University Office for Planning and Budgeting

Special Projects

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University Office for
Planning & Budgeting
Henry Administration Building,
Room 338
506 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801-3639

Email: uopb@uillinois.edu
Phone: (217) 333-6600
Fax: (217) 333-6355

University Office for Planning & Budgeting

Data and Research >Institutional Code System for the University of Illinois

2002 Codebook Re-engineering Project

Team Members | Scope Statement | New System/Enhancement Request

Team Members

    Randy Kangas, Director, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
    Linda Meyer, Codebook Custodian, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
    Jo Menacher, Codebook Custodian, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
    Kristen Travis, Business Systems Analyst, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
    Paul Masters, Research Programer, Administrative Information Technology Services

Scope Statement

Overview | Stakeholders | General Objectives | Risks
Decision Support | Benefits to UI Integrate | Next Steps

Overview
The University of Illinois is actively replacing the majority of its core business systems with an Enterprise Resource Planning system, known as UI-Integrate. A successful institutional policy and set of business practices pertaining to institutional code structure is critical for the success of all University systems.  Below is a list of working assumptions for institutional code structures:

  • The codebook will be the source for official records of the University;
  • All systems dependent upon mainframe operation will have to be transitioned from the mainframe including the current codebook system.
  • UI-Integrate and UOPB will work together to consider what type of interface is needed between the current system and SCT Banner (a technical question);
  • UI-Integrate and UOPB will together consider the business process by which institutional code issues will be monitored and managed between the codebook and SCT Banner;
  • Communication:  UOPB and UI-Integrate will coordinate communication with stakeholders and others to ensure that the understanding of the current system is correct and monitor any issues and/or concerns.  UOPB will initiate stakeholder meetings when input and/or review is needed;
  • UOPB (with stakeholder assistance) will ensure that the re-engineered authoritative codebook system contains the institutional coding structures necessary for the success of all University systems; and
  • AITS resources are necessary for the success of this re-engineered codebook initiative.

Stakeholders
The University Office for Planning and Budgeting (UOPB) is the custodial unit for the current Institutional Code System. The University of Illinois' institutional code system is the official system of record for the following units, entities and related information:

Administrative Units
Campus
College
Department
Division

Instructional Entities
Curriculum
Degree
Classification of Instruction Programs (CIP Code)

Within that system are a number of stakeholders, including:

  • Administrative Information Technology Services
  • Decision Support
  • University Office for Planning and Budgeting
  • UI-Integrate
  • Academic Affairs (all campuses)
  • Office of Admissions and Records (all campuses)
  • Business and Financial Services (all campuses)
  • Data Resources and Institutional Analysis (UIC)
  • Budget & Planning (UIS)
  • Institutional Studies (UIS)
  • Division of Management Information (UIUC)

More indirectly, there are a number of local systems that rely on the Institutional Code System as a resource.  Currently UOPB custodians regularly communicate with these stakeholders.

General Objectives
  • Develop a plan for re-engineering the current Institutional Code System;
  • Participate in historical Codebook data discussions concerning SCT Banner and the Enterprise Data Warehouse;
  • Fulfill Planning & Budgeting's custodial obligations toward institutional codes, even as they transition to a new form;
  • Review current policies concerning institutional codes;
  • Ensure facilitation, communication and partnership among UI-Integrate, non-Banner systems and stakeholders in the future maintenance of this data;
  • Explore and analyze University Code reorganization and streamlining proposals as related to  Banner; and
  • Facilitate stakeholder involvement.

Risks
  • During transition, it is important to recognize potential impacts to operational systems that rely on institutional codes, for example, the security that is currently built around campus systems using department codes.

Decision Support
  • Decisions made on how to define the institutional codes and related issues will be key to the downstream decision support system.  Institutional codes are a major dimension on which report development and distribution is based.

