Project Charter - University of Alaska System · PDF fileProject Charter Banner 9.x HR User Adoption DocuSign Envelope ID: 9F56CF97-B5C1-4E59-9A2B-5D2675BDD666

Project Charter

Banner 9.x HR User Adoption

DocuSign Envelope ID: 9F56CF97-B5C1-4E59-9A2B-5D2675BDD666

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Contents

Project Summary

Scope

Out-of-Scope

Goals and Objectives

Deliverables

Terminology Definitions:

Primary Stakeholders

Schedule

Project Leadership

RACI Matrix for Project Success

Project Team

Ongoing Use and Maintenance Roles

Budget

Flexibility Matrix

Risks, Constraints, Assumptions

Signature Page


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Project Summary The University of Alaska (UA) is in the process of transitioning their enterprise resource application, Banner 8, to the most recent version, Banner 9.x, also called Banner XE for eXtensible Ecosystem. Ellucian is the vendor for Banner and UA’s Human Resource (HR) Banner users certified Banner 9.x, during the six-month beta testing partnership with Ellucian in 2015. Currently, Banner 9.x is deployed in all instances of Banner (TEST, LRGP and PRODUCTION) however, HR departments across the UA system have been unable to make use of Banner 9.x for daily business processes because additional, prerequisite technical requirements were necessary. Use of Ellucian Solution Manager (ESM) to apply upgrades, deployment of Banner General 9.3 and the new version of HR 9.3, are some examples. UA is now to the point where they are able to adopt use of Banner 9.x for university work and this project charter describes HR’s system wide approach for doing so.

Banner 9.x will be co-deployed alongside Banner 8. Under co-deployment, UA’s usual approach of testing an entire module before using any features can be set aside. HR forms are able to be made available for use, one at a time, meaning HR is able to adopt use of Banner 9.x one business process at a time. University HR departments will decide which business processes and tasks are the first to be accomplished using Banner 9.x. While doing so, they will continue to be able to use Banner 8 for other business processes and tasks. The transition to Banner 9.x is able to take any approach agreed on by HR, as long as UA HR migrates to Banner 9.x by the end of calendar year 2017, if not before.

There are three primary drivers for this project:

● The first is that Ellucian is no longer making improvements to Banner 8. To add to this, Ellucian will no longer support Banner 8, at all, after calendar year 2018. UA must make the transition to Banner 9.x to stay current with Banner.

● The second is that UA is in a shrinking budgetary climate emphasizing the need to continue providing the same service levels to students and faculty but with less resources to do so. This means that UA needs to maintain one version of Banner, not two, which is accomplished by transitioning all functional areas of Banner onto Banner 9.x.

● The third is that Banner 9.x no longer requires Oracle Forms or Reports and Oracle de-supported both on December 31, 2016. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) stakeholders and management decided OIT can keep Banner 8 running on Oracle Forms & Reports, release 11, without Oracle support. A deliverable from that internal agreement was that OIT will apply Oracle’s December 2016 updates to Forms & Reports, then freeze UA’s Banner 8 system at those Oracle release levels. It is a calculated risk predicated on UA getting off Banner 8 before an issue occurs requiring UA to purchase a software patch or technical support from Oracle. Lastly, UA’s Oracle licensing costs exceed that of licensing for Banner, highlighting further the need to transition UA onto Banner 9.x.

Scope ● Test customized Banner HR 9.x pages to ensure the transformations completed by Ellucian

contain the same information and function the same way as Oracle forms currently in use at UA- HR departments across UA will need to confirm that all pages contain the same information and function as expected, ensuring all of UA’s “must have automations” are available under Banner 9.x. Pages will be tested by type and grouped by business process. Results of the testing will be communicated to Ellucian for corrections as required.

● Validate that uncustomized Banner HR 9.x pages contain the same information and equivalent functionality as Oracle forms currently in use at UA- Part of adopting Banner 9.x is being able to


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perform HR business processes, as they are currently performed in Banner 8. Pages will be tested by type and grouped by business process.

● Receive and test customized HR general pages, transformed by Ellucian- UA must pay Ellucian to transform Banner General customized forms to Banner General customized pages. These pages will be tested by HR and results of the testing will be communicated to Ellucian for corrections, as required.

● Creation of Training Materials for Banner 9.x- Due to the difference in user interface from Banner 8 to that of Banner 9.x, new training courses and associated training materials will need to be developed. Training support for HR departments throughout UA is necessary to fully implement Banner 9.x in a sustainable fashion making a training needs assessment and identification of next steps necessary. The change to look and feel within Banner 9.x stems from a redesign relying on open standards of java, HTML and CSS allowing web pages to automatically adjust their content, regardless of device.

