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Project Team
The Project Team that has been established for the University of Wisconsin System HRS Project consists of both University of Wisconsin staff and staff from the implementation partner, Huron Consulting Group. The HRS Project Team is responsible for ensuring that specific project goals are accomplished as a team. Team areas have been formed around functional business processes, technology, change management, and testing.
The project team consists of functional leads, technical leads, and subject matter experts. All leadership positions are structured as a partnership between a University of Wisconsin team member and a Huron team member. Team Huron bring a wealth of experience in the software, Oracle / PeopleSoft Version 9.0 HCM, as well as, project experience in high education institution and technical skills and experiences required for a successful implementation. The HRS Project Team has been established with five major areas of focus which are described below:
- Business Process and Application Teams – design business processes, recommend changes to policies, improve processes, recommend job changes, configure applications, create functional specifications, outline test scenarios / cases, and provide training content to the training team
- Technical Teams – build enhancements, develop interfaces, create conversion programs, configure security, install infrastructure, administer databases, and manage applications / tools
- Change Management Teams – engage campuses, communicate with users, train end users, organize job redesign, and provide application support
- Testing – prepare for, conduct and measure integration, systems, performance, parallel and user acceptance testing
- Campus Representation (from all campuses) – align campus processes and jobs with HRS, provide configuration values and interface extracts, cleanse and stage conversion data. This concept is elaborated further in the section titled Campus Engagement.
To assist with key parts of the project where the UW lacks specific in‐house technical expertise, the HRS team sought a consulting company with a successful history of helping universities implement PeopleSoft’s Human Capital management software suite. Using a standard state‐mandated public procurement process, UW System selected Huron Consulting Group as the implementation partner on this project. Huron was selected because of its relevant experience, competitive costs, and other factors outlined in the request for proposals. Working with the highly qualified UW experts, Huron is the prime contractor, responsible and liable for the performance of any subcontractors.
Huron provides weekly progress reports to the HRS project manager, documenting the specific hours worked by individual consultants. Huron must also provide detailed quarterly reports to justify all time and materials billed to the project. If Huron fails to meet its quarterly goals, liquidated damages will be assessed.
With a clear directive to hold down costs and maximize the project’s long‐term viability, project managers are working diligently to hire more UW staff to work on HRS. UW employees are being hired wherever possible to perform critical functions and provide ongoing support in a cost‐effective manner.