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A consolidated, redesigned BI Portal launched on June 27

With a new interface and backend code base, UW-IT Information Management’s Enterprise Reporting and Analytics team has concluded over two years of work to consolidate and redesign two separate portals — BI Portal and UW Profiles. The main objectives of consolidating these two portals were to improve the customer experience and reduce the overall cost of running two separate infrastructures.

The new BI Portal user experience enhancements include:

  • Improved search capability
  • Logical grouping of BI products (reports, cubes, dashboard) by tagging
  • Simpler user interface
  • Future integration of report catalogs from external platforms, like Workday
  • Faster time to deliver new reports or update existing reports through automation and custom development tools

The overall redesign provides the additional benefits of streamlining and automating the development processes, including publication of reports to the BI Portal. This publication improvement eliminates complex manual processes that delayed reports publishing in the past, processes that were highly prone to human error.

What is the BI Portal?

In 2013, the BI (Business Intelligence) Portal made its debut and was created to provide reports, cubes and dashboards for data available in the EDW (Enterprise Data Warehouse). Reporting accessible through the BI Portal offers current and historical institutional data for finance, student and research departments, informing the University’s operations and strategic decision-making.

What is UW Profiles?

In 2014, UW Profiles was added to get more data into the hands of more users. This web-based tool displays institutional dashboards created using Tableau software. It was designed to provide University leadership (Provost, Deans, Executives, Directors) with longitudinal information about UW. Each dashboard displays aggregated data for high-level analysis, not detailed information, to be used for operational reporting. 

The teams behind the scenes

“The success of this project lies with the team! The team’s focus, dedication, and professionalism made this project a reality and fun to work on. I want to thank them for an excellent job!” said Bart Pietrzak, Director, Enterprise Reporting and Analytics.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

  • Snezana Popovic, Technology Project Manager, UW-IT: Research Computing & Strategy: Program Management Office

DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT

  • Andrew Nelson, Full-Stack Developer
  • Courtney Drake, Database Developer
  • Indra Narayan, Data Engineer
  • Jean Darlington, Business Analyst, Tester
  • Moon Koslowski, Full-Stack Developer
  • Tracy Fisher, Tester
  • Katy Moazzami, Business Systems Analyst

Andrew architected the BI Portal software design utilizing micro services and set up a continuous delivery and automated deployment process on Azure. He also set up the workflow orchestrations allowing for automated SSRS report deployment, archiving and report versioning.

Indra focused on designing and implementing the backend database that supports the existing and new BI Portal and its corresponding administration tool with its complex workflows.

Courtney joined the team mid-project and took over the database work without skipping a beat. She planned and executed the complicated migration process from the old BI Portal and UW Profiles databases into the new, consolidated database. 

Moon architected the frontend and display data services for the new BI Portal and the administration tool using the React framework, as well as created the hosting for both applications within Azure.

Tracy was the technology tester who put the consolidated and redesigned application through its paces to validate all user scenarios, uncovering any bugs, errors or defects that a user might encounter. 

Jean, as business analyst, ensured that the team as a whole was on the same page regarding design, implementation and testing. She provided all the project coordination, working closely with the project manager (PM), communications, development team, QA and design. 

Katy, who joined later in the project, assisted Jean with documenting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) feedback in JIRA tickets. She’ll be coordinating future BI Portal work and is currently collaborating on the intro video for the new portal.

DEPLOYMENT PREPARATION

  • Bomani Siwatu, Sr. Applications Systems Engineer 
  • Grzegorz Grabowski, Sr. Applications Systems Engineer
  • Rosalie Leano, Sr. Applications Systems Engineer
  • Tom Escobar, Sr. Applications Systems Engineer
  • Travis Boyle, Infrastructure Engineer
  • Nina Velikin, Technology Manager

Bomani and Rosalie were instrumental in preparing the deployment of the reports, cubes and dashboards to the new BI Portal. They helped to clean up objects in the old catalog and helped with testing of the objects as they were deployed to the new catalog.