● Transitioning UA HR completely off of Banner 8 and onto Banner 9.x- UA HR departments will perform current business processes in Banner 9.x by the end of calendar year 2017, no longer using Banner 8 in daily operations. This affects all UA HR departments and will be achieved in a phased approach.

Out-of-Scope

● Process improvements are out of scope. ● Business process changes are out of scope. ● Changes to data or business rules are out of scope. ● Changes to Banner 9.x’s look and feel are out of scope for this project. These changes are able to

be submitted to Ellucian but this project can be closed out without making any changes to the look and feel of Banner 9.x.

Goals and Objectives Goal 1- Test UA’s customized HR pages-

Objective 1.1- Test the nine local pages, created by UA, transformed by Ellucian at no cost to UA. Needed corrections will be reported to Ellucian. Objective 1.2- Test the seven baseline pages, also known as Ellucian pages with UA extensions, that were transformed by Ellucian at no cost to UA. Needed corrections will be reported to Ellucian. This cannot happen until Banner General and HR 9.3 upgrades are applied to LRGP.

Goal 2- Validate UA’s uncustomized HR pages- Objective 2.1- Validate that rules and validation pages function as expected. Objective 2.2- Validate the remaining “vanilla” pages with no customizations or local modifications, of which there are ~380.

Goal 3- Test UA’s General pages-

Objective 3.1- Configure Application Navigator landing page to reflect the University of Alaska’s style. Objective 3.2- EAS to apply all modifications for use of Job Submission. Objective 3.3- HR to determine which customized General pages are needed for their business processes. These pages will be tested.


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Objective 3.4- Change equalizers from the Internet Native Banner server(s) to Application Navigator server(s).

Goal 4- Provide ongoing training for all HR Banner users on Banner 9.x

Objective 4.1- HR departments to complete a training needs assessment identifying those users who need training and what specific training needs are to be addressed. Objective 4.2- Determine training personnel resources. Objective 4.3- Identify and secure training environmental resources. Decisions need to be made determining the instance of Banner that training will be conducted in. Additional physical requirements for training will also be identified and secured, as necessary.

Goal 5- All HR functional users across UA begin using Banner 9.x to process HR related activities Objective 5.1- HR departments to agree on and develop a schedule identifying what business processes they want to begin performing in Banner 9.x, using a phased approach, until all business processes are performed in Banner 9.x. Objective 5.2- HR departments to follow the developed schedule transitioning them to Banner 9.x. Objective 5.3- Every page within Banner 9.x that HR requires becomes functional and are used by all HR campuses, SWHR, PPAs and CCCs throughout UA for daily business processes, allowing access to Banner 8 HR forms to be terminated.

Deliverables

● Test & Adopt UA’s customized HR pages ○ Upon completion of successful testing in LRGP, transfer the nine local pages, created by

UA and transformed by Ellucian, into the Production instance of Banner 9.x. ○ Upon completion of successful testing in LRGP, transfer the seven baseline pages, also

known as Ellucian pages with UA extensions, transformed by Ellucian, into the Production instance of Banner 9.x.

○ Campus HR departments, PPAs, CCCs and SWHR adopt use of customized pages in daily operations.

● Validate UA’s uncustomized HR pages ○ Upon successful validation in LRGP, SWHR begins to use pages with no local

modifications, i.e. rule forms (deduction codes) and validation tables, in the Production instance of Banner 9.x, changing the tool SWHR uses to perform daily business processes. These pages are currently in the Production instance of Banner 9.x and will be identical to forms within Banner 8.

○ Deploy Workflow 8.5 to the Production instance of Banner. ○ Campus HR departments and SWHR to validate the ~380 remaining “vanilla” pages, with

no customizations, in LRGP. ○ Campus HR departments, PPAs, CCCs and SWHR adopt use of uncustomized pages in

daily operations. ● Test UA’s Banner General pages

○ Design of Banner landing page to be agreed on by all the functional areas. ○ EAS to re-examine the current modifications to Job Submission and create a list of those

that UA needs to keep and those UA is able to eliminate. ○ Deploy Job Submission modifications currently in use to Production.


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○ HR to identify customized General pages that they currently use. Other functional areas will not be included.

○ Ellucian or EAS will perform the conversion of customized General forms (Banner 8) to customized pages (Banner 9.x) currently being used by HR.

○ Prepare campus service desks, Banner functional area support personnel and Banner 8 users for the change from Internet Native Banner (INB) to Application Navigator servers.

○ Change INB servers to Application Navigator servers. ○ Campus HR departments, PPAs, CCCs and SWHR adopt use of applicable Banner General

pages in daily operations. ● Provide ongoing training for all HR Banner users on Banner 9.x

○ Develop a training needs assessment identifying those users who need training and specific topics to be addressed.

○ Based on the training needs assessment, determine training personnel resources, ensuring resource alignment is achieved throughout UA.

