Table of Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Plan

Benefits

Approach

10

Evaluation

16

Qualification

17

Appendix

18

Initial Survey Results

18

Application Demo

23

Sources

26

Abstract
Our team seeks to make the UNC Charlotte registration process a
more positive, successful experience for students. The registration software
and course schedules currently in place are chaotic and unorganized.
Students have to search for courses through layers of class levels and
departments to plan a schedule that fits together and includes course
requirements. This makes it even more difficult for students to plan for
future semesters and even graduate on time depending on whether or not
course requirements are found and completed. Our solution to this
registration frustration is creating new registration software that sorts
through all of the courses offered in certain departments and plans out
schedules according to those selected courses. Students can now create
schedules in one place and Smart Scheduling takes care of most of the work.

Why Smart Scheduling?

Current Situation:
The UNC Charlotte registration process seems to leave students with a
sense of frustration rather than relief. The start to a chaotic registration
week begins and students frantically anticipate the fight for class spots and
search for the seemingly hidden classes needed for major requirements.
Students should not have problems with the course search engine and
finding what classes are necessary for certain majors. Figuring out when
upper level courses will be offered next and planning for future semesters
should be an easier process for students. It is time for a change in the
registration process.

Rate your overall experience with class

registraAon:
2
4
6
8
10
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00%

The Problem:
Have you ever wondered if you have taken all of the prerequisite
courses needed for your major? What are the core classes necessary for
your major? What classes have you already taken? What classes havent you
taken? What should you do when your necessary courses have time
conflicts? Do you ever wish that the registration system would plan out your
semester and future semesters?
The current registration process is extremely limited in terms of what can be
done to make things easier for students. Instead of simply acknowledging
the time conflict between selected courses, offer an alternative. Supply a list
of the major course requirements and label which classes have been
completed. In such a technologically advanced generation, UNC Charlotte
should have a more cutting-edge registration software system.

Evidence:
Based on the survey results, most students have the most trouble
locating general education course and major specific courses. After each
passing semester, students claim that the registration process has not
gotten any easier. Most students consult a variety of resources to simply
register for classes. Registration should be an easier process for students.
Advisor meetings and course catalogs are not enough to make for a smooth
registration experience.

How saAsed are you with the current

registraAon process?

SaAsed

DissaAsed

Neutral

Relevance:
Being a college student, this problem is more than relevant and affects
all of us. We have all experienced registration to some extent and we are all
aware of the problems and difficulties associated with registration. However,
these issues regarding the registration process can be changed for the
better. As the saying goes, out with the old and in with the new.
Our Solution:
We have created a registration system that plans and sorts classes
according to the individual needs of each student. This software considers
what classes have already been completed and compares that information to
what classes are necessary for each major. This new software is able to plan
for future semesters based on the courses completed. In addition to
coursework, this software system can sort the times, dates, and courses
needed into one easily acquired schedule. Its a new day and age. Welcome
to Smart Scheduling.

Proposed Plan
Overview:
The goal of the plan is to provide UNCC students with a better registration
experience. Students need a registration process that generates possible
schedules based on criteria that is important to them, such as the time the
class meets, the days it meets, whether it is a pre-requisite, and whether it
is needed for their major.
We believe that this can be accomplished by 1) standardizing and storing
pre-requisite, major requirements, and course rotation information in a
database, and 2) expanding the existing registration process in Banner by
allowing more powerful search and filtering using the additional enhanced
data.
Implementation Details
The registration overhaul consists of two main parts: enhance data available
in Banner, and update the current banner software to incorporate the new
data into the registration process.
Part I Enhance data available in Banner
The University needs to create a cross-departmental project with the goal of
standardizing the information for the pre-requisites for each course, the
schedule of course rotations, and the courses that are required for each
major and degree. Once this information is standardized it needs to be
stored and maintained in a database.

Part II Enhance the Banner software

Once the additional data is collected, the user interface for scheduling needs
to be greatly enhanced to allow for more informed scheduling. See
Appendix for sample walkthrough.

User should be able to enter constraints into banner regarding what

courses to build a schedule upon. For example, user wants to take
MATH 2142 and any MATH 3000 level class
Given the enhance data, user should be able to request a course
that is required for their major that they meet the prerequisites for.
With the enhanced user data, user should be able to enter a target
class, and the constraint generated is to select the pre-requisites
for that class that have not yet been met.
User should be able to enter constraints based on specific class
times, or any AM or PM class
User should be able to enter constraints based on days
User should be able to enter constraints based on the instructor, or
internet only
Given the constraints the user has entered, the system should
generate all possible valid schedules.
If no full schedule meets valid constraints, banner should relax
constraints until a valid schedule is returned, along with the failing
constraint
User should be able to filter on only packed schedules, i.e.
schedules with no gaps between classes on any given day
Schedules generated should be in order by day and time
Should also generate future semester schedules by course to help
with graduation planning

Why our solution is the best

We believe this is the best solution because the solution is complete.
Implementing either part of the solution would help, however, the real
power of both pieces lies in being able to combine student specific
information and needs with the course scheduling information.
Implementing Part I only would leave banner unchanged, so figuring out
schedules would have to be done by hand, outside of the system.
Part II only would allow banner to generate schedules, however, it would not

know the individual users courses taken, and major requirements so would
be a limited help in long term planning for graduation.

