1 Introduction

1.1 Mission

Dr. Payton can make modifications and edit accordingly, or accept as written…

The primary mission of the SCT Banner Implementation project is to fulfill Morgan State University's requirements for more robust administrative systems that position MSU to take advantage of future technologies and meet changing needs. While the current systems are adequate, they do not meet all functional requirements desired by the institution. The mission of this project is to address those requirements, as well as the following:

· To provide a tool to allow the institution to be even more student-centered, more effective in serving the needs of the constituents;

· To give faculty, administrators, staff and students easy and meaningful interaction with administrative systems as well as improved access to institutional information;

· To improve collegiality through sharing information and ideas, not only between faculty and staff, but between MSU and other institutions; and

· To allow MSU to retain its competitive edge by having state of the art technology.

In a broader sense, this project advances Morgan State University's overall mission, to educate.

Morgan State University is an educational community dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, to the orderly discussion of issues confronting society; and, as would befit an American institution grounded in the humanities and sciences, Morgan State University is committed unreservedly to open and free inquiry.

Morgan State University, while primarily an undergraduate institution emphasizing the liberal arts, is also committed to providing graduate and professional education in areas of its demonstrated competence and where it meets a particular need of society, especially of Morgan State University’s regional constituency. Faculty members, moreover, are strongly encouraged to engage in research outside the classroom in order to maintain the professional standing of the institution.

The project improves MSU's effectiveness by enabling improved institutional practices and data access, leading to improved decision making and services to constituents. The project also helps MSU become more progressive by allowing constituent access to information anytime and anywhere, including via the Internet. It also positions MSU well to take advantage of future technology tools to achieve its mission.

1.2 Objectives

The objectives identify the driving force(s) behind the project. The success of the project is measured against the attainment of these objectives.

The objectives of the project as described by MSU include:

· Institutional Objectives:

· To foster communication between functional MSU operating units;

· To provide increased control to users, relative to data access and manipulation;

· To utilize a proven, integrated, and reliable information management system that supports improved institutional practices and facilitates data integrity and decision support

· To improve services to MSU constituents

· To provide education / training to personnel to fully utilize the capabilities of the system

· To establish an ongoing training facility and create user specific manuals

· To provide user (student & university) access to information any time from anywhere (24 X 7).

· To provide technological tools for MSU administrative staff to perform their jobs in a more correct and efficient and effective manner.

· To provide Internet access to information for self-service for all constituents

· To allow flexible access to administrative and academic data to satisfy regulatory and institutional analysis needs

· To allow access to historical data for efficient reporting to better understand the students and the institution.

· To take full advantage of the features of current and future technology

· To provide an opportunity for current institutional and departmental process evaluation, re-design and continuous improvement

· To increase internal and external electronic data transfer

· To better support information management responsibilities and access to the user community

· To provide an integrated approach to the management of student information.

· To promote the identification of common tools and processes to standardize communications

· Functional Objectives:

· Technology Objectives:

· To ensure that data storage conforms to good relational database design standards;

· To Provide the ability to assemble and download unique data files from selected tables and fields across the SCT Banner database for Data Warehousing purposes;

· To ensure that the university can maintain and improve delivery of services to constituents;

· To continually enhance the systems by taking advantage of improved technological changes (both hardware & software) geared toward greater efficiency and usage;

· To promote and foster a culture change within the management structure of MSU to gain/re-gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

· Student System Objectives:

· To provide comprehensive and integrated management of student data;

· To enhance current advising and program planning;

· To implement ‘user friendly’ technological tools that better assist students in managing their enrollment process. Including but not limited to, class registration, course planning, and graduation requirements.

· Finance System Objectives:

· To compile properly formatted and timely financial reports;

· To provide financial information that is easily accessed and understood by departments to manage their individual unit operations;

· To improve the efficiency of the procurement process by using electronic capabilities.

· Human Resources System Objectives:

· To provide electronic leave and time accrual and usage;

· To provide employees access to personalized benefit information with the ability to make certain adjustments with automatic notification to HR;

· To provide the administration with critical dates to counsel and assist staff members to take appropriate and timely action regarding such tasks as annual evaluations, sick leave counseling, probations, etc…;

· To provide access for interfacing and/or sharing demographical information with the other various functional units (BNC, Payroll);

· To provide a continuation of historical data on employees to include all segments of employment;

· To provide easy access to directors and supervisors about employee salaries, benefits, dates of employment, and charge codes for verification of information and notification to HR or other appropriate unit for correction;

· To provide a function that identifies and flags discrepancies in information maintained in a record for the same employee

· To provide salary balances for contractual employees and denote monies available.

· Financial Aid System Objectives:

· To calculate satisfactory academic progress;

· To accommodate Title IV refund calculations specific to financial aid, and controlled by the financial aid office.

1.3 Benefits

This section describes the value to MSU of achieving the above objectives.

