Overview

Executive Summary

 SMART (Student Marks And Records Tool) is a system thatmanages students’ coursework, exam and assessment results, course marks, degree progression and classification. This project has been raised as a follow up to the last enhancement project (STU221) delivered in August 2012. There are currently only two HSS schools (Divinity and Business School) using SMART. By addressing and prioritising enhancements and current bugs, this project will support other Schools within HSS in adopting SMART.

Business Objectives and Project Deliverables 

The first three objectives (No O1, O2, and O3) are mandatory.

The remaining objectives (no O4 onwards) have been prioritised by HSS/CSE users, and development will be done as per available budget.

 

No

Description

Phase

O1

Two new reports run from SMARTMI BOXI  and increase the frequency of the update of the Universe

1

D1

A report for exam boards that displays student classification profiles by mean for a given programme of study; contains all relevant course and exam details for a student on one page, for easy reference during an exam board. BOXI report to be based on the stakeholder agreed report ‘CHSS SMART report 1’.

 

D2

A quick glance, student-per-line report that shows progression over years 3 and 4, spread of achievement by classification, and indicates to an exam board whether a student is a borderline case. This report to be based on the ‘Prog Grad BS’ report produced by Paul Kydd and agreed by stakeholders.

 

      D3

Increase the current frequency of the SMARTMI Universe update (from once a day at the moment).It will either be directly updated from the SMART database (see performance risk 3.3) or the update frequency will be increased as per the users’ requirements (every hour 9.00 to 17.00). It is currently updated once overnight.

 

 

 

O2

 

Managing Pass/Fail results

2

 

   D1

Process to calculate and record Pass/Fail

 

   D2

Display Pass/Fail

 

   D3

Manage pass/fail in existing reports

 

 

O3

 

System scalability as increased use by HSS schools

 

2

 

  D1

Ensure that increased number of users can access SMART at the same time, that current queries remain efficient, and that system allows increased data storage. 

 

 

 

Prioritised enhancements

Priority

Phase

 

O4

 

Handling zeros and null values

 

1

 

2

D1

Resolution of zeros and null values in the output files reported by users

 

 

 

O5

 

Averaging marks/grades for a programme

 

2 (tied)

 

2

D1

Resolution of incorrect calculations of marks

 

 

 

O6

 

Modify the yearly roll over process

 

2 (tied)

 

2

D1

Improve the roll over process to allow PGT programmes to calculate programme results in Sept/Oct

 

 

 

O7

 

Change calculation of Honours degree from ratio of years 3 to 4 from 50:50 to 1:2

 

4

 

2

D1

Ability to enter 1:2 ratio

 

 

 

O8

 

Add a column to record reference at course level

 

5

 

 

2

D1

To allow users to record notes against a particular student on a particular course

 

 

 

O9

 

Vertical Text alignment in column headers for Progression Spreadsheets in SMART

 

6

 

2

D1

To allow vertical text alignment for ease of printing and viewing course marks on spreadsheets

 

 

 

O10

 

Investigate disappearance in SMART of BA Exchange students who study at Edinburgh from other universities

 

7

 

2

   D1

To ensure those students appear on the lists

 

 

 

Scope

The project’s scope is to deliver mandatory requirements and to include prioritised requirements that are enhancements/bugs fixes within the agreed budget. The prioritised requirements have been identified and agreed by HSS/CSE users at a meeting held by USD/SACS on 29/10/12. The enhancements which cannot be completed within the budget will be out of scope.

There will be two phases:

  • ·        Phase 1: Objective 1.

o    The reports are required for the Exam Board held in January 2013, and will be delivered in Dec 2012.

o    There will be more regular updates of the SMARTMI Universe used for reporting. Desirable for January 2013 Exam Board. Hard deadline is for May 2013 Exam Board.