Grzegorz, Tom and Travis worked on preparing the objects in the old catalog for the migration. They ascertained the correct versions of the reports, made necessary adjustments, and worked closely with Courtney to ensure that new BI Portal databases were populated with the proper data.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT DOCUMENTATION

  • Mairead Roden, Business Systems Analyst
  • Audrey McGrath, Business Systems Analyst
  • Shawn Lowe, Technical Trainer, UWFT

Mairead was the architect behind the content of the Help pages, organizing it into the coherent and well-presented BI Portal Introduction. Customize the BI Portal Wiki page is Audrey’s design and presentation. Shawn is creating the BI Portal introduction video.

User feedback

UAT started in January of this year. Users with different data needs took part in reviewing and testing the new consolidated portal, performing their business use cases and providing recommendations and feedback.

A mini freeze

In mid-June the team implemented a code freeze. Users were able to work as usual during this freeze while request tickets were held until the freeze ended.

A summer release

Browse by tags tileAfter the brief freeze the new BI Portal went live on June 27. The new BI Portal is now one main road that leads to a variety of reporting needs, including the off-the-shelf reports that used to live separately in UW Profiles, now located in the Browse by Tags section.

Customer requests for features and other nice-to-haves are now in the queue for future updates and releases which will be easier and faster to implement now that the two portals are one.

By the numbers

  24+ months and440+ users      

Users say:

“There are tags that are meaningful for my work. And I think it could be a good way to search to find options other than the reports I most typically use.”

 

“The plus sign (+) to give more information is great and the tool tip to see what each report is before clicking to see the detail is a wonderful addition.”

 

“The functionality is very intuitive. I love that my favorites are at the top, and I love the look and feel of the icons.”

 

What’s next?

The new BI Portal will be the topic of a BI Portal webinar in September. We hope you’ll join the Reporting and Analytics team to take a deeper dive into the new interface and get answers to your questions.

Questions?

Please contact help@uw.edu with BI Portal in the subject line.

Knowledge Navigator Metadata Update Spring Qtr 2022

UW Metadata Manager, Keith A. Van Eaton, from Information Management’s Enterprise Reporting & Analytics team, has added or updated metadata objects in Knowledge Navigator.

In their ongoing partnership, the UW’s data domain stewards, subject matter experts, and metadata manager ensure metadata objects are vetted and approved so that UW data users have a common understanding around UW data.

New terms added

New structured objects or reports added

UW Metadata Objects 

The Tableau visualization below shows, over time, all objects brought into Knowledge Navigator. Hover over any graphic element to get more info. https://bitools.uw.edu/t/Transitional/views/UWMetadataObjects/UWMetadataObjects?:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link

UW Metadata Objects Visualization

UW Metadata Engagement

The Tableau visualization below shows, over time, the Subject Matter Expert who drafted a business definition and the Data Steward who approved the definition for any given data. Hover over any graphic element to get more information. https://bitools.uw.edu/t/Transitional/views/UWMetadataEngagement/UWMetadataEngagement?:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link

UW Metadata Engagement Visualization

To access these links from an off-site location, please do one of the following:

  • Remote into your work computer.
  • Use the F5/Big VPN (not UW MWS VPN) with your personal computer.

Knowledge Navigator is the UW’s metadata repository which contains information about the following collections and object types:

  • Glossaries of business terms
  • Database tables and columns
  • Web Service resources and fields
  • Cube dimensions and measures
  • Enterprise reports and dashboards

Terms and objects are updated regularly. To learn more about Knowledge Navigator, where terms come from, and how they get included in Knowledge Navigator, visit the information page at https://it.uw.edu/work/data/understand-data/data-definitions/.

If you’d like a demo of Knowledge navigator for your department, or if you have questions, please contact help@uw.edu with “Knowledge Navigator” in the subject line.

EWS EVAL Release 10 is now available

Enterprise Web Services (EWS) has just released an update in EVAL for multiple web services in support of UW Finance Transformation (UWFT). For an overview of how EWS is adapting to support UWFT, refer to EWS for Finance Transformation.

Monthly Scheduled Releases

Updates to EVAL for all EWS services are now released on the same monthly schedule. This allows us to better synchronize with Enterprise Data Platform’s release schedule for Finance Transformation. For more information, refer to the Data Availability Timeline.

