MIS and Functional Area Responsibilities

Executive Summary

Functional Leads (Lead) and Systems Analysts (Analyst) form an integrated collaboration team to manage software and systems at the university. Each area has specific responsibilities related to this duty. The Leads manage the rules, regulations, data ownership, communication with other offices, and office operations for their areas. Analysts serve in a supportive role, assisting in the planning, design, and implementation of the Lead’s software, system, and technology goals. Neither can effectively operate without the other. In general, the Analyst might be the driver, handling logistics of travel, but the Lead is the navigator, planning the route, monitoring situations, and directing the driver. Each wants to arrive at the same destination, but their roles are fundamentally different. Analysts do not make data or functional changes without direction from the Leads. Even technical changes that do not change functional behavior are coordinated through the Leads.

Definitions

Functional Lead (Lead) – Role in functional area who is a single point of contact to make decisions and / or coordinate decision-making for an entire office (or area) about current software, plan for future software needs of the office, and maintain relationships with other offices to meet administrative needs related to software or technology. Most areas are singularly focused, but the Banner student module is necessarily complex and far- reaching. The Lead need not be overly technical, but some experience is helpful in understanding software, data, and the way systems are used.

Systems Analyst (Analyst) – Role in Information Services (IS) who manages code, technical processes, and other technical aspects of IT needs of offices (or areas). Analysts are typically assigned to multiple functional areas and IS strives to maintain continuity of those assignments to facilitate better collaboration between the Analysts and the Leads they support. Analysts advise functional areas on how best to accomplish technical or data needs for an office and facilitate (but do not lead) discussions with other offices about sharing and coordinating data or technical processes.

Business Process Analysis

Leads are tasked with understanding the processing needs, data, regulations, university goals, and daily operations of their areas. Analysts defer to the Leads experience in their

offices but can help create methods and processes using technology to make them more efficient, more accurate, more secure, or otherwise better.

Application Development

Leads are responsible for creating and planning ways for their offices to operate. If current software cannot meet those needs, custom interactive (web) or backend (database) code might need to be requested.

Analysts are then responsible for the design of these requests taking into consideration the ways that any single change might impact the system(s). The result are specifications for changes that can be handed to an Application Developers (AD). The AD is responsible for writing and testing the code from a technical and system standpoint and to integrate the code into our codebase. The Analysts are responsible for technical testing, ensuring the ADs following the specifications, the code operates without errors, data are stored in the proper places, and changes are not disruptive to other processes.

The Leads are ultimately responsible for User Acceptance Testing (UAT), which is ensuring the software will do what it takes to meet the Lead’s goals for the change. They are also responsible for documentation and communication to end users and other offices.

Ellucian Support

Besides the basic responsibilities related to all third-party software (see the section below), Ellucian requires additional considerations since it is the overarching software that touches most other systems on campus. In general, Leads are responsible for reporting system errors and communicating that information to their offices and end users. System outages or technical issues will be communicated by Analysts or others within IS.

The listed Ellucian systems have a mix of responsibilities described below:

  • Admin Banner – Leads on usage, Analysts on configuration and backend
  • AppMan – Analysts.
  • BCM – Analysts.
  • BDM – Analysts.
  • CRM Advance – Leads.
  • eCommunities – Both. Leads should participate in and monitor functional topics while Analysts should participate in and monitor technical topics.
  • Ellucian Support (ticket system) – Same as the eCommunities site
  • Ethos – Analysts.
  • Experience – Leads for cards, Analysts for issues and
  • Self-service Banner – Leads for understanding functionality and testing changes, Analysts for configuration and upgrade management.
  • Workflow – Analysts.

Ellucian Upgrades

Ellucian upgrades are performed on a quarterly basis. Individual responsibilities are documented in detail in a OneNote document. This is summarized here.

  • Lead Analyst
    • A single Analyst is assigned a lead for the All Analysts involved with Ellucian software rotate through this responsibility.
    • Coordinates with all other Analysts to ensure there is agreement on the details about the upgrade and manage communication during all points of the upgrade.
    • Ensures testing is done in the test system and works with others in IS to investigate issues, install patches, and troubleshoot system errors.
    • Performs a high-level system verification check before turning the system over to the Leads for final functional verification.
    • Ensures verification is completed in production by all Leads (or their surrogates) on upgrade day.
  • All Ellucian Analysts
    • Work with Leads on upgrade details.
    • Download and organize upgrade content packs for their respective areas.
    • Monitor for patches and other releases for their respective areas.
    • Monitor prerequisites for releases and patches.
  • Leads
    • Review upgrade content packs provided by Analysts.
    • Create and execute test plans for changes outlined in the upgrade (feature testing).
    • Create, maintain, and execute test plans to ensure core functionality continues to operate even if that functionality was not listed as being affected in the upgrade documents (regression testing).
    • Reports and manages issues discovered in testing as reported to the issue log.
    • Verify functionality in production on upgrade day or appoint a surrogate for this duty. A rule of thumb for production verification is to ensure that any processes that would bring your office to a halt should be verified even if those actions weren’t affected by the upgrade.

Support Areas

Table and data knowledge, including interpretation of data elements, lies primarily with the Leads. Reporting and data extraction for internal office use falls to the Leads. Reporting and data extraction for use outside of the university typically goes to the Office of Institutional Research (OIR). Depending on the nature of the information, even internal reporting might fall to OIR. While Analysts have the capability to do reporting and data extraction, they do not without explicit direction from the Leads as the functional areas “own” the data. Naturally, MIS is always available to assist with technical aspects of data management.

Creating and maintaining AppMan flows and data interfaces between systems is the primary responsibility of the Analysts. Analysts might also work with Leads to do one-time system changes, like loading a spreadsheet of data into a specific table.

Analysts act as a liaison between the Leads and other technical units in Information Services, advocating for technical needs both for and on behalf of Leads and their offices. Communication about technical changes and outages often fall (but are not limited) to the Analysts.

Third-party Software

Leads are responsible for determining software needs, coordination with other offices, development of the RFP process, decision-making, software implementations, functional software configuration, and communication with other offices, stakeholders, and end users of the software.

Analysts are a critical component for all of these tasks but in a supportive role. Analysts are primarily responsible for interfaces and data integration for new software as well as being responsible for the translation of technical documentation from the vendor.

Analysts and Leads manage vendor relationships together depending on the nature of any particular inquiry or task. Software management is the responsibility of both. Leads need to stay abreast of upcoming changes to existing and emerging software, particularly as it relates to the way software will function in their offices or areas. Analysts need to stay informed of technical changes and issues. Both roles are typically involved in communication channels and support sites for vendors.