Benefits to UI-Integrate
  • Coordination of codes between the Institutional Code System and Banner prior and post Banner implementation

Next Steps
  • Discuss scope with key stakeholders, including UI-Integrate management.
  • Seek agreement on role of new application, e.g., meaning of authoritative source, relationship to Banner code tables, use as source for Decision Support
  • With UI-Integrate management:
    • Identify status of code processes within UI-IntegrateIdentify key contacts for management of transition issues, such as table maintenance and quality control
    • Discuss relationship between future application and future Banner system
  • Outline plan to identify requirements for new application
  • Identify, charge and meet Design Team

 New System/Enhancement Request

Project Name | Sponsoring Office | Principal Client Contacts | Scope
Purpose/Description | Timeframe | Alternatives | Recommendation
Impact | Project Benefit | Cost | Enhancement-Specific

Project Name:
Institutional Codebook System Project (ICS)

Sponsoring University Office:
Steve Rugg - University Office of Planning and Budgeting (UOPB)

Both the UI-Integrate Project (Margaret Krol) and Decision Support (Linda Bair) are aware of this initiative and Margaret has met with UOPB to review the scope and objectives of this project. The UI-Integrate Project has committed to work with UOPB in the documentation of requirements for this project. 

Principal Client Contacts:
Randy Kangas, Director, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
Linda Meyer, Codebook Custodian, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
Jo Menacher, Codebook Custodian, University Office for Planning and Budgeting
Kristen Travis, Business Systems Analyst, University Office for Planning and Budgeting

Project Scope:
This project will re-engineer the current Codebook System into a new Institutional Codebook application.  The current Codebook System is one of the mainframe applications that must be re-platformed to function in a client/server environment.  In addition to re-platforming, this project will enhance the current system to:

  • interface with the UI-Integrate Banner application
  • streamline the current manual processes, automating where possible
  • develop processes to synchronize code maintenance across multiple administrative systems
  • increase the accessibility of current and historical code data to all units

Project Purpose/Description:
Background:  The University Office for Planning and Budgeting (UOPB) is the custodial unit for the current Codebook System. The University of Illinois' Institutional Codebook System will replace that system and become the official system of record for the following administrative units (Campus, College, Department and Division) and instructional entities (Curriculum, Degree and Classification of Instructional Programs).

Banner does not provide complete replacement functionality for the current Codebook System used to maintain official University of Illinois names, including tracking and retaining history of those names.  The mainframe platform for the existing Codebook System will be decommissioned after the completion of the UI-Integrate project.  Therefore the existing Codebook System will be replaced by a new system on a server-based platform and re-engineered to incorporate the functionality Banner does not provide.

Concern:  To retain the ability to manage how some code values are set on a University-wide or cross-campus basis and to retain the current functionality that Banner does not provide. Some items (academic colleges, departments and degree programs) must be approved by state agencies.  A current approval process exists; an agreed upon approval process must be in place for Banner codes.

Need:  To retain an official system of record for institutional codes for the University of Illinois.

Desired Project Implementation Timeframe:
Institutional Codes are present in all Banner modules, therefore the ideal timeframe has already passed.  Of the modules to deploy in calendar year 2002, both organizational and academic codes play a major role in the Recruiting and Admissions module, but implementation of that module begins in January 2002, making it unlikely that the module team would choose to source from an as-yet un-designed system. 

Therefore the first target for interface between Banner and a new Institutional Codebook System would be the Finance module deployment on July 1, 2003.  This target is aggressive, since implementation of the Finance modules start July 1, 2002, meaning that a new Institutional Codebook System would have to be in place by May 2002. 

A fallback target is completion by December 2002.  This date would allow the Records and Registration project (work planning to start in May 2002 and deployment in March 2004) to be the first Banner module to use the new system.  The Records and Registration module, like Recruiting and Admissions, will make extensive use of academic and institutional codes. 

Alternatives Considered:

    1.  Having Banner as the authoritative source for instructional entities and academic units.

    The University will implement the SCT Banner Finance, Student and Human Resources products.  Finance and Student have separate organizational coding structures that are not integrated among the products.  Finance has a 6-character field for an organizational code within the FOAPAL string, while Student has separate tables for each type of organizational entity. Therefore, Campus, College, Department and Division in the Student product do not match the coding structure of Campus, College, Department and Division in the Finance product.  Both Finance and Student teams have worked together to come up with corresponding academic codes and descriptions and will try to keep the synchronization between both sets of codes, but the coding structures are still distinct in each product.

    Further, in the Student product, descriptions (i.e. titles) are 30 characters in length and are 35 characters in the Finance product.  The University has official titles that are 50, 55 and 86 characters long.  Changing the official titles would be an arduous process that would have to be coordinated with the Board of Trustees and the Illinois Board of Higher Education.  Thus, there needs to be a system outside of Banner that can store titles longer than 30 and 35 characters in length.  Discussion with campus and University level offices that make extensive use of the University's coding scheme indicate that the University needs a single, coherent source for institutional codes that also keeps track of code history.   Banner, by virtue of its split structure and lack of code history for academic codes does not meet this more general need.2.Retaining the current Codebook System.

