Operational Excellence in Effort ReportingPhase 3 Testing Information Meeting: June 20 - 22, 2012

Vision Statement:Implement a compliant, streamlined, electronic effort reporting process that reduces administrative burden.

Agenda

Topic

Phase 3 Testing Objectives

Phase 3 Testing Status

Understanding the Data Files

Test Scenarios

Data Validation

New Effort Reporting Roles

Campus Support

Next Steps

2

Phase 3 Testing Objectives

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1. Simulate the “real life” effort reporting process using the following tools to determine if we are implementing an overall process that is streamlined, compliant and understandable: Role-based testing scenarios organized by activities:

Pre-review Certification Post-Certification

Oracle applications—including reports and Discoverer queries Effort Certification and Reporting Technology (ecrt)

Phase 3 Testing Objectives

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2. View the following data in ecrt to decide if it meets expectations or if it needs to be updated before user acceptance testing: Cost share awards Committed effort E-mail addresses Actual department names and job titles for SUNY employees Role assignments, e.g., effort coordinators and proxy certifiers

Phase 3 Testing Objectives

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3. Determine if the following are ready for user acceptance testing: Source data Use of reports ecrt features Appearance of effort statement System settings (configurations)

Phase 3 Testing Status

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Central office is still preparing the environment Uploading and validating data Assigning primary effort coordinator and effort coordinator roles and

rights Entering effort reporting periods of performance Assigning proxy certifiers

Each campus will receive an information package when their environment is ready We anticipate sending this package the beginning of July You will have the month of July to perform the test scenarios

Phase 3 Testing Status

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The information package will include: URL needed to access environment Usernames and generic passwords for each tester Test scenarios and testing summary document Testing calendar Understanding the Data document Campus effort reporting periods of performance Simple instructions and tasks for campus testers who have not used ecrt

(department administrators)

Understanding the Data Files

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Data File Description

Department file The campus organizational hierarchy

Sponsor file Award types as defined by ecrt:•Federal, e.g., National Institutes of Health•Nonfederal, e.g., New York State Department of Education•Nonsponsored, e.g., Other institutional activity (OIA)

Data is as of June 9, 2012

Award file Sponsored programs information, e.g., award full name, cost share awards, start and end dates, award principal investigator (PI), budget amount, etc.Note: Federal flow-through awards are designated in this file

Data is as of June 9, 2012

Certifier file • PIs: An ecrt script will be run to assign them the role of self-certifier• Includes e-mail address, actual department name and actual job title

information

Understanding the Data Files

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Data File Description

Payroll file SUNY monthly, RF biweekly and Nonexempt payroll data for July 1, 2011 – June 1, 2012 (except for confidential payroll data of staff in campus sponsored programs offices)

Commitment file Committed effort data for PIs, co-PIs and other key personnel entered in Oracle as of June 9, 2012

Objective 1: Test Scenarios

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Test scenarios are designed to more closely reflect the effort reporting process E-mail/workflow functionality not enabled for Phase 3 testing Single sign-on authentication not enabled for Phase 3 testing

Test scenarios include action steps to take in Oracle and ecrt Role-based to reflect tasks performed by different roles Organized into activities: Pre-review, certification and post certification

Refer to the “List of Phase 3 Scenarios and Testing Summary Template” Word document Any comments or suggestions about using this as a testing summary?

Objective 1: Test Scenarios

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Test scenarios include the following sections : Purpose Relevance to effort reporting process Steps in Oracle and ecrt Corrective actions

Refer to sample test scenarios: 9: Place an Individual Effort Statement or a Group of Effort Statements

on Hold 21: Certify an Effort Statement for Projects at Multiple Campuses

We would appreciate your feedback: Does this help you put ecrt tasks in context of effort reporting process? Any suggestions about the format?

Objective 2: Data Validation

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Oracle is the source system for all effort reporting data ecrt is a repository that displays Oracle data

Phase 3 testing is the opportunity to review and correct any data in Oracle: Cost share awards

Consistent campus naming convention for all cost share awards No missing cost share awards

Committed effort data First time we are seeing this in ecrt

E-mail addresses for all users Actual department names and job titles for SUNY employees

Objective 2: Assignment Validation

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Phase 3 testing also provides the opportunity to review the staff assigned to various roles in ecrt: Campus administrator Primary effort coordinator Effort coordinator—campus sponsored programs office Effort coordinator—departmental administrator Self-certifier Proxy certifier

Questions to ask: Do I need to change someone’s role? Do I need to add someone? Are all my faculty and others who certify effort in ecrt?

Goal is to have this finalized for user acceptance testing

New Effort Reporting Roles

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Campus administrator “Owner” of ecrt for their campus Responsible for high-level effort reporting process

Primary effort coordinator Overall responsibility for effort reporting process and ecrt Receives all the help e-mails and effort processing tasks for assigned

departments E-mails generated from Get Help button from an individual’s effort

statement Campus generic effort reporting mailbox can be copied

A campus may have multiple primary effort coordinators but only one primary may be assigned to a department

New Effort Reporting Roles

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Effort coordinator—campus sponsored programs office Responsible for monitoring, managing and handling the day-to-day

ecrt tasks Multiple effort coordinators may be assigned to a department

Effort coordinator—departmental administrator Overall responsibility for effort reporting process and ecrt for assigned

department(s) Self-certifiers

Individuals responsible for certifying their effort in ecrt May be responsible for certifying effort for their research staff

Proxy certifier Delegated to certify effort for another individual in ecrt Must have firsthand knowledge

New Effort Reporting Roles

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Campus Support

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Direct all questions to: effort@rfsuny.org The staff member below will respond to your questions:

Campus Central Office Primary Contact

CNSE Carol Berdar

University at Albany Garrett Kinne

Binghamton University Garrett Kinne

University at Buffalo Donna Kiley

Stony Brook University Anne Connolly

SUNY Downstate Medical Center Carol Berdar

Upstate Medical University Mark Abbey

SUNY ESF Mark Abbey

SUNY New Paltz Anne Connolly

Buffalo State College Donna Kiley

Reminder

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Certification of effort statements for 2012

Academic Year Campuses Oracle ecrt

Spring 2012 Summer 2012 Fall 2012 Half-Year Campuses Oracle ecrt

January 1 – June 30, 2012 July 1 – December 31, 2012

Next Steps

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Campus: Send us any comments about the test summary and test scenarios as

soon as possible Campuses should complete data validation/clean up and final role

assignments by July 31, 2012 Central office

E-mail the information package in early July Schedule the next project team call for Wednesday, July 18

Send questions or comments to effort@rfsuny.org