The benefits of this project to MSU include:

· More timely and astute decision making through empowerment;

· Timely access to information to prospective students regarding the status of their enrollment and Financial aid;

· ‘Web for Students’ functionality (to include prospects) regarding admissions via self-service feature;

· Enhanced or Improved student retention;

· Enhanced or Improved capability to manage departmental constituents budgets;

· Enhanced or Increased Alumni participation;

· Increased ‘Team’ understanding of overall Banner system software capabilities;

· Enhanced ‘Team’ productivity;

· Improved customer satisfaction and morale ‘across-the-board’ at all levels within the institution;

· Improved professional growth;

· Enhanced ability to execute the University’s Mission;

· Allow MSU to stabilize the registration process;

· Stabilize and improve MSU's financial reporting mechanisms to allow administration access to the best/most correct data in order to make critical financial decisions;

· Allow MSU to operate more efficiently - work smarter, not longer;

· Provide better service to the student

· Improve the image of the institution

· Promote professional growth of individuals

· Provide the ability to standardize data entry and maintenance

· Provide more time for planning and effective communication

· Improve the understanding of project management methodologies

· Improve morale by establishing a work environment with the right tools to do the job

1.4 History and/or Background

SCT is a leading provider of application software, maintenance, and training to institutions of higher education. Morgan State University has successfully used the integrated SCT series of software for the past 17 years.

The Student Information Systems module includes components for Admissions; Student Records; Financial Aid; Billing Receivables, and Web for Student Registration.

The Financial Record Systems module includes components for Financial Accounting; Fixed Assets; Accounts Payable; Purchasing, and Financial Reporting.

The Human Resource Systems module includes components for Personnel Information; Time Entry, and Payroll.

The existing Plus software series is being upgraded to provide continued support to the University’s business processes, while affording them the opportunity to take advantage of relational database technology which permits 24/7 processing for these critical requirements. By upgrading, the University will derive the benefits inherent to any windows based application such as improved efficiencies in providing service to the University’s constituencies. Additionally, the upgrade provides further benefit by virtue of the software suites WEB interfaces for all users.

1.4.1 Feasibility Recommendations

SCT has strong experience to demonstrate the feasibility of this project. SCT is the leading provider of administrative systems to higher education institutions of 2,000 to 20,000 students throughout the country.

Dr. Payton to make modifications and edit accordingly…

If the client team has serious concerns about feasibility of successful project completion, they should document those concerns and make recommendations here. Recommendations may include: studying specific issues that impact feasibility; taking specific action to mitigate factors that impact feasibility.

The following sample text is adapted from past SCT Banner implementation projects, and must be tailored, replaced, or removed.

For their part, the MSU Project Team members believe that the following factors may impact project feasibility:

· The availability of qualified staff to backfill the already existing heavy workloads of Project Team participants

· The timing of the pending State Legislative Audit;

· The timing of the regularly scheduled, annual financial audit;

· The potential need to develop and upgrade skill sets across the institution;

· Some questions arose regarding the existence of competency in the skill sets required to support this project’s initiatives;

· The existence of outside influences, multiple and concurrent projects and priorities

· The amount of work required to meet the demands of the proposed time tables

· The question of true empowerment of participants

· The lack of budgetary contingencies to acquire additional staff part and full time to serve as backfill for Project participants.

Where appropriate, these factors have been further documented in the Risks section and/or the Organizational Readiness section below. In addition, the following immediate actions are proposed...

1.5 Related Documents

The project definition may refer to the following documents.

SCT will continue to keep all related documents associated with this project in the SCT Project Tracking Database (PTDB), resident on the corporation’s database in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

MSU, as the keeper of their own project related documents, will need to determine and indicate below the description and location of the following documents associated with this project.

Fill in the table below. Unused rows can be deleted.

Document Name	Description/Location
CM Plan	?
Contingency Plan & Risk Report	?
Defined Metrics	?
Documentation Plan	?
Feasibility Recommendations	?
Integration Plan	?
OR Plan	?
QA Plan	?
Testing Plan	?
Training Plan & Evaluations	?
Training Material Plan	?
Network Assessment Document	?
Updated IT Disaster Recovery Plan	?

“Location” identifies the physical location of the document (e.g., filename within a directory structure on a LAN server, database, or a binder on a bookshelf in an office).

2 Project Scope

The Project Scope defines the boundaries and limits of the project. It is very specific. The scope describes how much work is to be done during the project. It includes what will be done and what will not be done and why, and it may include what will be done later. Once the scope is defined and agreed upon, it cannot be changed without going through the change management process.

The scope should be short and to the point, leaving little room for unspecified activities.

The following text lists the scope of the MSU implementation as spelled out contractually.

Specifics of the SCT Banner implementation are controlled by Amendment #2 to the Software License & Services Agreement (SLSA) signed by MSU and SCT. A summary of which is provided below for reference only; the actual SLSA shall remain the controlling document.

