University of Washington Strategic Roadmap
for Information Management and Administrative Systems

Roadmap Action Plan

The following section outlines an action plan for implementing the five Roadmap initiatives, including recommended sequencing and timing.


The charts in this section show a high-level view of proposed timelines and sequencing for each initiative and supporting projects. The timelines suggested are aggressive and assume that funding commitments have been secured. Additional discussion of timing is included later in this report. See When and How Long?

This proposal covers a roughly ten-year period, with replacement of all three legacy systems completed in seven years, or by 2015. Under the proposal, work on Replace the Base would begin with the financial system replacement in 2008. Participation in the Kuali Foundation’s effort to develop a new student system would also begin in 2008, with work on actual system implementation starting in 2011. The HR/payroll system replacement project would begin in 2009.

The plan recommends beginning with financial system replacement because the project will involve critical decisions relating to organizational reporting structure and budgeting that ideally should precede the HR/payroll system replacement.

Another important reason to proceed with the financial system replacement first is that there is an opportunity to partner with the state of Washington, which is also considering replacing its legacy financial system. The state’s replacement project was a key recommendation to come out of its recent strategic plan for finance and administration. The UW is actively engaged in discussions about this possibility with the state, and with Washington State University, which is looking at replacing its legacy financial system.

In addition, the plan recommends participating in the Kuali Foundation student system development effort concurrently with the financial system replacement because there is a narrow window of opportunity to become involved in the project as a founding partner and influence system design. More information on the Kuali project is included in the section on UW Peers. See Kuali Foundation Student System.

The Replace the Base initiative chart follows the Washington State project management framework, which breaks projects into the following phases:

  • Initiation
  • Detailed planning
  • Execution

Each initiative includes detailed steps and phases that are not outlined in the charts. Where possible, projects will be designed to deliver functionality to users incrementally, as that functionality is developed. In addition, every effort will be made to reduce the impact of project planning and implementation on key business partners through capacity planning to assess the demands that will be placed on technical and business staff and by providing backfill for those positions as necessary.

Information for Decision Making

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  • Continue to develop the common data definitions, tools, and infrastructure to enable access to accurate information for decision making and to support all core systems and development efforts across the UW community.

Replace the Base

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  • Start the legacy system replacement projects with the financial system replacement, followed by the HR/payroll replacement.
  • At the same time, become a partner in Kuali Student, a higher education consortium developing a next-generation student system. Enter the partnership in fiscal year 2008-2009 in order to gain the benefits of early involvement in the design, requirements, and development consortium.
  • Implement all replacement system projects in multi-phase releases.

Redesign Processes

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  • Have major process redesign efforts go hand-in-hand with system replacement projects.

Enhance and Renew Systems

enhancetimeline
  • Have enhancements to core systems supporting research administration, facilities and space, and alumni/development occur in parallel with legacy system replacements.
  • Continue high-value interim upgrades to legacy systems to keep the systems current and functional until they are replaced.
  • Reassess and prioritize enhancement projects at least annually.

Prioritize and Make Decisions

stewardshiptimeline
  • Provide the governance framework necessary to support the other four initiatives, including prioritization, decision making, resource allocation, funding, and development of a collaborative partnership environment.

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