Possible objections
Data Security The proposed solution involves combining scheduling data
and student data. Following standard database security and information
access protocols should mitigate the concern with inappropriate access to
student data.
Banner already includes all of the student data. Our proposal just allows the
user to see their own personal information combined with class schedule
information
Expense Given the Universitys overall budget, this is a relatively small
expense, and will provide a substantial benefit to the entire student
population. Departments will have to undertake a one time effort to
standardize data and an ongoing effort to keep it updated. Aside from the
fact that it is being put into an information system, the effort should be no
different than the current effort taken to keep this information up to date.
For Banner, there will be a one time effort to enhance the interface, and
write the logic to handle the new data, but the ongoing effort to keep Banner
functioning should fall within the current Banner maintenance effort.

Computability The proposed solution allows schedules to be generated

based on constraints entered by the user. It is possible given loose enough
constraints that the number of possible schedule permutations is so large
that the program would never finish generating schedules.
First, given practical set of constraints, the number of possible schedules
decreases quickly since there are only so many classes offered at any one
time and only so many slots available during a given week.
Second, the software can easily cap the number of results returned without
trying to generate all possible solutions.
Meeting Standards
Our proposal for the project follows a standard software implementation
proposal where a project management team interacts with the source of the
data to determine specifications, then hands the specifications off to the
database administrators and software developers. Appropriate testing occurs
at each step
Additionally, we believe our proposal adheres to the current UNCC
information Security policy located here. http://legal.uncc.edu/policies/up311
The student specific data already exists and is viewable by that particular
student. Our proposal will keep this data separate from the less sensitive
course data, We are just allowing the student to see their own personal data
combined with course data. The data already exists in separate areas of
Banner.

Benefits

Problems With Banner

Every semester students find themselves
forced to work with Banner on 49er
express in order to sign up for classes for
the following term. This period of time
results in the heaviest call load to the IT
help desk, and the highest amount of
frustration students experience with the
system. The goal of any online
application used by this school should be
to ease the average students experience, knowing this is one of the most
stressful times in their educational careers. Banner has been shown to fail
under heavy usage by students, have search tools that have never worked,
and generally exacerbate an already difficult process. This difficulty doesn't
just concern students. Multiple students recalled witnessing their advisors
experience difficulty in opening the application, or in traversing its pages.
Until now Banner and its maintenance has been provided by Elucian inc. but
in light of survey results presented in this packet showing marked levels of
dissatisfaction with their current product, we believe that Smart Scheduling
would be a better choice for all your online scheduling needs. With the
information we gathered in our extensive surveying of your student body,
we believe that we can improve students experience with scheduling classes
in the following ways:
Improvements
Shorten the overall time taken each semester scheduling classes
Update and replace old search tools that never worked
Make accessing student information as an advisor easier
Help students align times within their schedules better
Help students search through the class list faster than before
Ease the experience overall for students registering
Offer more useful visuals than the previous application
Run the application with less failures and less maintenance

Approach

Overview:
Smart Scheduling will contract with the University to provide project
management services with the goal of enhancing the course registration
process. Smart Scheduling will provide a project manager and process
analysts to work with University departments to create the missing course
data. Once the additional course information has been gathered and stored
in a database, Smart Scheduling will work with University software
developers and University database administrators to expand the capabilities
of Banner to allow the use of the new data.

Project Organization and Responsibilities:

Departmental Resources
Currently, information regarding pre-requisites, major requirements, and
course rotations exists within individual departments in a variety of formats,
but is not centralized in a database. Smart Scheduling will need to work with
personnel in each department to gather the information and normalize it so
that it can be stored in a database for use in scheduling.

10

Project Manager and Process Analysts from Smart Scheduling

The project manager and process analysts are responsible for facilitating the
process and serving as the liaison between the University departments and
the technical developers.

University Banner Database Administrator (DBA)

The DBA is responsible for expanding the existing database to hold the new
course information and creating a process to maintain the data.

University Front End Developer

The Front End Developer is responsible for changing the user interface that
students use for course registration to allow for better filtering, search, and
the inclusion of the new data sources.

11

Timeline:

January
2015

February
2015

March
2015

April
2015

Meet with University DBA to set data standards and requirements

Meet with University Departments to discuss informaAon availability and data
maintenance
Develop process for regular data update and maintenance
Formalize data standards and distribute to Departments to begin collecAon

DBA to begin database buildout based on agreed upon data standards

Front End Developer to begin User Interface build out based upon standards
Develop test plans for database and new User Interface
Process Analysts to work with University departments to turn informaAon
into data for inclusion in database

Departments to send test data to DBA

Test enhanced data in new database
Test User Interface front end using new enhanced data
Once so\ware tesAng is successful, release to User Acceptance TesAng

Deploy live for Spring 2015 registraAon

12

Projected Costs:

