Review now required for student data or technology requests

Governance group assesses projects to ensure no unanticipated impacts to Workday Student implementation  

The provost’s office has established a Student Administrative Domain governance group to review and approve technology projects that impact student data and systems in connection with Student Sunrise. The group, which formed in 2021, includes representatives from the Office of the Provost, University Registrar, WashU IT, Student Sunrise and other key units, such as Student Affairs.  

“The group is really focused on creating more transparency around current or planned investments that impact student systems at both the university and school levels,” said Erin Culbreth, group chair and senior associate provost.

“We are replacing nearly 100 systems with Workday Student, so we need to be cognizant about continued investments in systems that will be retired or unnecessarily expanding our already complicated student systems environment. We also don’t want our campus partners to expend resources to duplicate functionality that is coming with Workday or create unanticipated work for others that might delay the implementation timeline,” said Culbreth.

Review process

The process to submit a project for review is simple. Schools, departments and teams can submit details via this form. Submissions are reviewed monthly. 

When thinking through projects and submissions, project leaders should consider the following factors:

Compliance
Does the project meet a critical operational need that puts compliance at risk? 

Uniqueness
Will your project duplicate any functionality provided by Workday Student?

Timing
What is the desired timing? Any new technologies or enhancement projects need to be complete and operational before the end of the 2023 calendar year or wait until September 2025, when we are fully live and functioning on Workday Student.  

Integrations
Does the project involve an integration with Workday Student? Currently, more than 240 integrations must be designed, built and tested between Workday Student and existing systems. This volume of work is substantial and carries significant risk. 

Resources
Will your project require any resources from WashU IT? Many new projects that require resources from WashU IT, Sunrise and others are already authorized. Additional projects or enhancements may not be feasible given resource constraints. 

SIS impact
Does the project require a touchpoint with our current SIS systems (e.g., SISAdmin, WUCRSL, etc.) or student data? These systems are in a ‘contain’ phase, meaning no new touchpoints or reconfigurations should be developed unless operationally critical.