What’s New in EWS EVAL Release 10

Web Service

Overview of Release
FWS v2 (Outbound)
  • Several existing resources were updated
  • Several new resources and sub-resources were added
  • New endpoints were made available to search
  • Two breaking changes were introduced:
    • Removed PrimaryProjectHierarchies and restored with ProjectHierarchies data with the /Project resource
    • Multiple resources were updated to use the same format as the Org based Entity Hierarchy resources

For more information, refer to FWS Reference Data (Outbound) – Release 10. For support, refer to Support | FWS.
FWS v2 (Inbound)
  • Some existing resources were updated
  • Bug fixes
  • Added capability to submit ISD transactions up to 10K rows
  • Provider and Cash Flow Code can no longer be used as worktags
  • No breaking changes were introduced

For more information, refer to FWS Common Transactions (Inbound) – Release 10. For support, refer to Support | FWS.
HRPWS v3
  • Some existing resources were updated
  • Multiple breaking changes were introduced:
    • Some fields have been updated with the correct data types
    • Some fields have been renamed
    • XML tags have been refactored and will impact consumers who use xml payloads
    • HREFS have been updated
    • Multiple resource changes introducing breaking changes

For more information on this release, refer to HRPWS v3 – Release 10. For support, refer to Support | HRPWS. For an introduction to HRPWS and the Finance Transformation, including information on the transition from v2 to v3, refer to HRPWS for Finance Transformation.

Note: If you are a current user of HRPWS v2, we ask that you transition to HRPWS v3 by end of 2022. If you are a new user, your HRPWS integration does not need to be ready until UWFT Go Live.

New BI Portal is LIVE

Team successfully released the new BI Portal v2 on Monday 6/27.

What’s new?

  • New Interface: The BI Portal has a new look but the content is the same, including all the items you had in your “Favorites.”*
  • UW Profiles is now inside the BI Portal: You can navigate to the original dashboards via the Browse by Tags section (shown below) on the home page, then clicking the UW Profiles tile.

BI Portal new interface Browse by Tags for UW Profiles

Where we started
In 2013, the BI (Business Intelligence) Portal made its debut. It was created to provide reports, dashboards and cubes for data available in the EDW (Enterprise Data Warehouse). Reports, dashboards and cubes accessible through the BI Portal offer current and historical institutional data for finance, student and research departments, informing the University’s operations and strategic decision-making.

In 2014, UW Profiles was added to get more data into the hands of more users. This web-based tool displays institutional dashboards created using Tableau software. It was designed to provide University leadership (Provost, Deans, Executives, Directors) with longitudinal information about UW. Each dashboard displays aggregated data for high-level analysis, not detailed information, to be used for operational reporting. 

Bringing it all together
In the spring of 2020, UW-IT Information Management’s Enterprise Reporting and Analytics team started the work of bringing the two separate portals — BI Portal and UW Profiles — together. The main two objectives of consolidating these two portals were improving customer experience and reducing the overall cost of running the infrastructure from two portals down to one.  Some user experience enhancements included: improved search capability, logical grouping of BI products (reports, cubes, dashboard) by tagging, and a more simplistic user interface. The overall redesign of the solution presented additional benefits of streamlining and automating the development processes, including publication of reports to the BI Portal. This improvement eliminates complex manual processes that delayed reports publishing in the past, processes that were prone to human error.

During the past year, the team has finalized the design and development of the new BI Portal. Further refinement of the work came from engaging a small group of users who provided initial feedback around the design and functionality of the portal. During this process, issues were categorized, triaged, and prioritized based on the predefined project criteria, ensuring the product meets the business requirements, use cases, and project timeline. The final User Acceptance Testing (UAT) completed in April of 2022. This UAT group included a much larger group of users who provided additional feedback that was either backlogged or incorporated into this final product. 

What’s next?
The new BI Portal will be the topic of a BI Portal webinar in September. We hope you’ll join the Reporting & Analytics team to take a grand tour of the new interface and get answers to your questions.

