Software Application related Change Management (ACM)

The Application Change Management (ACM) Committee Goals:

  1. Protect the integrity of the Banner and related production systems; functionality and data.
  2. Identify, communicate and prioritize changes in a way that fairly reflects change impact and urgency.
  3. Schedule change deployments in a way that minimizes conflict and disruption.
  4. Review application or process changes that may directly impact the Banner system / related applications or information and/or end-users. This includes 3rd party systems such as Argos/Insights reporting, DegreeWorks, Experience (Sentry), ISE (batch job scheduling), Slate, Touchnet and other applications closely integrated with Banner.
  5. Advise on and recommend function specific process documentation related to the Banner and related 3rd party systems.

The ACM committee meets monthly or as needed.

Committee functional leads:

Academic Services - Daniell Matthews
Admissions - Heather Justice
Financial Aid - Stephanie Hendershot
Student Financial Services - Paige McClure
Information Technology - Kevin Matjasko / Phill Miller (co-chairs)

General Change Management Guidelines:

  1. Each functional process area owner will manage the Banner system / data and associated 3rd party application related initiatives, in terms of process, in their respective area. This includes preparation for upcoming events during the academic calendar as well as new initiatives and changes.
     
  2. Each ACM member will bring relevant items of discussion / initiatives in their functional area to ACM meetings. These general items will be reviewed for all team members.
     
  3. All functional related initiatives that require Banner or related 3rd party application or data changes:
  • Will be discussed in this forum, and if agreement, involve IT via the functional representative entering an IT help desk ticket (help@rmu.edu) describing the initiative. This IT 'ticket' will be used for tracking / documentation purposes. The IT chair will take ownership of the related IT help desk ticket.
     
  • IT will partner with the functional designate to review and assist with the proposed change(s).
     
  • To the extent possible, changes will be evaluated and tested in the Banner or associated 3rd party application TEST environments prior to scheduling and implementing in the PRODUCTION environment. Results will be logged in the associated IT 'help desk ticket'.
     
  • As feasible in a SaaS environment, code changes will be tracked via the IT 'version control' environment.
     
  • Process specific documentation will be updated / maintained, authored and owned by the function.