Completion Report

Project Summary:

The objectives of this project were to:

• Analyse existing course and programme monitoring processes across schools, highlighting common themes and areas of variation
• Explore feasibility of integrating quality monitoring data from existing university systems
• Produce a set of high level business requirements for a new college wide course and programme monitoring system
• Agree an implementation method for the new system

The project successfully delivered:

• Business analysis report comprising:
  • Existing University wide quality assurance principles and contextual information about the quality assurance environment in which it operates
  • Review of functionality within the existing Moray House School of Education system
  • Commonality and variations in process across the HSS schools, and key themes arising
  • Feasibility of integration with other University systems
  • Views from the other Colleges and current university QA initiatives
  • High level business requirements
  • Sources and types of QA data, levels of QA reporting and comparison of existing student survey tools

• Business requirements presentation to HSS QA Committee comprising:
  • Product Vision, Benefits and Roles
  • Target Process
  • High Level Requirements
  • System design principles
  • Agile methodology overview

The presentation of the analysis and requirements received positive feedback from the Project Sponsor, HSS QA Committee and project stakeholders in Student Systems and IS Apps Development Services.

The HSS QA Committee have agreed the principles set out in the business requirements presentation and are ready to move forward with an implementation project.  The method of implementation is expected to be an Agile project.

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 50 days

Staff Usage Actual: 49 days

Staff Usage Variance: -2%

Other Resource Estimate: 0 days

Other Resource Actual: 0 days

Other Resource Variance: 0%

Explanation for variance:

Delivered within budget

Key Learning Points:

Early engagement of the School QA Directors at their regular QA committee meeting was very effective in helping set the path for future discussions.

The School QA Director role is a cyclical appointment and projects that engage with this role should be aware that there may be a handover in role required by the Schools in question.  In this case, the previous incumbents did indicate they would retain an interest in the project and could provide support where necessary to the new incumbent.

Using an Agile coach to help prepare the right materials for a follow-up Agile implementation project brought the desired focus to the final analysis.

Outstanding issues:

No outstanding issues noted for this project.

A follow-up project is currently being scheduled for the system implementation. 

The business analysis and requirements reports from this project have stimulated some ongoing discussions about the technical aspects of the delivery of a new system to meet the requirements. 

Following the technical discussions, the software development method (including product owner role and governance) for the system implementation project will be agreed.