Questions?
Please contact help@uw.edu with BI Portal in the subject line.

* Favorites bookmarked during the migration process will not be captured and will need to be bookmarked again.

Use of UW Google with Shared UW NetIDS ends August 29, 2023

A version of this reminder message was sent to owners and administrators of Shared UW NetIDs with a UW Google account on June 28, 2022. Messages included a customized list of Shared UW NetIDs, owned or administered by the recipient, associated with UW Google services.

Note: The date for discontinuation of use of Shared UW NetIDs, originally announced as September 5, 2023, has been moved to August 29, 2023 to avoid overlap with the Labor Day holiday and beginning of autumn campus activities. 

Due to changes to the UW Google service, the use of UW Google with Shared UW NetIDs will be eliminated, effective August 29, 2023. The UW Google service includes YouTube, among other frequently used tools. Owners and administrators of Shared UW NetIDs with UW Google service accounts must migrate data from these services or delete data that is no longer needed (according to the UW Records Retention schedule and the UW Medicine Records and Information Governance).

Any data that is not removed from these services will be deleted after August 29, 2023.

Please note that Shared UW NetIDs are not being deleted; only UW Google accounts and services for Shared UW NetIDs are being deleted.

What is happening?

In 2021, Google announced significant changes to their Google Workspace for Education product and how it is licensed. These changes, detailed on IT Connect, have major implications for UW-IT’s ability to provide UW Google (aka Google Workspace for Education, formerly known as G Suite and Google Apps) to the UW.

Google now considers the use of Shared UW NetIDs — widely used to support teaching, student activities, research, public outreach and business processes across the UW and with external partners — a violation of its Acceptable Use Policy and will be prohibiting their use. To comply with Google’s new requirements, the UW must discontinue the use of UW Google with Shared UW NetIDs.

As a first step toward compliance with Google’s new requirements, UW-IT discontinued the creation of new UW Google accounts for Shared UW NetIDs in August 2021. Owners and administrators of Shared UW NetIDs with existing UW Google accounts should begin planning to migrate data from these accounts.

What do I need to do?

  1. At the end of this message, review the lists of Shared UW NetIDs that you own or administer.
  2. Create a migration plan for email, files and business processes that must be retained.
  3. Review alternatives to UW Google for Shared UW NetIDs.

If the UW Google account is no longer needed, the owner should revoke access to UW Google services for the account using the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT). This will delete the UW Google account and data.

Is it possible to pay to keep services associated with Shared UW NetIDs?

No, it is not possible. The removal of Shared UW NetIDs from use with Google services is driven by the requirement to comply with Google’s new terms of service, which define the use of Shared UW NetIDs as a violation of Google’s acceptable use policy.

When do I need to migrate my data?

All data that needs to be preserved in UW Google accounts for Shared UW NetIDs must be moved to a new location by August 29, 2023. All UW Google accounts and data for Shared UW NetIDs will be deleted after that date.

UW-IT recommends that you begin work now to create a data migration plan.

Can UW-IT help me migrate my data?

Unfortunately, due to limited resources, UW-IT is unable to offer individualized data migration consulting or assistance. Your department’s IT group is your best resource for assistance and recommendations.

Review alternatives to UW Google for Shared UW NetIDs and guides for data migration.

Can I stop receiving these reminders?

You will receive periodic reminders about moving content from the affected UW Google accounts. If you prefer not to receive these messages, the owner of a Shared UW NetID can delete the UW Google account for a Shared UW NetID using the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT) by clicking “Revoke” next to the service. This will delete the UW Google account and all data.

Please note that only an owner of a Shared UW NetID will see it listed in the PRT and can act; Shared UW NetID admins will not see the Shared UW NetID listed in the PRT and cannot perform this action.

Questions?

Please contact the UW-IT Technology Service Center at help@uw.edu or 206-221-5000 with questions about the UW Google Changes Project.

UWSDBDataStore Reorg on June 4, 2022

UWSDBDataStore Reorg on June 4, 2022

The student database (SDB) will go through a reorganization on June 4, 2022 which will cause changes in the Enterprise Data Warehouse database, UWSDBDataStore. These changes to the objects will be available in the UWSDBDataStore on June 6. 2022.
However, data on the new objects will be available as soon as the Data Custodians submit the security role definitions and the SIS team loads the data.

