Previous Hot Topics have been archived here.

Key Dates for the SIS Project, March through August, can be found here.

Key Issues – ISIS Implementation – Areas of potential risk

Updated 3/2/2010

The ISIS project team and campus offices continue to assess the risk of various components of the project on a daily basis. Each of these risks can potentially delay implementation of the go-live dates noted above.  Please contact your campus liaisons (Teri.Burleson@ucdenver.edu; kaye.orten@ucdenver.edu) for up-to-date information.

Risk 1: Data conversion/validation for continuing students from SIS to ISIS.

 - We continue to work on data conversion/verification of 95,000 student records from SIS to ISIS. This data set includes complete academic history records for any student enrolled in Spring 2009, Summer 2009, Fall 2009, and Spring 2010 terms. 

Originally planned for 2/8/2010, the final data conversion estimated timeline is now 3/15/2010

- Transfer credit is incomplete for some number of students. Anticipated resolution of transfer credit; 3/15/2010.

- Students with multi-CU campus institution coursework need to be corrected. Anticipated resolution: 3/15/2010.

Impacts of this risk:

Until data conversion is completed, students cannot be authenticated or allowed into the current student portal and Campus Solutions Student Center.  The Student Center is where students will view schedule options and register for classes, view and accept financial aid awards, and pay tuition and fees.

Until transfer credit is accurate, and until cumulative statistics are accurate, student level, cumulative hours and points may not be accurate.  Accurate data also required for financial aid packaging, registration time assignments, and registration/advising based on student hours, GPA, and pre-requisites.

Therefore, portal, registration and financial aid packaging will not take place until these data are accurate.

Delay of financial aid packaging may impact both new and continuing student enrollment. Financial Aid is a critical component to a student's decision to register for classes. 

Risk 2: Approximately 21,000 duplicate records in ISIS must be researched and resolved.

Where possible, data are merged into 1 student record.  Deadline: 3/1/2010.

Impacts of this risk:

Until duplicate student records are resolved, we cannot begin registration or financial aid packaging.

Risk 3: Completion of all customizations and interfaces required for go-live.

We continue to assess which tasks are critical to go-live for fall 2010, and which tasks may be delayed until later in the implementation.

Examples of tasks critical to go-live include:

College Opportunity Fund (COF) authorization and processing concurrent with course registration/enrollment

Accurate instructor and advisor information tied to students and courses

Risk 4: Portal availability and response time

Access to admission information, registration, financial aid, and billing will all be part of the student portals.  It is critical therefore that the portals are reliable, and available.

Part of the portal readiness analysis includes load testing and monitoring, to assure that estimated numbers of concurrent users (students, faculty, and staff) can be accommodated with good response time. This is particularly critical during registration and drop/add, but also impacts things like students checking their admission status. 

We have learned much about portal issues during the first several months of  operation of the prospective student portal, particularly related to security and log-on problems, capacity planning, etc.  This information will be used to modify planning for the enrolled student portal.

Risk 5: Access to Data

Most units on the campus rely on some sort of student data in daily business. This may take the form of ad-hoc queries, standard reports, data base extracts, or other means you have relied on the in the past to get student information.  All of this will change for fall 2010 as we move to ISIS. 

Impact of this Risk:

Data fields have changed between SIS and ISIS - for example, college and major are now program/plan stack. If you don’t know how data have translated between SIS and ISIS, your query or report may be pulling data from an invalid field.

• If you have not already been involved in data reporting workshops to learn about new data warehouse reporting tools, data element name changes, and underlying  data structures, contact Sid.Eaton@cusys.edu. Any queries or reports written within your unit will be your responsibility to rewrite using ISIS data, data standards and reporting tools. The data group chaired by Sid Eaton has been working for over a year to identify common queries that can be re-used by various business units, available as “public queries.” There is a centralized vetting/testing /data verification process that these queries must pass through before being made public.

• If you rely on data base extracts to feed to a subsystem in your office, contact Teri.Burleson@ucdenver.edu to learn about the data access standards and approval process now required for data bases outside of ISIS system of record.

• The Registrar’s office will continue to be your resource for individual student data. For more information, contact Daniel.Parks@ucdenver.edu.

• The university's IR office will continue to provide aggregate data via on-line reports (through the IR web site). For more information, contact Christine.stroup-benham@ucdenver.edu.