presenter • Andy Clark • HR/CS Technical Lead, Application Support Center, Virginia’s Community Colleges • 7 years of PeopleSoft Higher Ed experience • 30 something years of IT experience • 12 years as PMP

  3. VCCS • Founded 1968 • 23 Colleges • 40 Campuses • Over 400,000 Students Served Annually • Shared Database replaced 47 separate systems with 30+ Years Data

  4. A Little Technical Stuff • Multiple Institution system in a single database. • PeopleSoft 9.0for Campus Solutions and HR. 8.9 for Financials. • In the past Oracle has said we’re the largest single database installation of Campus Solutions in the world. • Databases on Oracle 11i. • Homegrown Directory Services and Portal. • Enterprise Blackboard Instllation.

  5. VCCS System Office • Provides Guidance and Leadership on Academic and policy issues. • Assists with Financial, Academic, Facilities and other operational issues. • Manages Enterprise Applications and Technical Resources. • Assists Colleges to work together more effectively.

  6. VCCS Stakeholder Challenges • 24 separate staffs • 24 separate hierarchies (each has own President/Chancellor) • Decentralized Management • Competing Business Practices and Priorities (FA vs. Finance vs. Registrars vs. Continuing Ed) • Large Continuing Education program marches to the beat of a different drummer • Modest central staff to develop standards, support system wide network and enterprise applications • System Office does not offer coursework so has to pay attention on academic issues

  7. 24? Didn’t that show get cancelled? • Wide divergence in colleges. • NVCC – very large college with fairly technically savvy populace and broad staffing. Large enough for internal competition between campuses. • ESCC/MECC – rural, still have users without dial in, offices very thinly staffed. • Business Offices, Registrars, Financial Aid officers, HR Directors and Faculty can have different concerns both horizontally and vertically.

  8. How does anything get done?

  9. Teamwork Rescue Heroes! • All of these factors do come into play, but they don’t come into play all the time. • Everyone has learned that nothing happens without cooperation. • Colleges are frequently open to system office leadership. • Patience and respect are requirements. • Consensus management works for us, but it can be slow. • There is absolutely nothing slick or tricky about any of this.

  10. Workgroups • Workgroups regularly meet for Student Records, Student Financials, Financial Aid and Workforce (CE). Hugely important. • Members tend to be either College ITS or hands on functional workers. • Promote sharing of business processes and experiences between colleges. • Provide input of requirements for customizations. • Get people on the same page. • Occasional intra-workgroup meetings. • Seed bed for other efforts.

  11. Task forces • Used to work specific problems – example development of online graduation application system or NelNet implementation. • Usually drawn from workgroups, may be multiple workgroups. • Gives assistance in requirements, business process development, documentation and testing.

  12. SO ITS's Biggest Problems?

  13. Requirements and Testing • Diversity can make developing the requirements challenging. • Geographic dispersal a problem too. • Prioritization actually not a big issue. • Once developed testing must be done by colleges. • Busy schedules make this a challenge.

  14. Requirements Approach • Cover the basics – be thorough, ask questions, document, draw pictures, develop schedules, all the stuff covered in many fine courses which many of us offer. • For tactical projects – requirements flow out of the workgroups. • For strategic projects – for task forces.

  15. Building Task Forces • Make sure you have key different business areas and business processes involved. • System office directed – preferably through functional areas. • Better too big than too little. • Task force sizes have run the gamut from 5 or 6 to 40-50.

  16. Running Task forces • Try for in person meetings as often as possible, but leverage communications technology. • Run solid meetings • Routinely encourage and recognize effective college participants • Keep all involved workgroups informed

  17. Testing • This is actually a bigger problem to me in terms of doing my job. We’ve had enhancements that had to be abandoned and situations where the testing has dragged on for months and when the modifications went to production they were broken by bundles or other work that had occurred. • Line up and identify testers in advance sensitive to the issues of College vs. System Office initiatives. • In person test sessions whenever possible. • Not all testers are created equal. • Be grateful to people who break your stuff.

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