October — December 2023

For the Project WakeDay team, the drive toward the 2023 holiday break was an incredibly busy time, with Workday Student configuration officially ending and testing moving closer to completion.

The most exciting part of the fourth quarter was a successful first launch of Workday Student at WFU. This milestone, or move-to-production (MTP1), occurred Oct. 9 and focused on registrar functions across the University, including setting up academic structure, programs of study, and courses and course sections in Workday. The project team is now focused on MTP2 in March that will take advising and registration live in the new system.

The energy, focus and dedication of our project team members continues to be the cornerstone to our success. I cannot praise their commitment and focus enough,” says Project Manager Phil May. “Everyone’s determination put us in a strong position going into 2024. It is going to be a busy year for Project WakeDay, and I am confident we will remain on track as we move toward our milestones in March and beyond.”

In mid-December, faculty and staff received an email from Provost Michele Gillespie and Executive Vice President and CFO Jacqueline A. Travisano, Ed.D., the project’s co-sponsors, about upcoming changes to the planning and registration process. Changes include self-service registration tools for students, just one of many Workday benefits that will offer students increased control over their academic journey at WFU. The message is available at this link on the project website.


Project Status

At the end of September, the architecture and configuration portion of Project Wakeday was 100 percent complete, meeting expectations and allowing team members to focus on testing ahead of the next three milestones. Rather than a single go-live date, WFU will launch Workday Student throughout 2023 and 2024. The following graphic outlines when functions used by faculty, staff and students will be available in Workday:


Campus Engagement

Change Management (CM) continued to meet with campus stakeholders during the fourth quarter, including the change networks, which are composed of faculty and staff divided into advisory groups. CM also engaged with students during meetings with organizations including DSAP, STAC, CLAC and Student Government. Members of the Functional Leads team and the Project Management Office held Customer Confirmation sessions for several University stakeholders to share progress and functionality demonstrations. And the Student Financials team started engaging with various academic units through demonstrations of student financial views and Workday procedures relevant to each unit.


Wins and Challenges for Functional Areas

Functional areas include Admissions, Financial Aid, Advising and Curriculum, Student Financials, Student Records and Technical. In Quarter 4, Change Management partnered with functional leads to bring forward the wins — how Workday Student will improve University processes and performance — and the challenges — the changes in process that some campus constituents will have to adjust to as the implementation moves forward. The topics featured below include Curriculum Management, Student Core, Student Records and Student Financials.


What’s Next for Project Wakeday?

Mock Semester

In January, the testing team will perform a mock semester, or dress rehearsal, which is an opportunity to simulate key semester activities in the Workday environment. It’s important system exposure for members of the University community, as well as a chance for the project team to see the results of their work. Select faculty, students and staff — 73 people total — will execute activities just as they would in a live system. Examples include:

  • Students: Add/drop courses, update personal information, and view holds and academic progress;
  • Faculty: View academic records, add a student note, and approve leave of absence or withdrawal;
  • Staff: View academic records and progress, change a program of study, and manage holds.

Mock semester is an important activity for building confidence in WFU’s Workday configuration and showing that the project team is well prepared to move the tested processes into a live environment.

Training

In January, the training team will begin sending invitations to faculty and staff for training sessions related to their roles at the University and based on how and when they will begin using Workday. Sessions will start in February, with the first set focused on advising. Advisors will attend in person to receive hands-on instruction and learn where to find support materials.

In March, faculty, staff and students from the broader campus community will be invited to attend demonstrations related to their roles during readiness sessions led by the Change Management team. These sessions, which will also be recorded, will introduce community members to the look and feel of Workday Student and demo key tasks.

As details become available for each event, information will be communicated by email and published on the project website’s training section.


To stay up to date with Project WakeDay, please subscribe to the The Word on WakeDay newsletter. For more information, check out back issues of the newsletter on the project website. You can also learn more about Workday functionality with this series of project videos. Is your office or unit interested in learning more? Please request a presentation using this web form, or contact the team at wakeday@wfu.edu. You can also share feedback using this form or via the project email, wakeday@wfu.edu.

The Project Wakeday website, The Word on Wakeday newsletter and other project communications are managed by Communications Specialist Abby Langston.


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