Preparing Stakeholders for Reporting Changes

As part of the ongoing work in preparation for the new student information system (SIS), significant efforts have already been dedicated to the remediation of student data-related reports. Since July 2023, we have actively engaged with multiple schools and units to discuss the future state of reporting. These targeted engagements have focused on the remediation process and associated responsibilities with the aim of capturing reports specific to each school and unit and discussing next steps.

Project Overview

The primary goal of the Report Remediation Project is to ensure uninterrupted access to reports before, during and after the implementation of a new SIS. This endeavor of minimizing disruption and supporting report access involves identifying all reports pertaining to student data, understanding the goals of each report and how those goals will be met in the future, assigning responsibility for the remediation of each report, remediating and conducting testing each report, providing training to users of the reports and finally, releasing the remediated reports. 

While many of the reports are already going through this process, we are continuously meeting with stakeholders across the university to identify any additional reports that should be included in our inventory.

What’s Changing

In order to ensure continuous access, the remediation process for each reporting involves creating new versions of those existing reports using the Student Activity Hub (SAH) as the underlying source for the data rather than obtaining data from the Data Warehouse or other homegrown data systems. Additionally, these reports will transition from QueryLink, the current reporting tool, to the Cognos and Tableau reporting and analytics tools supported by IT Services.

The report remediation project will bring along with it some other changes. Many of these changes have already been happening in practice, and this project will formalize them going forward:

• Clearer roles and responsibilities for report developers and report consumers
• New look and feel to reports
• Field names will be more clearly defined (“Term Start Date” instead of “Date”)
• More robust data governance and security for enhanced protection of student data
• Defined processes for adding data to Activity Hubs and accessing data
• More options for training and support, including communities of practice

Preparing Stakeholders

We are engaging in early discussions with reporting stakeholders well before the implementation of a new SIS, with the purpose of preparing them for the upcoming changes and collaborating closely to ensure that no reports are overlooked or slip through the cracks.

One of the most significant changes to be addressed is the determination of individuals who will assume the role of report developer or report consumer in the future state. Report consumers run reports and analyze the data by viewing or interacting with pre-built reports, but they do not use analytics tools. On the other hand, report developers dedicate a significant portion of their time to working with data and utilizing analytics tools, while having extensive knowledge of data sources to build reports in Cognos/Tableau. Read about what we have heard from stakeholders about these roles. 

As we work to capture all student data-related reports, we are collaborating with each group of stakeholders to gather a complete list of the reports they use. This list will include important details such as the data source, the purpose of the report, the run count and any potential areas for enhancement. Once the group-specific list is completed, the reporting team will meet with those stakeholders again to review the list and gather additional information to inform on next steps. 

While the goal is to make as many enhancements to reports as possible during this remediation process, it is important to note that there is a delicate balance between completing all the required work to ensure each report itself gets remediated and the potential upgrades to them. The team will review each request to determine if the enhancement is possible, the resourcing required and if it adds value or is necessary for the overall reporting need. 

Want to Meet With Us?

Our goal is to connect with all key reporting stakeholders. If you or your team are involved in creating or using student data reports and haven’t heard from us yet, please reach out. Get in touch with us at esr-student@ucsd.edu and we’ll meet to discuss the project in further detail.