Continuity Planning Conversations Recap

Continuity planning is an essential component of the ISIS Replacement Project. Before our student information system called ISIS gets shut off, the Continuity Planning team has to make sure that business processes connected to it will continue to run as smoothly as possible, so we can minimize the effects of the decommissioning of ISIS on students, staff and faculty. We do this by determining which systems are connected to ISIS currently and determine how they will continue to function after ISIS is shut off and the new SIS goes live. Read more about who is behind continuity planning and the history of continuity planning in the article "Planning for Continuity Planning."

Over the past several months, the team has had the opportunity to connect with functional experts across campus to discuss the continuity planning process, review any existing inventory items related to their unit or department, and inform them on how to document their existing systems in preparation for continuity planning efforts. We have met with 15 different groups so far, such as the School of Social Sciences, Rady School of Management, Division of Extended Studies (DES), and Student Health and Well-Being, among others. We have learned a lot from talking with these groups, and we wanted to share what we've heard from those conversations. 

Continuity Planning vs. Report Remediation

During several of the meetings we attended, including those with the School of Social Sciences and with the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, we were asked to elaborate on or clarify the differences between continuity planning and report remediation, both of which are essential in our efforts to replace ISIS. The Continuity Planning team is responsible for assisting the schools and units in identifying applications and bespoke systems that connect to ISIS. The team collaborates with the school or unit to plan out how to determine the appropriate continuity of functionality. This includes a wide range of functions, including accounts receivable (AR) data, which was mentioned by Student Health and Well-Being during our meeting with them.

The Report Remediation Project is focused on remediating existing reports to use the Student Activity Hub as the data source. With that said, there is some overlap between the continuity planning and report remediation efforts. Reports determined to be out of scope for the Report Remediation Project are to be remediated by the unit, department, or school that owns the report, and Continuity Planning provides oversight to their remediation progress. 

To Be or Not to Be Inventoried 

During our meetings with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and others, they asked a great clarifying question regarding what should be included in the continuity planning inventory. It is important to emphasize that any sort of application and bespoke system that would not work if ISIS was shut off should be included in the inventory. We are looking for any system that pulls data from the student data warehouse or other upstream student systems that would encounter issues if it could connect to ISIS. 

Our efforts are best accomplished by having an exhaustive and complete list to ensure that all applications and systems are being accounted for in the continuity planning process. For example, during our meeting with DES, they asked us to clarify whether processes managed in a spreadsheet should be added. There are many circumstances, such as manual processes like these, that should be reported to ensure comprehensive continuity planning. Some may be added to the report remediation efforts, but we would rather hear about them than not.

Another great question we received regarding what to put into the inventory came from our meeting with the Skaggs School of Pharmacy. They asked if inventory items are categorized into buckets for analysis, such as items for graduate, undergraduate and certification programs. Say-Ho Tan, IT Services’ Director of Research and Advancement Information Services, responded that some mixing of data is needed and that we need to analyze the current state to better understand those variations, make note of them and work together to determine where they best go. 

Continuity Planning Timeline 

Another similarity between continuity planning and the Report Remediation Project is that they both are processes that are being worked on and must be completed by the time the new SIS goes live. Each item in their inventories will need to be evaluated and will have their own individual completion dates for continuity planning or remediation. We will be working and collaborating diligently with schools and units across the campus to ensure that we prepare for the continuation of business processes before the new SIS goes live. 

If we have not met with your unit, please contact us to schedule an initial continuity planning meeting. We would love to meet with you and collect as much information as we can about your existing applications and systems. Please contact esr-continuity@ucsd.edu to schedule a meeting with the Continuity Planning team, or if you have any questions about continuity planning.