Dear Maricopa,
I wanted to take this opportunity to provide additional information concerning this morning's announcement that we are moving the go-live date for the Student Information System.
As I mentioned this morning, this decision was made in order to avoid any potential disruptions of student and faculty utilization. The underlying reason is that our load testing of the system is showing that without more trouble shooting the system could freeze or become unstable. We will not deliver the system until we can assure users that there will not be interruptions in service.
As we continued to test the new Student Information System, we found a number of factors which, when taken together, could have disrupted our students’ ability to register for next semester’s courses. Because all of us within Maricopa are focused on creating successful experiences for our students, we decided to avoid the possibility of that disruption.
As we look at a typical college schedule, we know there are only a few windows of time when you can implement a major change such as the Student Information System without running into such activities as registration. To minimize potential disruptions, our goal is to introduce the system at a time when traffic is not at its high point and the system is not being relied upon for the peak registration process.
We could and did anticipate the kinds of issues that have arisen, and we have been able to deal with them. What we did not fully anticipate were the number of issues and their complexity. Given their number and complexity, we could not be sure we could eliminate all the obstacles before the October go-live date. Rather than face that risk, we decided to move the date.
We have confidence that we can bring the system on-line early next year. We know this because we know how other organizations have accomplished these tasks with similar systems. There are multiple steps to be taken. We know what they are and how to accomplish them. Dealing with the issues that arise might be thought of as detective work -- identifying and solving a series of problems. We have been proceeding successfully with that work. Based on our progress and the work of other people with other systems, we’re confident we can deliver an effective system by the time the next “window” opens.
In the days ahead we will be working to clarify training schedules, establish a new go-live date, and taking action to keep momentum on the project. We will keep you informed.
I want to let you know how much I appreciate all the hard work done to date by so many of you on the implementation of the new Student Information System. There are hundreds and hundreds of employees who have contributed directly and indirectly to this project, and I want to thank you, personally, and on behalf of all of our colleges, for your hard work. I hope you understand that you are making a major contribution to fulfilling the District's primary mission of student success, and I'm confident we can count on your continued support.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you.
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Darrel Huish
Chief Information Officer
Information Technology Services
Maricopa Community Colleges
Work: 480-731-8102
Assistant: t.summers@domail.maricopa.edu 480-784-0520