Impact
Priority and Funding
There are three issues with the Finance system which meant that a deadline of November 2017 was preferred. However, given the lack of confirmation or availability of resources from Advanced a February go-live is proposed. Nevertheless there are three reasons why eFinancials should be upgraded as soon as practically possible:-
- Java on the client: eFinancials requires Java installed on the client PC. For this browsers need to be supporting Java on the client. Many browsers stop supporting this functionality and there is a high risk that over the next year, browsers such as Firefox or IE based browser will also stop supporting Java. An upgrade of eFinancials should overcome this issue by moving to new technology, possibly Java Webstart.
- The underlying operating system is no longer supported by RedHat and the University has had to extend support until Feb 2019. This extension cannot be extended further and we will be running on an unsupported operating systems after this time.
- To enhance security on the on the Finance infrastructure there is a need to rebuild as soon as possible the whole of Finance services on new infrastructure to ensure we close old and potentially not fully secure services. The faster we move to a new infrastructure the better.
Based on the above issues the project should be setup as a priority 1 project.
The project will be core funded.
Contract negotiations with Advanced are ongoing. It is anticipated that the number of contracted days required from Advanced, excluding any BI Universe tasks, will be in the region of 25 days though this figure is based upon University estimates.
If an external organisation will be required to perform the penetration security testing, costing and funding will have to be confirmed. This is expected to be in the region of £10k.
Impact and Dependencies
As-is, Development and UAT testing will require Finance resources and this requirement will have to be carefully managed to minimise possible impacts. External business partners will also be required to support some testing.
The project will create a new DEV and TEST environment to eFinancials v5 and because interfaces can only point to one test environment at a time, at some point existing DEV and TEST (eFinancials v4.1) will have to be switched off. Engagement has begun with all project and programme managers to identify which projects are dependent upon eFinancials or could be affected by this switch of test environments. This will be an iterative process which in the first instance will identify those projects that could be interdependent / affected, then to quantify in more detail the nature of any dependency before confirming an approach for how this will be managed. The table below shows the results from the first stage of this ongoing engagement. In the “To watch column” projects have been listed as:-
- Yes – there is likely to be an interdependency that will require active management.
- No – the project or portfolio area can be discounted at this stage.
- Check – some further information is required and there may be an interdependency that requires management.
- A brief summary of the status of this activity is given against each project.
|
Where |
To watch? |
Project Ref |
Project Title |
Summary |
|
ISG Portfolio |
Check |
Library programme |
No projects inprogress but check Library system interfaces |
|
|
|
Check |
WEB009 |
WEB009 upgrading MyED |
Unlikely - go-live 20 February 2017 |
|
|
Check |
COM031 |
COM031 – Serengeti Upgrade |
Review - start and end dates of testing required. |
|
|
No |
|
2nd Serengeti upgrade |
Ignore - project scheduled after eFinancials |
|
|
Check |
|
BI Suite Service Pack |
Review - 1 week of testing likely this year (confirm test dates with Service Management) |
|
|
Check |
|
Planned for 17-18: upgrade Grouper |
Review - may be interdependencies with respect to Identity Management and SSO via EASE |
|
|
Check |
|
Planned for 17-18: upgrade IDM DB Migration |
|
|
|
Check |
|
Planned for 17-18: upgrade IDM SOA decommissioning |
|
|
|
No |
|
University website. Finance website is hosted on EdWeb |
Ignore - nothing linking website to eFinancials. |
|
|
Check |
|
Overall portfolio |
Confirmation required. |
|
|
No |
|
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or IT Service Management (SMI) |
Ingore - not aware of any dependencies |
|
CSG Portfolio |
Yes |
|
eTime: Guaranteed hours |
Review - two projects, one running now until end July and a second still to be planned. |
|
|
Yes |
|
eInviocing for Medium Suppliers |
Review - project start possibly April / May, yet to be planned. |
|
|
Check |
ACS036 |
ACS036 – Migrate Kx Database infrastructure |
Unlikely - testing Feb 2017 for 4 weeks |
|
|
Yes |
ACS037 |
ACS037 – Migrate Kx Application Server |
Review - yet to be agreed and planned, possible testing May / June. |
|
|
Yes |
AP67-033 |
Purchase to Pay |
Review - testing likely to be Nov, Dec, Jan |
|
|
Yes |
AP67-066 |
Archibus Upgrade |
Review - testing likely to be April, May, June |
|
|
Check |
AP67-052 |
Capital Budgeting (Primevera P6) |
Unlikely - timing likely to be after November 2017 |
|
|
Check |
AP56-21 |
Archibus Database Upgrade to Oracle 12 |
Unlikely - timing likely to be Q2 2017 / 18 |
|
USG Portfolio |
|
|
Overall portfolio |
Confirmation required. |
|
|
Yes |
College portfolios |
Implementation of Vet Management System (procurement project) |
Review - Likely interaction before November 2017. |
|
|
Yes |
RES064 |
Worktribe Research Management Upgrade project |
Review - UAT should complete 24 March. Changing test would be an issue. |
|
|
No |
RES060 |
PGR Integration |
Ingore - testing scheduled January 2017. |
|
|
Check |
SSP |
Student System Projects |
Review - PM would like to see FIN118 brief |
|
Finance |
Check |
|
Finance activities |
Review - further investigation required |
|
Other |
Check |
|
Managed desktop move to Windows 10 (and IE11) |
Review - likely to be summer 2017 |
Project Risks
A draft set of risks can be found within the FIN118 section of the projects web site.
A number of risks relate to Advanced: At present we do not have a fully confirmed scope or agreed contract number of days or when resources from Advanced can be available to support DEV, TEST and go-live. Engagement with Advanced is ongoing. It should also be noted that their contract will be on a time and materials basis so the University, to avoid costs escalating beyond budget will have to be prepared for when they are due on site.
A number of risks relate to securing resources from or for; Development Technology, Production Management and Finance to support testing.
Co-ordinating testing in some workflow respects will be complex. It is very important that a test approach that allows for the full control of the status of ongoing testing be agreed and implemented.
Understanding other project interdependencies and controlling carefully the change over of the current DEV and TEST environments will have to be carefully managed.
Java Webstart, the replacement browser proposed by Advanced is not in use with any of their other customers and so there could be additional risks as a potential early adopter. This product will be evaluated during DEV.
A number of risks relate to the BI Universes. In the worst case scenario i.e. the university has to complete all customisations and reformatting to the UNX format this work will not form part of this project. The FIN118 project will only install v5 universes connected to interfaces and connect old universes to the new database.
Ongoing security work relating to v4.1 may recommend changes to the v5 system architecture.