  • ·        Phase 2: the remaining objectives will be delivered by end March 2013. The analysis, build, testing and deployments of the enhancements and bugs can be done in several iterations as they have now been prioritised. That will ensure a better use of IS Apps resources, increase confidence in delivering the project’s objectives and earlier use of the functionality.  Two iterations have been identified:

o    Iteration 1. Objectives 2, 3 and 4

o    Iteration 2: the remaining objectives

Out of scope:

  • User group has identified and prioritised issues that will be done as part of support. They will need to be coordinated so that they do not interfere with project work.

 

Problem with the ‘s’ being included on returns to registry in .csv files

(SMART wiki issue 34, incident I120119-0246)

1

Some keywords are not coming through the progression sheets in SMART

(SMART wiki issue 48, problem P1206-017)

2

Intercalated students show up with the wrong year

(SMART wiki issue 5, incident I120423-0298)

3

Some barcode labels do not appear to format properly

(SMART wiki issue 42, problem P1205-010)

4

Configure SMART to flag up the specific error when a user incorrectly keys in data

(SMART wiki issue 52, incident I120604-0127)

5

 

  • ·        It is expected that user documentation  and training are also out of scope of this project, and will be done by USD/SACS.

 

Category

This is a discretionary project.

Project sponsor has agreed to use the remaining 141 days from the HSS ring-fenced budget (initially 150 days budget minus 9 days used to complete STU221).

Milestones

 

Description

Date

Type (& Reason if Required)

Planning(this is when the project Terms of Reference and associated documents will be signed off)

16/11/12

Soft

Phase 1 BOXI reporting

PPAR(this is when the business requirements for the project will be signed off)

Phase 1

3/12/12

Hard to meet the end Dec deadline for the exam board to use the new reports in January

PPBR(this is when the build stage by Config Team of the project will be signed off)

7/12/12

Hard  as above

PPIR(this is when the solution will be fully integration tested by Service Management and signed off)

13/12/12

Hard  as above

ASOR (this is when the solution will be fully acceptance tested and signed off by the customer and user community)

8/1/13

Hard  as above

Deployment (this is when the solution will be deployed in the live environment)

9/1/13

Soft as could be delivered early Jan (w/b 7th Jan 13) still in time for the exam board

Deployment sign off

 

14/1/13

Hard  as above

Phase 1 SMARTMI Update of the refresh

PPDR

7/1/13

Soft as hard deadline for deployment is end March 13

PPBR

14/1/13

Soft

PPIR

21/1/13

Soft

ASOR

31/1/13

Soft

Deploy

7/2/13

Soft as hard deadline for deployment is end March 13

Deploy sign off

14/2/13

 

 

Phase 2 enhancements/bugs: Iteration 1

PPAR

10/12/12

Hard so that we can meet the code freeze for the exam diet starting 1/4/13 (end 10/6/13)

PPDR

 

28/1/13

Hard  as above

PPBR

 

25/2/13

Hard  as above

PPIR

 

28/2/13

Hard  as above

ASOR

7/3/13

Hard  as above

Deploy

13/3/13

Hard  as above

Deployment sign off

19/9/13

 

 

Phase 2 enhancements/bugs: Iteration 2

PPAR

 

18/12/12

Soft, Dev resource on iteration 1 until PPBR iteration 1

PPDR

 

4/3/13

Soft as will be hit by code freeze (starting 1/4/13, ending 10/6/13), and budget limit

PPBR

 

1/4/13

Soft as above

PPIR

 

4/4/13

Soft as above

ASOR

11/4/13

 

Soft as above

Deployment

 

19/6/13

End of code freeze (mid June) 

Deployment sign off

21/6/13

Soft as above

Closure of the project

10/7/13

Soft

 

 

Project Info

Project
Extension of SMART to HSS with Enhancements
Code
TEL003
Programme
CAHSS Portfolio Projects
Project Manager
Maurice Franceschi
Project Sponsor
Fraser Muir
Current Stage
Close
Status
Closed
Start Date
22-Oct-2012
Planning Date
n/a
Delivery Date
n/a
Close Date
09-Aug-2013
Category
Discretionary