The Banner v9 Upgrade – Implementation project, a collaborative effort between Division of Student Administration, Finance, Ellucian and Division of Information Technology, has made significant progress since our last project update.
The project recently reached its first major milestone, completing the implementation and validation of a Banner v9 development environment. Business users have been provided limited access to this environment to conduct some initial discovery and basic testing of the new release.
We continue progress on two parallel streams of work.
The first stream is focussed on the transformation of existing Banner custom forms to the new technology, a core project deliverable. Modernisation, combined with a reduction in customisation, will serve to simplify future system management and system upgrades.
The second stream of work centres on the implementation of a ‘Quality Assurance’ (QA) environment. This is the logical next step and follows on from the successful validation of the development environment.
Establishment of a QA environment will provide a platform which can be leveraged for a robust period of ‘User Acceptance Testing’ (UAT) and training.
The end goal of UAT is to ensure system stability and a smooth transition to the upgraded system.
Key objectives of the Banner v9 Upgrade – Implementation project aim to improve CSU operations and support for students and staff by:
- delivering the end to end technical upgrade
- transforming existing custom forms to the new technology
- managing the overall Organisation Change Management (OCM) aspect of the project using the Prosci ADKAR framework
- ensuring operational staff receive appropriate training and support throughout the upgrade
- providing frequent and informative communications and updates to the business community.
The Banner v9 Upgrade – Implementation project continues to forge ahead and maintains momentum as it advances towards its next milestone – focussing on a successful upgrade and de-customisation of the current Banner student and finance systems.
If you have any questions please contact Michael Charles or Mark Duffy.