Last Updated – 5.31.22

Columns to be Added

Table Column DataType
sa_transaction op_dat_wd_ck_no int
sf_evaluation bridge_grant_amt int
state_aid_only char(1)
student_2  titleix_stat tinyint
titleix_stat_dt datetime
titleix_exp_dt datetime
titleix_comment char(75)
titleix_updt_dt datetime
titleix_updt_id char(12)

Columns to be Removed

Table Column DataType
sa_wd_det_trans  indexd1 datetime

Columns with data type changes

Table Column DataType
sa_wd_sum_tran wd_sum_proc_date  datetime
wd_sum_trans_date  datetime

Tables to be Added

mailer_table mlr_office char(1)
mlr_no smallint
mlr_recipient char(1)
mlr_last_yr smallint
mlr_last_qtr tinyint
mlr_first_yr smallint
mlr_first_qtr tinyint
mlr_title char(30)
mlr_subject_line char(80)
mlr_from_email char(80)
mlr_is_used bit
mlr_update_id char(12)
mlr_update_date datetime
mlr_system_msg bit
mlr_variable_data bit
mlr_stop_footer bit
mlr_stop_header bit
mlr_flag_6 bit
mlr_flag_7 bit
mlr_flag_8 bit
mlr_num_lines smallint
mlr_spare_1 char(12)
mlr_spare_2 char(12)
mlr_spare_3 char(12)
mailer_table_mlr_line

 

  mlr_office char(1)
 mlr_no smallint
mlr_recipient char(1)
mlr_last_yr smallint
mlr_last_qtr tinyint
index1 smallint
mlr_line char(100)
 

 

 

 

sys_tbl_53_som_prgm_date

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 table_type tinyint
table_key char(20)
record_type smallint
table_subkey tinyint
som_sum_beg_dt datetime
som_sum_end_dt datetime
som_sum_disb_dt datetime
som_aut_beg_dt  datetime
som_aut_end_dt datetime
som_aut_disb_dt datetime
som_win_beg_dt datetime
som_win_end_dt datetime
som_win_disb_dt datetime
som_spr_beg_dt datetime
som_spr_end_dt datetime
som_spr_disb_dt datetime

EWS EVAL Release 9 is now available

Enterprise Web Services (EWS) has just released an update in EVAL for multiple web services in support of UW Finance Transformation (UWFT). For an overview of how EWS is adapting to support UWFT, refer to EWS for Finance Transformation.

Monthly Scheduled Releases

Updates to EVAL for all EWS services are now released on the same monthly schedule. This allows us to better synchronize with Enterprise Data Platform’s release schedule for Finance Transformation. For more information, refer to the Data Availability Timeline.

What’s New in EWS EVAL Release 9

Web Service

Overview of Release
FWS v2 (Outbound)
  • Several existing resources were updated.
  • One new resource was added.
  • Expanded functionality added to /SearchID endpoint to include Inactive flag and Related Worktags
  • No breaking changes were introduced.

For more information, refer to FWS Reference Data (Outbound) – Release 9. For support, refer to Support | FWS.
FWS v2 (Inbound)
  • No changes in this release

For support, refer to Support | FWS.
HRPWS v3
  • Several existing resources were updated.
  • One new resource was added.
  • Some breaking changes were introduced.

For more information on this release, refer to HRPWS v3 R9 Release Notes. For support, refer to Support | HRPWS. For an introduction to HRPWS and the Finance Transformation, including information on the transition from v2 to v3, refer to HRPWS for Finance Transformation.

Note: If you are a current user of HRPWS v2, we ask that you transition to HRPWS v3 by end of 2022. If you are a new user, your HRPWS integration does not need to be ready until UWFT Go Live.

BI Portal Version 2: BI Portal and UW Profiles redesign and consolidation – release in June!