○ Based on the training needs assessment, develop training materials. ○ Decide what instance of Banner training will be conducted in. ○ Based on the training needs assessment, secure other environmental training resources,

as needed. ○ Conduct training for campus HR departments, PPAs, CCCs, and SWHR.

● All HR departments across UA switch to using Banner 9.x to process all HR related activities

○ Create a list of all pages to be tested, with modifications and without. ○ Develop a schedule and phased approach for adopting use of Banner 9.x for daily

operational use. ○ HR departments across UA begin using Banner 9.x, changing the tool HR departments

use to perform all Banner related daily business processes. ○ Terminate access to Banner 8 HR forms.

Terminology Definitions:

*Note: Previously known as forms in Banner 8, in Banner 9.x, all forms are now called pages.* Nine Local Pages- The nine customized pages in Banner HR 9.x were previously customized forms that UA developed on their own in Banner 8. These pages did not start out as Ellucian forms, they were developed by UA for UA business processes. Ellucian then converted them for UA, at no cost, because: 1. UA participated in the beta 2. UA is in Ellucian’s group of customers who are making the switch to Banner 9.x, early on. Seven Baseline Pages- The seven baseline pages are customized pages, however, these seven started out as Ellucian forms in Banner 8 and UA made changes to them (known as extensions) to meet UA business process needs. They are still considered customized, however, they were originally based on Ellucian developed forms, hence the description above that they are known as Ellucian pages with UA extensions, or customizations. Rule Validation Pages- Rule pages indicate how the system should use data in certain processes. For example, the deduction code setup that is used in calculating paychecks is found in the PTRBDCA rule page. Validation Tables- These are underlying tables that define the proper data that should be contained in a given field (i.e. list of nations available to be placed in PPAIDEN is located in the STVNATN table). 380 “Vanilla” Pages- These are Ellucian developed, HR focused pages, with no customizations. UA does not make use of all 380 pages; only the pages that UA makes use of in daily business operations will


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need to be verified. An example of pages that UA currently does not use are: 1. The applicant tracking page because we now use Pageup as the vendor for applicant tracking 2. PEA1PAY as this is for one time payments and HR does not make use of this page. It is assumed that the “vanilla” pages will function as expected because they were originally designed by Ellucian for Banner 8, therefore, UA only needs to verify not fully test all 380 pages. HR Focused General Pages- These are pages located in the Banner General module that HR makes use of. Some are customized, some are baseline pages with extensions and others are “vanilla.” Only the pages in Banner General that HR makes use of will need to be tested. Job submission is part of this testing because it makes use of Banner General pages. Test- Running pages through multiple use cases to ensure they function as expected. Validate- Confirmation that the page appears and data presented is accurate. This does not include extensive testing and requires a shorter length of time. Banner Landing Page- After logging into Banner 9.x, the landing page is the first page a user “lands on” allowing them to search or use the drop down menu.

Primary Stakeholders

Role MAU Name and title Interest/Impact

Stakeholder SW Keli McGee, Chief Human Resource Officer

Relies on Banner’s HR module for SWHR operations, management and compliance reports.

Stakeholder UAA Ron Kamahele, Director, HR Relies on Banner’s HR module for UAA HR operations, management and compliance reports.

Stakeholder UAF Brad Lobland, Director, HR Relies on Banner’s HR module for UAF HR operations, management and compliance reports.

Stakeholder UAS Gail Cheney, Director, HR Relies on Banner’s HR module for UAS HR operations, management and compliance reports.

Stakeholder SW Karl Kowalski, Chief Information Technology Officer

OIT operates the highly available computing platform for Banner, including its non-production instances. OIT implements Banner software changes for Univ. of Alaska, including upgrades. Provide technical resources supporting Banner 8 & 9.x, simultaneously until the university’s upgrade to Banner 9.x is completed.

Stakeholder SW Rory O’Neill, Executive Director for Directs the department that


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Application Services manages Banner, provides technical resources supporting Banner 8 & 9.x, simultaneously until the university’s upgrade to Banner 9.x is complete.


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Schedule


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Project Leadership

Role Name and Title Interest

Project Sponsor Keli McGee, Chief Human Resource Officer

Provides HR resources to complete the project

Project Champion Karl Kowalski, Chief Information Technology Officer

Provides technical resources supporting Banner 8 and Banner 9.x

Functional Project Owner(s) Michelle Pope, Director of HR Accounting & HRIS

Coordinates system level HR related activities with campus HR departments

Project Manager Toni Abbey, Project Manager Schedules resources on both the technical and/or HR sides to ensure project completion

RACI Matrix for Project Success Roles Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed

