DWA Status - March/April 2003
Curious about what's happening with the DWA project? Check this page for regular updates from Denis Dolbey, Barbara Jarrold, and Debbie Foster, project managers of the DWA Student, Human Resources, and Financial teams.
DWA-Student team news
Hello from your DWA Student Information Systems Team:
Denis Dolbey - Project Manager, Adrienne Heinzelman - System Analyst / Web
Master, and Sharon Peterson - System Analyst/Development Lead
As this is our first project status report, there are many points to share as we prepare for the implementation of Zangle, our new Student Information System, and 4GL School Solutions, our new special education information system.
Progress on the project is moving forward rapidly since the arrival of the contractors in December. Since then, vendor teams have arrived at the IMC office site and work is well under way as we are learning how the software functions. Teams from SDCS have attended programming training and configuration training. Numerous meetings have been conducted with Subject Material Experts (SMEs) to determine how Zangle and 4GL will be setup to address required functionality for SDCS. Analysis and design work is in progress for all development work items (customizations to Zangle agreed to in the contract) and this work and meetings will continue in the weeks and months ahead.
To assure that our SIS system will work as designed, seven schools have been identified as pilot schools to assist the team. The pilot schools include: the University City cluster (UC High, Standley Middle School, Curie, Spreckels and Doyle elementary schools); Twain Sr. High; and Garfield HS. Currently district IT staff is surveying the pilot schools to determine that appropriate equipment is in place as pilot schools will attend training in May. Also, each pilot school has met with project staff for a project and software overview presentation. Many of the questions addressed in the FAQ section of this web site have been a result of staff and teacher questions coming out of presentations.
Training in the use of the new systems is a key element in the project. In support of that effort our facility is located at the IMC. Our classroom is set up to accommodate 24 individuals with computer work stations. Along with our training room, a total training team of seven instructors from both vendors and SDCS will provide instruction on all applications. An extensive Training Plan is under development.
To assist the project team and provide direction and support a Principals' Advisory Group has been formed. Meeting are held monthly where issues are presented and direction provided by senior high, middle school, elementary principals, and central office managers.
The project team along with many district staff members are excited about the look and feel of our new systems. Both Zangle and 4GL will take us to the next level of functionality when handling the vast quantity of data we keep on our students. Each software package will provide new and exciting features that will take our business practice to the next level.
We look forward to sharing more information about the SIS Project in the months ahead,
Denis, Adrienne, Sharon
DWA-Human Resources team news
The HR team commitment: Inform you, involve you, support you and succeed with you!
Hi from the HR project team!
During the months of February and March, the DWA-HR team has been involved in numerous projects in preparation for the PeopleSoft implementation. Below are some of the events taking place:
- Defining/analysis of current business processing ("As-Is")
- Forms identification
- Report identification
- Fit-gap sessions and analysis
- Data cleansing
- Communication Plan deployment
- Change management planning
- Training for the project team on PeopleSoft modules and technical infrastructure
The team also attended PeopleSoft classroom instruction and participated in interactive web-cast broadcasts on the following courses:
- Introduction to PeopleSoft for HRMS
- Payroll Overview
- Intro to PeopleSoft/HR/Benefits - Accelerated - U.S.
- Human Resources
- Base Benefits
- Payroll 1
- Time and Labor
- People Tools I/II Accelerated (programming language)
- Integration Tools
- Recruiting Solutions
- Position Management
There will be more information available as we move forward in the DWA implementation project. Have a great March!
Human Resource's Tiger Team,
Barbara Jarrold, Bruce Roberts, Gary Altstadt
DWA-Financial team news
The Financial team commitment: To provide best-practice business processes, and real-time financial reporting for the visibility, control, and insight needed to make smarter, faster decisions.
Hello from DWA Financials Team-
During the month of February, the DWA Financial Team was involved in many projects preparing for the PeopleSoft implementation. The District's Financial Team, which includes: Rick Reynolds, Executive Sponsor, Debbie Foster, Financial Project Manager and Marie Laserna, Financial Technical Lead, welcome the Empower Solutions implementation team. Together we are in the process of documenting how our district currently is doing business. The process of understanding our current business practices is crucial to begin the trip to better business practices. In addition to defining our current business processes, here are a few other tasks we have been working on:
- Forms identification
- Report identification
- Fit-gap sessions and analysis
- Data cleansing
- Communication deployment
- Change management planning
- Training on PeopleSoft modules and technical infrastructure
The team also attended PeopleSoft classroom instruction and participated in interactive web-cast broadcasts in the following courses:
- Introduction to PeopleSoft for Financials
- General Ledger Overview
- Commitment Control
- People Tools I/II Accelerated (programming language)
- Integration Tools
- Purchasing
- Inventory
- Accounts Payable
Debbie Foster
DWA-Finance Project Manager
