Impact

Priority and Funding

This is a compliance project which is funded from the core TTU Programme. Although set to NORMAL at the end of planning, a request will be submitted to raise the priority to HIGHEST as there is a small window in the Timetabling Unit calendar for this upgrade to be applied without impact. There are likely to be demands on the secured resources from other projects. Resources with Timetabling knowledge are limited in Development Technology and Development.

A budget of 175 days was initially estimated for this project, 80 days in 2017/8 and 95 days in 2018/19. However, due to delays in starting this project, the balance was adjusted to a greater number of days in 18/19. The budget is now 27 days in 2017/18 and an estimated 156 days in 2018/19, a total of 183 days.

Impact and Dependencies

This project has the potential to interfere with other Timetabling projects. To mitigate this, is has been agreed to use the approach adopted in TTU010 during the last upgrade, namely the build of a set of parallel timetabling servers with Scientia v3.14 software and to switch over to these from the existing servers.  

To ensure that any essential changes applied to the v3.12 environments are carried over to the new 3.14 environments, an appropriate change control process, to last for the duration of the project, will be agreed between the project team, the production team and the timetabling team.

TTU016 Timetabling Service Annual Re-build and Roll Forward to 18/19 will close during the same period as this project. And a new project TTU018 Timetabling Service Annual Re-build and Roll Forward to 19/20 will start. So careful co-ordination of the activities across projects will be required, particularly around the early SDB and Web Apps tasks for 19/20.

SAS005 Exam Timetabling and SAS014 MVM Room Booking will require some of the same resources over the same period, as will MLE004 Lecture Recording Expansion Phase. Project Managers will need to be aware of plans and work with the appropriate resourcing managers to resolve any conflicts. Any which cannot be resolved will be escalated as per the process in place.

There needs to be an awareness of the changes being considered by SAS0013 Comprehensive Student Timetabling and SAS014 Medical School Room Booking System Implementation and any decisions made regarding the way forward.

Technical skills and timetabling knowledge required will mean that some of the same resources will require to work on all these projects.

Project Risks