David Etherton Princeton University

1. It Takes Three to Tango:Business, Application,and ITCome Together for Class Schedulingat Princeton University David Etherton Princeton University

2. “It takes two to tango” Certain activities cannot be performed alone—such as quarreling, making love, and dancing the tango. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. “Never assume one child is always the victim and the other the aggressor. Remember, no matter how things appear, it takes two to tango. If you look closely enough ... you will see how the victim subtly provokes the aggressor into attacking.” ATTRIBUTION: Ron Taffel (20th century), U.S. writer, psychologist. Why Parents Disagree, ch. 13 (1994).

3. Goals for the Session • That you find value being here • Discover keys or clues to personal success • Provide some entertainment value • Not overuse the metaphor/analogy • Survive to root Yankees to victory

4. Three to tango? A new paradigm? Al Pacino, Gabrielle Anwar Chris O’Donnell (not shown) Arnold Swartzenegger, Tia Carrere Tom Arnold (not shown)

5. Setting the Stage: the business of classroom scheduling • Typical each semester (fall, spring) • ~7000 students • <300 classrooms • ~2300 class sections • Final exam scheduling • Scheduling Process • Courses/classes brought forward and updated • Departments make changes and request spaces, features, preferred teaching locations • Scheduler does pre-assigns, combined sections, runs batch scheduling • Transactional changes at start of semester entrada – the entrance

6. Setting the Stage:the dance of the applications • PeopleSoft Student Information System (HRSAv8) • Course Information System (CIS) • Student Course Online Registration Engine (SCORE) • CollegeNet R25/S25/vCal Interface • Event and Meeting Scheduling • Classroom Scheduling • PSSAR25 vCal Interface • (400+ R25 customers, 70 PSSA, 150+ other) • Infosilem Final Exam Scheduling • Feeds R25

7. Setting the Stage:more on the Class Scheduling process • Course sessions created in PeopleSoft CIS with requirements from Departments entered directly • Pre-assigns, priority assigns, pre-bookings, auto-scheduling, over-rides, final bookings • Classroom scheduling batch to match classes to classrooms based on departmental preference, needs, capacities • R25 shared venues are updated automatically, allowing event and meeting scheduling • Transactional processing as changes are made, new sessions are added, sessions removed

8. Archibus GIS Setting the Stage:applications and technologies PSoft Course Information System Classroom Assignments CIS Event Requests SQR Web-based Infosilem R25 Web-based R25 WebViewer Web S25 Client-Server

9. Setting the Stage:the technical environment • Multiple instances of PSSAv8 (web) and R25v3.2 (client server) • devl, qa, test, prod • Development and Production application servers and database servers • Oracle DBMS v8.1.7 moving to v9 • Campus-wide standard client machines • Running Windows 2000 (moving to XP) • Tested prior to updated and imaged with controlled software releases • Structured problem reporting and migration

10. functional technical GAP Preparing the Dancers …the traditional approach • Business environment • Business processes • Reporting requirements • “the system just needs to work” • Information • “it isn’t giving the right info” • Functional enhancements • Technical environment • System interfaces • SQR, RDM, data structures • Testing, testing, testing • Data • Trouble-shooting, fault isolation, fixes • Application development abrazo – to embrace

11. functional technical application Preparing the Dancers … a different style application environment function and features data preparation system enhancements security administration user training/testing customization/reporting problem triage (bizapptech) caminada – to walk

12. The new Tango functional technical application corrida – to run

13. Dancer #1 - The Business Specialist - Registrar’s Office Class Scheduler • Well understood business policies, processes, practices • “GIGO” from Dept’l users, no how to catch it • Step-wise processing • Counts and Checks arrastre – to drag

14. Dancer #2 – The Technical Specialist - OIT PSS Technical Support • Testing instances and full-cycle testing • Trouble reporting and structured migration • Documention • Patches and Fixes and Knowledgebase • Vendor technical support with Webex firulete – an embellishment

15. Test Suite for R25v3.2 R25 Technical Framework (section 1) R25 Application Environment (section 2) R25 Administration (section 3) R25 Data Directories (section 4) Events and Meetings Scheduling Functions (section 5) Classroom Scheduling Functions (section 6) Verify Converted Data (section 7) Reporting (section 8) WebViewer (section 9) Dancer #3 – The Application Specialist - USUS R25 Manager • Prototyping/testing instances • Testing suites and scenarios • Nation-wide User community • Functional users leveraged across campus-wide use llevada – to carry

16. Acknowledgements • Office of the Registrar - Jessica Gamble (jessica@princeton.edu) • OIT AIS PSS - Thembi Takirumbudde - Devaki Wagle (dwagle@princeton.edu) • USUS • David Etherton (etherton@princeton.edu) • CollegeNet - Heidi VanDerVoorn (heidiv@collegenet.com) parada – a stop

17. Questions, Answers, Discussion?

18. salida – exit, go out

19. Who wins the prize? • I am the number of “the Rocket” • I now wear that same number with NY Yankees • I am the number of the “Ryan Express” • Guess a number between 1-50 • 15