Having talked with the project’s stakeholders we decided that our investigation of the circuituous journey of a new programme or module towards its inclusion in a printed or on-line prospectus should begin at the beginning. This may seem obvious but perhaps not when you consider that the project scope does not include the delivery of a system to streamline, automate and disseminate the creation of programmes and modules. There is no doubt there is a need to improve current methods of working but we do not have sufficient resources within the XCRI project to achieve this. The processes we are looking at in this project begin after a new programme or module has been entered (currently manually) onto the Student Data System.

However in order to ‘future proof’ our developments as far as possible we need to understand the whole process  – so this is where we have started. David Sweet & Leo Lyons spent time talking to Ann Tull in the Faculty Office and as a result David, the Information Services Systems Architecture Analyst has produced a first draft of a schematic illustrating the programme/module creation process. After comments and clarification from Ann we should have the first visualisation of at least the begining of the course data journey.

As well as starting to appreciate just how convoluted and complex the processes can be one can’t help but be impressed by the knowledge and dedication of the individuals involved – transporting the germ of an idea through to its appearance on-line or in print. I thank them for their patience in explaining to me what is second nature to them!