Project Sponsor √

Project Champion √ √

Functional Project Owner

√

Project Team

Role (See Appx. A for role definitions.) Name Role

Developer(s) Dana Platta Lead HR Analyst Programmer

Subject Matter Expert Michelle Pope Director of HR Accounting & HRIS

Subject Matter Expert Ron Kamahele UAA HR Director

Subject Matter Expert Brad Lobland UAF HR Director

Subject Matter Expert Gail Cheney UAS HR Director

Lead Tester for SWOHR Tirza Cain HR Systems Analyst

Lead Tester for UAA Payroll Kathy Ivie UAA Functional User

Lead Tester for UAA Personnel Erika Pierce UAA Functional User

Lead Tester for UAF Payroll Sherri Soileau UAF Functional User

Lead Tester for UAF Personnel Terra Preslan UAF Functional User


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Lead Tester or UAS Kim Stewart Greinier UAS Functional User

Training Development Martin Miller Develops Banner HR 9.x training materials and secures training resources

Ongoing Use and Maintenance Roles

Role Name Role

Contract Administration Rory O’Neill Executive Director of Application Services

OIT Support Dana Platta Lead HR Analyst Programmer

Product & Technical Support Ellucian Ticketed Ellucian product support is accessed directly by Banner power users.

Ticketed Ellucian technical support is accessed by OIT personnel.

Budget Converting customized Banner 8 General forms currently being used by HR departments to customized Banner 9.x pages will require UA to either pay Ellucian for the conversion of these forms or conduct the conversion in house. Regardless of the approach selected, statewide intends to pay for this conversion.

The cost to convert customized Banner General forms depends on the number of forms identified by HR as critical to their business processes. This affects the cost Ellucian will charge to convert them or the cost for OIT Enterprise Application Services (EAS) to convert them. Therefore, Statewide is unable to identify a specific cost associated with converting these forms, at this time. Statewide, however, will cover the cost of both scenarios, either the acquisition of Ellucian services to convert them or the internal cost of EAS converting them.

Flexibility Matrix

Least Adjustable

Moderately Adjustable

Most Adjustable

Discussion

Scope √ HR departments across UA need to migrate off of Banner 8 and onto Banner 9.x because Banner 8 is no longer being improved or supported after 2018

Schedule √ As long as HR fully adopts Banner 9.x during 2017, the schedule is able to be adjustable to suit the needs of HR


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Budget √ Legitimate budgetary constraints are not expected to block UA from moving onto Banner 9.x, however, should they arise, they will be dealt with appropriately.

Risks, Constraints, Assumptions

Risk/Constraint/Assumption Item Mitigation Response

Constraint UA HR will need to complete this project by the end of calendar year 2017

HR will apply the necessary resources to complete this project by the end of calendar year 2017

Assumption Banner 9.x functions as well as Banner 8

Due to the need to complete this project by the end of calendar year 2017, if Banner 9.x does not function as well as Banner 8, UA will continue to need to make the transition to Banner 9.x

Constraint The project team’s schedule will be constrained when waiting on Ellucian to address requests

Project schedules will be adjusted accordingly

Assumption HR departments across UA will have the necessary resources to apply towards this project

HR departments will adjust their current workload in order to complete this project

Constraint UAF HR is unavailable for testing May 1 - July 28, 2017 due to Open Enrollment. They are also unavailable from Aug 7 - Sep 15 due to semester start

This constraint was discussed with the team at a bi-weekly A-team meeting and the schedule was adjusted accordingly

Risk Uncertainty of ESM timeline for successfully deploying an upgrade. Tasks in the project are dependent on the use of ESM

EAS will work both internally and with Ellucian to ensure ESM does not become a blocker for this project


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Assumption Training agreements and resources will be available by the time this project is scheduled for completion

An adequate amount of time was allocated to the schedule to allow OIT the ability to develop necessary Banner 9.x training

Assumption HR workflows will be functional within Workflow 8.4 and 8.5

If workflows are not functional, then they will need to be modified

Assumption Ellucian will provide requested fixes for forms identified during testing, in a timely manner

Time was added into the overall schedule to account for this

Assumption Banner HR “vanilla” pages and applicable General pages are assumed to function as expected

This was taken into consideration when the schedule was developed


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Signature Page By signing below, I concur that Banner 9.x HR User Adoption is an approved project and necessary resources will be applied.

______________________________________________ ______________________

Keli McGee (Chief Human Resource Officer) Date

______________________________________________ ______________________

Ronald Kamahele (UAA Human Resource Director) Date

______________________________________________ ______________________

Brad Lobland (UAF Human Resource Director) Date

______________________________________________ ______________________

Gail Cheney (UAS Human Resource Director) Date

______________________________________________ ______________________

Karl Kowalski (Chief Information Technology Officer) Date


March 27, 2017

March 27, 2017

April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017

Documents

Project Charter - University of Alaska System · PDF fileProject Charter Banner 9.x HR User Adoption DocuSign Envelope ID: 9F56CF97-B5C1-4E59-9A2B-5D2675BDD666