Current Status: Team approved a release of the BI Portal (version 2) for June, after brief code freeze.

diagram showing BI Portal and UW Profiles merged into one new interface

User Acceptance testing (UAT) completed

User Acceptance Testing was successfully completed on May 23 with only a few reported issues. These issues have been prioritized and will be resolved or added to the queue for future updates.  

Upcoming code freeze

To prepare for the release of the redesigned BI Portal (version 2), we’ll initiate a code freeze on mid to late June, with a release to follow.

How will the freeze affect you?

During the content freeze, you’ll still continue using the current BI Portal to view and access reports, cubes and dashboards. However, during the freeze period, if you submit a ticket with an issue regarding a report, dashboard or cube, we won’t be able to resolve the issue until after the freeze period.

What’s next?

After the switch to the new interface, when you log in to the BI Portal, you’ll see the new interface with the same content, including all the items you had in your “Favorites.” 

Additionally, the new BI Portal will be the topic of a BI Portal webinar in August or September. We hope you’ll join the Reporting & Analytics team to take a grand tour of the new interface and get answers to your questions.

 

Project Summary

The BI Portal Version 2 (V2) project involves the redesign and consolidation of the UW Profiles portal and BI Portal back end and front end web interface.  The scope of this project is limited to the consolidation of UW Profiles portal and the BI Portal into a single, modern, easy-to-use reporting portal.

Objectives:

  • Launch a new BI portal version to consolidate UW Profiles and the existing BI Portal
  • Migrate users of both of the existing portals to the new consolidated BI portal and help them adapt.
  • Decommission the UW profiles user interface, admin interface, and backend databases
  • Change Management and Communication to the BI Portal and UW Profiles users.

Benefits:

  • A single BI Portal user interface will reduce overall technical maintenance costs by supporting one code base and database instead of many.
  • Improving the supportability and extensibility of the portal through a modern code language and infrastructure will make the portal easier to support, and allow us to add new features based on user requests.
  • Improve usability by resolving legacy design flaws and improving the user search and browse experience.

Timeline

The timeline for web interface updates is outlined below:

Oct-Dec 2021

  • Microservices and database schema updates
  • Home, Favorites, Catalog pages
  • Header/Footer updates
  • Tiles for favorites and catalog
  • Report Details updates started

Jan – Mar 2022

  • Reports, Dashboard and Cube detail pages
  • Catalog
  • Alerts
  • Reaching out to users for User Acceptance Testing (UAT) 

April-June 2022

  • Help page
  • Global Search
  • Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
  • UAT closure with approved fixes
  • Re-migration pre-launch
  • Fixes to the existing metadata content
  • Deploy all code/data to production
  • Lessons learned and project closure

Help

Please contact the UW-IT Technology Service Center at help@uw.edu with questions about the UW Project BI Project V2 Project.

EWS EVAL Release 8 is now available

Enterprise Web Services (EWS) has just released an update in EVAL for multiple web services in support of UW Finance Transformation (UWFT). For an overview of how EWS is adapting to support UWFT, refer to EWS for Finance Transformation.

Monthly Scheduled Releases

Updates to EVAL for all EWS services are now released on the same monthly schedule. This allows us to better synchronize with Enterprise Data Platform’s release schedule for Finance Transformation. For more information, refer to the Data Availability Timeline.

What’s New in EWS Release 8

Web Service

Overview of Release
FWS v2 (Outbound)
  • Several existing fields and resources have been updated.
  • Some endpoints have been removed per FT Functional team recommendation.
  • Several new fields have been added.
  • Some breaking changes were introduced.
  • Minor bug fixes.

For more information, refer to FWS v2 Outbound R8 Release Notes. For support, refer to Support | FWS.
FWS v2 (Inbound)
  • Validate Worktags is a new resource now available from FWS Inbound.
  • Submission ID type used by FWS Inbound updated to ULID.

For more information, refer to FWS v2 Inbound R8 Release Notes. For support, refer to Support | FWS.
PWS v2 There are no changes planned for PWS v2 for FT, however, we are now providing an instance in EVAL pointing to Workday Tenant UW13 to support FT development and testing.

For support, refer to PWS Support Information.