Smart Scheduling will hire a project manager and 2 process analysts to

complete the work. We will also require the use of departmental resources to
gather information and University DBAs and University software developers
to complete the project.
Since the 4 Smart Scheduling co-founders are UNCC students, we have
agreed to waive our normal consulting fee to facilitate this project.
The project costs are predominately one-time costs associated with
gathering the information and expanding existing databases and interfaces.
The keys to completing this project in the timeframe allotted are a good
project manager and process analysts. They are able to drive the process
forward and communicate effectively between the departmental side and the
technical side.
Additionally, there will be ongoing maintenance costs from both the
Departmental standpoint and the DBA standpoint after the project has been
completed. e believe these ongoing costs should be small and should not
impose a significant time commitments time commitment for several
reasons. First, the data is similar to the data that already exists for courses.
This should allow for the maintenance to be folded into the normal
maintenance required each semester for determining what classes are
offered. Second, this additional data relates to majors and pre-requisites, it
is far less likely to have significant changes than the complete rescheduling
that occurs each semester for course specific data.

13

Resource

Cost

Smart Scheduling Consulting Fee

Waived for UNCC

Project Manager on 4 month contract

$30,000

2 Process Analysts on 2 month contract

$20,000

Departmental Resources for data collection

Assumes available

University DBA

Assumes available

University Developer

Assumes available

Total

$50,000

14

Smart Scheduling Organization

15

Evaluation
We will assess the success of the project based on three criteria:
1. Did the project finish in time for the Spring 2015 registration session?
2. Was the project completed within budget?
3. Have student satisfaction scores increased after the implementation of
the proposal?
While the project is being implemented, we will monitor costs and timeline
using the proposed schedule and budget.
After implementation we will assess satisfaction by giving the same Survey
Monkey survey to all participants and comparing the results to the initial
survey.

16

Qualifications
Caitlyn Bergmann
Brand Identity Director
Caitlyn spent 7 years as the global brand director at Nike.
Caitlyn was a key administrative leader of the team
responsible for leading strategy and implementing programs
for Nike athletes around the world. She has engaging and
strategic skills which are essential at Smart Scheduling.

Christopher Grafer
Developer/Engineer

Chris spent 12 years consulting on information system

implementation projects for a variety of Fortune 500
companies. He is experienced in managing the business and
technical aspects of projects of this size. He holds an MBA and
an undergraduate degree in Computer Science.

Jacob Shaw
Visual Designer/Engineer
Jacob spent 5 years at Apple Inc. where he specialized in
visual design aspects and engineering. While at Apple Inc.
his primary role included designing visual UI and
incorporating them into products including software run on
the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Noah Miller
Director of Marketing
Noah holds a degree in Marketing with a concentration in
Social Media. He spent 5 years working for several early
stage software development companies focused on new
business acquisition and electronic media integration. He is
currently serving as the Director of Marketing for Smart
Scheduling.

17

Appendix:

How would you rate the ease of nding informaAon related

to what classes are required for your major?
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

How o\en do you use the course catlog while registering

for classes?

Always

SomeAmes

Never

18

On average, how many pieces of informaAon do you

consult when determining what classes to take?
more than 5
between 4 and 5
between 3 and 4
between 2 and 3
between 1 and 2
between 0 and 1
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

How many classes do you plan on registering for next

semester?Include all classes regardless of the number of
credit hours.
7+
6
5
4
3
2
1
0.00%

10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00%

19

Typically, what types of classes do you nd the hardest to

locate when registering?

General EducaAon Requirements

Major-specic Courses

Would a search tool based on the four digit class code be

helpful?

Yes

No

20

Has registering for classes goeen easier?

Yes

No

When planning your class schedule, how much Ame do you

spend doing the process?
0.5 hours or less
between 0.5 and 1 hour
between 1 and 1.5 hours
between 1.5 and 2 hours
between 2 and 3 hours
over 3 hours
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00%

21

How saAsed are you with the current registraAon

process?

SaAsed

DissaAsed

Neutral

Rate your overall experience with class registraAon:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0.00%

10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00%

22

Overview

Select New Constraints

Track All Constraints

Show all classes
meeting highlighted
constraint

Generate schedules
based on constraints

23

Software automatically filters drop down boxes as selections are

made.

Example: Math was chosen as a subject, so the Course box is only showing math classes

Example: Math2171 was chosen, so the Time Box only shows times for that class

24

Too many classes?

Example: These constraints return 50 schedules

Solution: Instead of the last constraint being any day, any time, select a set of days and re-generate the
schedules. So make a more restrictive constraint and re-run.

Down to 33 Schedules

25

Sources

Portion of 49erexpress related to Banner

https://49erexpress.uncc.edu/cp/home/displaylogin

Departmental Websites
http://belkcollege.uncc.edu/
http://coaa.uncc.edu/
http://cci.uncc.edu/
http://education.uncc.edu/
http://health.uncc.edu/
http://clas.uncc.edu/
http://engr.uncc.edu/

Standards
http://www.versionone.com/pdf/V1_The_Agile_Project_Manager.pdf
http://www.globalpmstandards.org/attachments/GAPPS_Project_Manager_v
1.1150411_A4.pdf
http://legal.uncc.edu/policies/up-311

Other resources
http://www.salary.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management

26