7.2 PILOT IMPLEMENTATION SCOPE AND TIMING 7.2.1 Pilot Objectives
The primary objective of the pilot project is to ensure that the BCeSIS application meets the educational and administrative requirements of the First Nations schools. Additional secondary objectives include:
• Testing the deployment and implementation processes • Testing the training strategy and implementation
• Testing the hardware and internet infrastructure of First Nations schools. • Testing the helpdesk and support structures and to streamline operations
accordingly.
• Understanding what business practices/and or policies need to be adjusted. • Understanding the need to adjust existing roles.
7.2.2 Pilot Scope
The scope of the pilot is limited to
• Five schools of various types and sizes for the last couple of months of the 2006/2007 school year.
• A period of two months from May 2007 to the end of June 2007.
• Student Demographics and Attendance functionality in order to simplify the implementation and support requirements, in addition the intention of the limiting of functions will allow users to become comfortable with the BCeSIS application and thereby manage the rate of change before implementing the full function list. It is the intention to implement the rest of the functions as a continued roll-out for the pilot group at the beginning of the 2007/2008 school. It is also anticipated that the pilot schools will maintain their current student information system until the end of the 2006/2007 school year.
Out of the scope of the pilot:
• Addition of any new ICT infrastructure. • Enhancement to BCeSIS software.
7.2.3 Pilot Schools
The following First Nations schools have been selected to participate in the BCeSIS pilot. Upon completion of the pilot project, a formal evaluation will be conducted. The results of the pilot will be used to refine the implementation process. Educators from the pilot schools will be requested to participate in the decision-making process that will be used to determine how the system should be configured to meet their needs. The pilot should be seen as part of a business change process where technology is merely the enabler. The decisions made at setup time will directly impact on how the system will behave for end users (teachers, administrators etc.).
Bella Bella Community School Heiltsuk 235 K4-G12
Maaqtusiis School Ahousat 224 K4-G12
Sk’elep Community School Kamloops 112 TBA
Sk’il’ Mountain School Seton Lake 70 K4-G12
Stein Valley – Nlakapamux School Lytton 111 K4-G12
7.2.4 Pilot Functions
BCeSIS is a functionally rich application that addresses a wide range of needs for all districts. As stated earlier, it is imperative that the rollout of functionality be commensurate with the schools capacity to absorb the change. In order to address this, the implementation of functionality has also been broken down into two stages. The first stage will focus on implementing Student Demographics and Attendance functionality only and the second stage will focus on implementing Marks, Gradebook, and the use of BCeSIS Report Cards.
The following chart provides the list of the functionality contained within BCeSIS and the staged roll-out approach. A brief description of the functionality can be found in Appendix F of this document.
Students Used in 1st Stage Used in 2nd Stage
Student Demographics Yes Yes
Marks No Yes
Courses Yes Yes
Attendance Yes Yes
GPA No Yes
Schedule and Master Time Table(MTB) No Yes
Enrolment Yes Yes
Diploma No Yes (For BC Dogwood)
Portfolio No No
Program Groups and Types Yes Yes
Standardized Tests No Yes (For BC Provincials)
Report Cards No Yes
School Used in 1st Stage Used in 2nd Stage
Course Maintenance Yes Yes
Course Section Maintenance Yes Yes
Fees No No
Incident Tracking No Yes
Injury Accident No Yes
Transportation No No
Scheduling Yes Yes
Curriculum No Yes
Health/Medical No Yes
Analyze Diploma No Yes (For BC Dogwood)
Registration Yes Yes
Withdrawal Yes Yes
Teacher Assist Used in 1st Stage Used in 2nd Stage
Attendance Yes Yes
Classrooms Yes Yes
HomeRoom Yes Yes
Marks No Yes
Gradebook No Yes
Reporting Used in 1st Stage Used in 2nd Stage
1701 Extract Yes Yes
TRAX Extract Yes Yes
Report Cards No Yes
GDE No Yes
Intergrade Class Extract No No
7.2.5 Pilot Timeline and Roll-out
This section contains the pilot roll-out timeline. The following table provides the eight stages of implementation for the pilot schools. The first few phases are largely district level work phases, however pilot school input is going to be critical to the successful initial set-up and configuration. The projected go-live date for the pilot schools is 4th May 2007. The last couple of phases are for evaluation to enable the implementation team to refine the implementation process and to increase the efficiencies of internal operations to better serve the needs of First Nations schools.
Start and Completion Date Tasks
Phase 1 – Jan 31st - 2nd Feb 2007 Define Company Profile, District set up and definition of First Nations defaults.
Phase 2A – Jan 31st - 2nd Feb 2007 Definition of school roles completed as part of the overall implementation plan.
Phase 2B – Jan 31st - 2nd Feb 2007 Definition of system/technical assessments completed as part of the overall implementation plan.
Phase 3: - Feb 5th - 28th Feb 2007 Define and establish central school set-up parameters and system codes requirements; communications, security setup etc. (with school input)
Phase 4: - March 1st - 30th March 2007
Define and execute schools detail work items, including school setup, security setup, etc
Trainers should be trained on First Nations policies and practicing during this phase.
Phase 5: - April 1st - 4th May 2007 Delivery of user training; final set up, conversion of data etc.
Helpdesk (contracted to iGroup) personnel trained on First Nations policies and procedures, and access granted for First Nations schools.
Phase 6: - 7th May 2007 Implement pilot schools; Go-live; Level 1 support functioning.
Phase 7: July 2007 Evaluate effectiveness of implementation process with feedback from pilot schools.
Phase 8: Feb 2008 Evaluate internal processes and operations (i.e. helpdesk, on-going training) and meeting FNESC KPI’s for project.
7.2.6 Pilot Data Conversion
Due to the size and number of the pilot schools the First Nations Implementation team has decided that actual electronic data conversion from legacy systems, if they exist, to BCeSIS is not required and that all student information will be manually entered into BCeSIS as part of the centralized training process. However as part of this process a system will be developed to verify the data which has been input to ensure accuracy.
Initiation and Setup
• Completed Pre-Implementation Checklists • Initiation and Setup Sign-off
Stage1 Data Entry
• Completed Data Verification • Completed PEN Check Validation • Completed Pre-Conversion Checklist • Completed BCeSIS Conversion Checklist
• Enter sample number of students and ensure valid data entry process • Stage1 Data Entry Sign-off
Production Data Entry
• Completed BCeSIS Conversion Checklist • Production Data Entry Sign-off
Implementation Completion Declaration
• Completed Implementation Completion Declaration form 7.2.7 Pilot Evaluation
In order to measure the success of the Pilot project it will be necessary to evaluate the results of all aspects of the pilot implementation. This evaluation will be done by means of an evaluation survey1 and regular and ongoing monitoring of the pilot sponsors within the school through weekly tele-conferences. The key performance indicators outlined in 2.3 of this report will be used to form the basis of the project evaluation survey. A summary of these surveys and any ad hoc feedback received through the weekly tele-conferences will be captured and summarised and presented to the BCeSIS First Nations Steering Committee and the FNSA Board. The summary
1
report will include recommendations as to how the implementation approach can be improved.