Spring 2022 Content Manager Update

Hello IT Connect Content Managers,

This is the Spring 2022 edition of the quarterly IT Connect Content Manager Update.

In This Issue 

  • IT Connect UX Enhancements project update
  • Prepare for a caontent freeze this summer
  • Web content best practices: Retiring and archiving content

WHAT’S NEW?

IT Connect UX Enhancements project update

The project to overhaul IT Connect so that it better serves its users is wrapping up a series of user research efforts and using data from the research to shape the direction and design of the website. The goal behind the new IT Connect is to present clearly organized content so that the UW community can more easily find technology information and IT-related tools and services, with the site better reflecting the current state of technology at the UW.

From user research, the project team created a new information architecture, the organization, structure and labeling of content, with the content organized where users would expect to find content. Next, a prototype of the new site based on the new information architecture is being created to validate the information design of the new IT Connect through user testing. A leaner homepage and emphasis on search will also be a part of the prototype.

A high-level wireframe schematic that summarizes the structural changes of the site is available here.

The new IT Connect will incorporate content from the UW-IT organizational site (uw.edu/uwit) to create a single website for information for the UW from UW-IT. The organizational website has information about UW-IT’s divisions and units, IT governance, jobs and more. Data from user research and Google Analytics show that users searching for IT information have been confused about which site to use. This effectively put IT Connect and uw.edu/uwit in competition with one another, which will be resolved by streamlining content into a single site.

In the coming months, as decisions are finalized, more information about the specific changes coming to IT Connect will be shared with content producers, service owners/managers, and all of UW-IT. This will include information about how content will be organized on the site, and where the content you manage will be moved.

Prepare for a content freeze this summer

A key part of the IT Connect UX Enhancements Project’s is to determine how content on IT Connect can be organized so that students, faculty and staff can more easily find content, and content is organized in a clear and unambiguous way. The end result of this research will be a complete reorganization of the site’s content into the new information architecture (the organization, structure and labeling of content). 

Implementation of this new content organization will require a two-to-four week freeze on content edits on the live site. This will allow for the live site content to be duplicated on a staging server, so that it can be reorganized into the new schema before the new site goes live.

During this content freeze, your ability to add, edit and remove content on IT Connect will be temporarily removed to ensure no data is lost. Because when the site is switched over to the new IT Connect, it will use the content database for the staging server. 

While the exact dates of this content freeze are not yet known, they will be communicated well ahead of the content freeze with all content producers and service owners and managers. 

If there is an urgent need to change content after the content freeze goes into effect, then the exception will need to be approved and coordinated with the project team. This is to ensure that the content changes can also be implemented on the staging server and persist after the cutover to the new site.

Web content best practices: Have a retirement plan for content

The content on a documentation website like IT Connect changes and grows over time. But specific content on a website is rarely forever useful to end-users. If resources like news or updates are dated or if tools and services evolve or are deprecated, content owners should evaluate whether or not the content should be retired and removed from IT Connect.

If you want to save content that is no longer relevant to end users, your service or product team should create a repository for that archived content outside of IT Connect. Some content repository tools allow you to archive content within the same tool where you publish it, which is fine so long as it’s not accessible to any end users. Documentation should be saved with other service-related materials according to the UW’s records retention policies and the University’s archiving practice.

Removing outdated content from websites reduces the clutter that users have to sift through in search results and navigation menus, and makes a website as a whole more usable.

DOCUMENTATION, TRAINING & CONSULTATIONS

Do you need some help creating IT Connect content, another head to brainstorm content organization and layout, or want to learn how to use the features available in IT Connect? There’s several ways to get help:

  • Training: One-on-one training for managing content on IT Connect is available from the IT Connect product manager, Nick Rohde, over Zoom or in person (once normal operations continue after the coronavirus pandemic). Get tips on correctly formatting content using the tools in IT Connect or learn how to organize your content. To arrange training, send an email to help@uw.edu with IT Connect Training in the subject line.
  • Consultation: Consultation sessions for individuals or teams are available from the IT Connect product manager, Nick Rohde. Send an email to help@uw.edu with IT Connect Consultation in the subject line to schedule a consultation.