    Retaining the current Codebook System is not feasible because its mainframe platform is being decommissioned.  The question is whether to use Banner for institutional code needs, re-platform the current Codebook System without modification or reengineer the current Codebook System while re-platforming it. 

Recommendation:
The recommendation is to re-engineer the current Codebook System.

Ensure facilitation, communication and partnership among UI-Integrate, non-Banner systems and stakeholders prior to developing any data structure and in the future maintenance of this data.  Involve end-users in evaluation and accountability for the success of the project. 

Impact on the University's Enterprise Resource Planning System, Existing Legacy Systems, Network Infrastructure and Established Service Level Agreements (SLA):

All systems dependent upon mainframe operation will have to be transitioned from the mainframe, including the current Codebook System.  Since the Codebook System will also be the source for official instructional entities and administrative units codes at the University, re-engineering the Codebook System is necessary for the success of UI-Integrate and other operational systems using these official institutional codes. Banner and the Institutional Codebook System must interface with each other since the Institutional Codebook System will be the official institutional coding source and Banner is an official operating system, thus the two sources must be consistent with each other.

Impact on Academic and Administrative Units:
Any official UI source for codes that is outside of Banner must interface with the Banner system and the procedures that maintain the Banner system to:

  • ensure that Banner has correct and current codes
  • ensure that there is no confusion over what system and what procedures are creating and modifying official codes 
  • ensure compatibility between two official sources of information, i.e., Banner for operations and ICS for institutional codes.

Positive Impact:

  • A place for official names for titles and diplomas
  • Streamlining the code approval process, decreasing the amount of manual labor involved in maintaining the current system.

Projected Benefit:
  • One authoritative source for administrative unit codes and instructional entity codes, therefore reducing potential confusion over which codes are the authoritative codes;
  • Eliminating the need to manually synchronize the current Codebook System with Banner, or code values within Banner;
  • Reducing the possibility of non-approved codes going into Banner, therefore reducing the impact of data associated with erroneous codes or codes not approved;
  • Retaining the functionality of true effective dating of instructional entities and academic units in order to retain historical information

Projected Cost:
  • Client/server hardware &software
  • AITS technical resources (including EAI messaging capabilities)
  • On-going maintenance resources
  • Analyst and Custodian resources for design
  • UI2 staff time to design, develop and test interface and to coordinate on maintenance issues

Enhancement-specific:
  • Need to retain the ability to create user reports currently held in mainframe applications, web interfaces and warehouse tables.  The Decision Support environment should support Institutional Codebook System data.
  • Need to include a maintenance component that will streamline the current manual processes. This would allow persons who initiate code requests (possibly due to re-organizations of academic units or creation of new instructional entities) to maintain on-line the status of code requests.

1998 Codebook System Analysis

Introduction | Project Report | Links to Codebook Products | Announcement Notice

Introduction

In the modern world institutions of all types find themselves increasingly dependent upon electronic information systems to reach their goals. In building these systems an effort is made to embody into the system a representation of the structure and practice of the institution. Inaccuracies in this representation result in a loss of efficiency, if not outright failure by the institution to meet is goals. At the University of Illinois the electronic system which represents the organizational structure of the University at its most fundamental level is the codebook system. Consequently, nearly every University business or educational system relies on this structure to perform its function.

In the summer of 1998 the Office for Planning and Budgeting, as the custodial office, began an investigation and analysis of the codebook system. In partnership with AITS this project has produced three products:

  • a report detailing the findings of the project
  • a new Information Warehouse product containing data extracted from the codebook system
  • a set of web based reports built upon the codebook data contained in the Information Warehouse.

Codebook Project Report

Note: The full report is 146 pages long. The first 48 pages constitute the main portion of the document, the remainder consists of a set of appendices. You may want to examine the appendices before printing them all to save paper.

Links to Products
The Codebook product may accessed directly through Sybase or via the Codebook Web Reports. Link directly to the Web Reports, or see the Information Warehouse Metadata web site for more information about connectivity.

Release Date
The Codebook products are available for use as of August 3rd 1999. See the announcement letter for full information.