Closure Review
Project Summary:
Objectives and Deliverables
No | Description | Delivered | Notes |
O1 | Business analysis of business requirements. |
| |
D1 | Scope analysis including an investigation of available methods of taking online payments for fines and/or fees. | Y | |
D2 | A Business requirements document, detailing prioritised requirements. | Y | |
| D3 | Architecture Document (TAD) | Y | MyEd TAD did not require updates. |
O2 | Online payments of library fines and fees |
| |
D4 | A method allowing patrons to pay fines online and in real time and integrating with university core finance systems. | Y | |
| D5 | A method allowing patrons to pay fees online and in real time and integrating with university core finance systems. | Y | |
D6 | A process to update patrons on the status (success/failure) of the online payment of a fine. | Y | May require patron to refresh |
| D7 | A process to update patrons on the status (success/failure) of the online payment of a fee. | Y | May require patron to refresh |
| D8 | A method ensuring fines are cleared and borrowing unblocked when a fine has been paid, this to happen in real time. | Y | |
| D9 | A method ensuring fees are cleared and borrowing unblocked when a fee has been paid, this to happen in real time. | Y | |
| D10 | A process to update patrons on the status (success/failure) of the clearing of a fine and unblocking of borrowing. | Y | May require patron to refresh |
| D11 | A process to update patrons on the status (success/failure) of the clearing of a fee and unblocking of borrowing. | Y | May require patron to refresh |
| D12 | A method allowing patrons to use credit currently held for paying for other university services ( eg printing) to pay library fines and fees. | N | desirable only |
| 03 | Enabling auditing, logging and troubleshooting. | ||
| D13 | The ability for staff to monitor and troubleshoot payment activity. | Y | |
| D14 | The ability for staff to audit and report on activity and payments. | Y | |
| O4 | Change to Business processes | ||
| D15 | A procedure to add true replacement cost and associated admin cost before fees become payable | Y | Business process |
In addition to these deliverables, a business process to enable refunds of fines or fees to be paid to users is in place.
Success Criteria
| Success Criteria | Achieved | Notes | |
| Deliver a process enabling patrons to pay fines online. | Yes | ||
| Deliver a process enabling patrons to pay fees online, once true replacement and associated admin costs are applied. | Yes | Business process to ensure correct replacement cost is applied | |
| Reduce time spent by library staff collecting cash payments for fines and fees. | expected yes | To be measured by business over a period of time | |
| Reduce number of patrons who are blocked from further borrowing due to unpaid fines and fees. | expected yes | To be measured by business over a period of time | |
| Reduce the amount of unpaid fines and fees owed by patrons who are about to leave the university. | expected yes | To be measured by business over a period of time | |
| Allow auditing and troubleshooting of payments made against fines and fees, and the updating of associated patron records. | Yes | ||
| Improve the student experience by allowing students to pay fines and fees when the Library heldesks are closed. | Yes | Payments have been made out of hours, whioch would not have been successful previously. | |
Schedule
Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 200 days
Staff Usage Actual: 80 days
Staff Usage Variance: -60%
Other Resource Estimate: 1 days
Other Resource Actual: 1 days
Other Resource Variance: 0%
Explanation for variance:
Project Estimate
The original estimate for this project - 200 days - assumed that local development effort might be required in order to deliver the project requirements. Business Analysis was carried out by IS Applications and it was agreed that the requirements could be satisfied by using the functionality already delivered by the vendor Ex Libris. The final project effort (as measured in IS Applications days) was therefore considerably less than the planning estimate.
Delivery milestone changes
The delivery milestone was delayed by several weeks (Item 10) . The reason for this delay was due to the decision to save the cost of an additional WPM gateway for fines and fees by sharing the WPM print-credit gateway. This required a small change to be made to the print credit function, which had to wait until the related coldfusion upgrade project was completed.
Successful delivery
As of 18/8/16, 687 individual fine payments had been processed, totalling £1697.96.
As the number of patrons using the library is low just now, the success criteria aiming to reduce the amount of time spent by library staff dealing with cash payments and to reduce the number of patrons barred from borrowing due to overdue fines will take some time to measure. However the project team has every expectation that these will be met.
Key Learning Points:
Cost vs delay
The delay to project delivery could have been avoided if the project had chosen to purchase an additional gateway rather than save money by using the existing gateway used by print credit. (see above). Using separate gateways would allow for more focussed user messages and error messages. However this would have come at a cost of £3k setup and £3k per annum ongoing.
Bamboo deployment
The deployment of the updated MyEd channel failed as an obsolete server was referenced in the bamboo plan. This server was switched off in between acceptance and delivery so it was not picked up on UAT. Developers should ensure that the checks in the bamboo plan are relevant.
Outstanding issues:
There are no outstanding issues for IS Applications staff.
Changes to the text printed on patron's bank statements is being arranged as a support call with WorldPay by Finance.