Last Edited May 6, 2011
Project Charter
Blackboard 9.1 Upgrade
Executive Summary
The Blackboard 9.1 Upgrade project is a partnership between the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Information Technology Services. The primary goal of the project is to upgrade to Blackboard 9.1 and a newer version of Oracle.
Business Need and Background
Several factors have led to the initiation of this project:
The 9.1 release of LEARN includes several features, bug fixes, and refinements that are often requested by users and will lead to lower support costs and are expected to improve application performance overall. The current version of LEARN run by UT Austin is 9.0 SP2.
The database version (Oracle 10g) on which Blackboard runs is no longer supported. The
Blackboard application itself must be updated before the database software can be upgraded to a supported version (Oracle 11g). This upgrade also opens the possibility of migrating the Blackboard service to the consolidated OaaS environment, thus further reducing support costs while increasing service availability.
UT Austin's Blackboard hardware platform is based on a specialized architecture (SPARC) that is expensive to maintain in comparison to commodity (Intel-based) hardware. SPARC is not required for the service's operation, and the the availability of robust virtualization technology on the Intel platform offers many advantages over SPARC.
Project Description
The Blackboard service administered by ITS Systems will be upgraded to the latest software version (9.1 SP3, at the time of this writing). This upgrade will be performed by building an entirely new
infrastructure for the service, then moving application data to the new infrastructure via Blackboard-supplied tools.
As the new environment is built, several other improvements will be made. Migrate from Solaris on SPARC to Linux on VMware vSphere 4 Move the database backend from Oracle 10g to Oracle 11g Build automated change lifecycle procedures
After users are cut-over to the new environment, the current Blackboard environment will be held in standby until administrators are confident that it is no longer needed. During this time, the standby systems will be inaccessible to end users.
Project Goals
Ideally, the transition to Blackboard 9.1 would be completely transparent to users. In reality, even subtle changes to the way the application works will result in a significant amount of support overhead. This overhead can be reduced by testing changes up-front, keeping interruptions short, and providing adequate communication and training opportunities to users.
Primary project goals
Make an orderly transition to Blackboard 9.1, requiring at most one 4-hour post-upgrade maintenance period for the purpose of correcting unforeseen conditions.
Incur less than 24 hours of unavailability of the production Blackboard system due to the upgrade.
Communicate the change in advance of deployment, and in regular intervals thereafter. Decommission the current Blackboard system on or before June 30, 2011.
The scope of the behind-the-scenes changes to the Blackboard service suggest that its support processes also be examined closely. The upgrade provides a great opportunity to use our institutional knowledge of Blackboard and do things right with regards to documentation, training, communication, and integration with other systems.
Once the new system is in place, we should see expect to see several improvements over our current Blackboard service.
Schedule and Milestones
The following is a list of the major project milestones and dates.
Milestone/Deliverable Target Date
Archiving of old courses begins Late April
Formal announcement about Blackboard 9.1 Upgrade sent to campus
May 9
Archiving of old courses takes place
May 4-29
Upgrade to Blackboard 9.1 complete
May 30
Training Workshops Available Summer & Fall
Scope
In Scope
The following deliverables or tasks are in scope for this project:
Switch operating systems on the new platform to Red Hat Linux 5 Install a new backend database using Oracle 11g 11.1
Use Blackboard application to 9.1, latest service pack on the new platform Transfer course data from the current Blackboard system to the new platform via
archive/restore
Include dev, test/stage, and production environments for all components
Develop automated system maintenance, deployment, and change management procedures Develop, document, and test backup, restore, and DR procedures for the new environment Communicate timelines for platform changes
Document all pertinent administration procedures
Develop end-user and support staff training and documentation for Blackboard 9.1
Out of Scope
The following deliverables or tasks are out-of-scope for this project: Tasks from parallel projects
Blackboard – Support Restructuring Project
Review and refine support procedures and escalation paths
Review and adjust service level agreements and data retention timelines Blackboard – Snapshot Process Improvements
Review and refine enrollment data snapshot process
Project Management and Governance
Role Name(s)/Title(s) Responsibilities Executive
Sponsors
Harrison Keller, Center for Teaching and Learning
Pei Chen, Information Technology Services
Responsible for the success of the project.
Project Manager David Moss Provide project planning, coordination, and
communications. Track progress toward completion of the identified project goals.
Communications Betsy Busby Generate documentation and communication. Technical Leads Mario Guerra, CTL
Sejal Shah, CTL
Role Name(s)/Title(s) Responsibilities Matt Wedgwood, ITS
Technical Team Shirley Cohen, ITS Thomas Nail, ITS Brant Kuykendall, ITS Clifton Brown, ITS Raymond Renieri, ITS
Confirm solution conforms to the standard operation guidelines of campus services.
Impact Analysis
This project is expected to have the following impacts: Customers: o UT Students o UT Faculty o UT Academic Administrators o UT Staff Support Staff:
o ITS Help Desk Staff
o CTL Blackboard Support Staff o ITS-Systems Server Administrators o ITS Communications Staff
Assumptions
The following assumptions have been made for this project:
This project depends on funding for new systems and software licenses. It is assumed that these purchases are funded and approved.
Constraints
This project has the following constraints:
As Blackboard is essential to a number of the academic processes of the University, care must be taken to avoid service disruptions that would affect courses or course-related
communications in any significant way.
Risks
This project carries the following risks:
Although the course transfer process to be employed by this project is commonly used, the scale at which it will be used is uncommon. It is possible that the time taken to transfer courses to the new system will extend the timeline of the transition.
It is important that users be trained and ready for the transition to the new version of
Blackboard. Even with a smooth changeover in the architecture and software, the Bb - Support Restructuring Project is an important complement to this project. Without success in that project, this project may be seen as a failure by measures outside its defined scope.
Revision History
Version Date Description
V 1 05/02/2011 Initial draft completed.
V1.1 05/04/2011 Incorporate internal feedback.
V1.2 05/05/2011 Updated date for formal announcement to campus
Signatures
Name Role Signature Date
Harrison Keller, Center for Teaching and Learning Executive Sponsor Pei Chen, Information Technology Services Executive Sponsor