The new SCT Banner systems will replace some of MSU's current administrative systems and will include the following software components:

· SCT Banner Student

· SCT Banner Financial Aid

· SCT Banner Human Resources

· SCT BPA for Finance

· SCT Banner Finance (including Grants Management component)

· SCT Banner Web for Employees

· SCT Banner Web for Students

· SCT Banner Web for Faculty & Advisors

In connection with the above, SCT will deliver:

· Project Management LVL 1 for 2 years

· Technical and Cross Product Services

· SCT Banner Self-Service Technical Consulting for 4 Products

· SCT Plus to Banner Toolkit

· Train the trainer Workshop

· Remote Database Administration – Short Term 4

· Oracle Software Services (24 session days at the SCT Education Center)

· EPrint Reports Implementation, Training & Support

The following items are considered to be ‘outside of the scope’ of this project, and will be addressed on a case by case basis via individual Work Orders:

· Interfaces to the FMS at the State of Maryland;

· Corporate Purchasing Card System link to Banner;

· Student Bare Necessities Card System interface to Banner;

· Interface to the State Agency presently handling Payroll for the university

2.1 Exclusions

These are the scope and the tasks that will not be done and why.

· Campus Pipeline Installation and Training

· Link to Priority One SW for Grants Management

· SCT BPA for Human Resources

· SCT BPA for Student

· SCT BPA for Financial Aid

· SCT Banner Alumni System

· Project Management LVL 2

2.2 Planned Process Improvements

Indicate process improvements that will be implemented during this project.

Standard SCT implementation of the Banner 6.0 product line will be performed.

Project Management Processes at Level 1 will be followed.

No improvements are planned.

MSU will improve business processes as reasonably required to conform to best practices of SCT Banner usage.

3 Project Milestones

Indicate the major milestones for the project. Some examples are included. Project Start and End Date are required. You may also refer to the Project Schedule.

Milestone	Date
POPS Session Conducted	June 9 - 11 2003
Project Officially Started	July 2003
Project Definition Document Completed	TBD
Project Definition Document Approved	TBD
Draft Project Schedule Complete	July 9, 2003

Hardware and Software Installed	July/August 2003

Finance BPA conducted	August 2003
Finance BPA results delivered	August 2003
SCT Banner Finance
Start Initial Training	September 2003
Chart of Accounts Defined	TBD
Go-Live	July 1, 2004

QA Performed	January/February 2005

Human Resources BPA conducted (if work order approved)	September 2003
Human Resources BPA results delivered (if work order approved)	September 2003
SCT Banner Human Resources
Start Initial Training	January 2004
Go-Live	January 2005

Student BPA conducted (if work order approved)	September 2004
Student BPA results delivered (if work order approved)	September 2004
SCT Banner Student – Admissions
Start Initial Training	October 2004
Go-Live	September 2005
SCT Banner Student – Registration
Start Initial Training	October 2005
Go-Live	March 2006

FAID BPA conducted (if work order approved)	January 2005
FAID BPA results delivered (if work order approved)	January 2005
SCT Banner Financial Aid
Start Initial Training	February 2005
Go-Live	February 2006
Project Closeout Completed	June 2006

Notes:

The ‘Go Live’ dates indicated above, have been determined to be reasonably acceptable target dates by the MSU Implementation Team, and as such have agreed to make all reasonable attempts to hit those dates using whatever resources are required. Although not cast in stone, it is agreed that any slippage of these dates can potentially cause severe delay in the remaining components, and will adversely affect SCT’s ability to reassign resources to the new dates.

4 Project Budget

4.1 Introduction

The budget for this project includes components for software, software installations, database installation, database training, remote database support, level 1 project management, plus to Banner tool kit, technical consulting services for four products, and e-Print reporting implementation training and support. The breakout of costs associated with each component can be found in the amendment to the Software and Services agreement

4.2 Budget Assumptions

It is assumed that Morgan State University has allocated the appropriate level of funding for the purpose of addressing and implementing the activities associated with this project and that it has been approved by university officials for that purpose.

4.3 Budget Details

A quarterly billing cycle has been established for purposes of payment for these services. The SCT Project Manager will be responsible to ensure that SCT consultant hours are accurate.

The exception will be the travel and living expenses incurred by the SCT Consultants and Project Manager and costs related to out of scope tasks as agreed to under separate Work Order. Consistent with SCT corporate policy, travel and living expenses associated with the delivery of services under this project scope, will be billed separately as incurred.

The SCT Project Manager will be responsible for verification and accuracy of the SCT consultant charges, and the SCT General Manager will verify the accuracy of the SCT Project Manager charges, prior to invoice submission to MSU for payment.

4.4 Budget Tracking

The MSU Project Manager will monitor the Project budget and provide reports as directed on the status of the budget through the established channels. Billing questions related to SCT invoices will be communicated to the SCT Project Manager for response.

5 Assumptions/Dependencies

Assumptions and Dependencies are items that are being presumed and are potentially out of our control.

5.1 Assumptions

Project assumptions are as follows:

General:

· MSU will remain on the release of Oracle delivered until all systems are fully implemented.

· MSU will remain on the release of the Banner software delivered until all systems are fully implemented.

· Sufficient funding will be available and allocated to this project.

· The Banner 6.0 software will work at MSU.

Priority:

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Prepared by:	Morgan State University/SCT Banner Implementation Team
Version:	0.1
Last Revision Date:	July 9, 2003
Create Date:	July 9, 2003