UCPath Targets August 2017 for Campus Pilot Deployment

The University of California is targeting August 2017 for the initial campus launch of UCPath at UC Merced, UCLA, ASUCLA and UC Riverside.

UCPath program and pilot campus leaders presented their recommended plan to the UCPath Steering Committee and Pilot Deployment Subcommittee for review and received approval of the deployment timeline from the UCPath executive leadership team.

The plan includes a deployment timeline, planning assumptions and risks and a summary of how guiding principles of the project were applied to this effort.

“We are pleased to have the endorsement of this plan by UCPath governance. I am also thankful to our campus partners, project management office staff members and the UCPath Center who worked to develop a crisp and focused timeline,” said Mark Cianca, UC deputy chief information officer and UCPath program director. “As work proceeds, we will use the milestones in this plan to assess progress toward the target date and will regularly report progress against milestones to confirm the viability of the target deployment date as we move forward.”

With pilot functional design completed, UCPath can focus on development and testing activities to achieve a pilot deployment date that is aggressive yet achievable. The August target assumes that other critical activities go according to the project plan.

Pilot Campuses Follow UCOP's Launch

The UCPath Project Management Office (PMO) worked with pilot locations and the UCPath center to arrive at the pilot deployment timeline. The new timeline includes frequent checkpoints and tracking metrics that provide opportunities for leadership to address issues quickly. The UCPath PMO and pilot teams will leverage lessons learned from the successful launch of UCPath at UCOP, including:

• data-driven reporting and real-time progress information to enhance transparency;
• continued collaboration with UC campus experts and local UCPath project teams; and
• aggressive scope management.

“This deployment is critical to the success of later deployments within the UCPath project” said Nathan Brostrom, UCOP executive vice president and chief financial officer. “As we continue to work toward an August 2017 target date, it will be imperative that we continue to partner with UC pilot locations to weigh risks and conduct trade-off conversations.”

As the campus pilot deployment progresses, work with future deployment locations is underway with UCPath and local teams focusing on project planning, interface and local system analysis, local process design and resource assessment.

Other UC locations will transition to UCPath in two subsequent deployments until the new system is fully operational for UC staff and faculty at all UC locations. The next locations to implement UCPath following the pilot will be UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and Agriculture and Natural Resources.