ConnectCarolina: Enterprise Resource Planning

Implementing ConnectCarolina presents unique challenges to ITS. It is a huge, multi-faceted endeavor that will fundamentally transform the University’s administrative systems. As such, it requires a professional and disciplined approach to planning, organizing and managing resources. Project management is being utilized to help the ConnectCarolina team successfully complete specific project goals and objectives.

Project management employs various methodologies to keep a project on track, on time and within budget. It typically begins early in the project with assessments of cost, risk, quality, communications, time, change, procurement and required resources. Project managers bring a specialized skill set for the planning, execution and closing of a project, and often attain certification by professional project management associations.

There are distinct tasks, technical skills and management methodologies for ongoing operations and projects:

• Operational programs are permanent functional work to support products or services
  • Operational or working managers have typically come from the ranks and may retain hands-on duties in addition to managing people
• Projects are temporary endeavors with a defined beginning and end designed to meet particular goals and objectives
  • Project managers are often shared or pooled resources, hired for their expertise and track record, and do not have direct people management responsibilities; they are typically assigned to manage one or more projects at a time

In the Campus Solutions implementation, the ConnectCarolina project is playing some catch-up, since project managers came on board after that project was already underway, and have been working to determine resource needs and secure those resources while maintaining deadlines for deliverables. The HR and Finance implementations will benefit from earlier involvement of project managers.

Within ConnectCarolina, a Project Management Office (PMO) is being established with the creation of a PMO director to whom project managers for the various project components will report. In the future, the PMO will be a part of the Office of the CIO and serve the larger ITS community so that there will be consistency and continuity of project management methods, processes and tools.