Unified Information Technology System Development – Project Overview

1. Unified Information Technology System Development – Project Overview Board of Early Education and Care February 10, 2009

2. Agenda • Unified System Overview • What is the Vision • What is Included • What are the Expected Outcomes • IT Governance • External Stakeholder Involvement • Project Plan • Next Steps

3. Unified System Overview • Scope – Develop a single, comprehensive system for providing and tracking services to children, families, providers and educators of early education and afterschool time throughout the Commonwealth • Goal – Migrate EEC’s older legacy systems to a modern, browser-based environment • Expand the online functionality available to EEC staff, its partner agencies and programs, and to other stakeholders in Massachusetts • Establish enterprise data standards for use throughout the Department • Funding – $9.5 million (capital funds) from the Information Technology Division • Duration – Began February 3, 2009, lasts for 14 months, and spans two fiscal years

4. Family Child Care Systems CCR&Rs CPCs Providers Families Funding, support, referrals Funding, support, referrals Provider search, financial assistance Licenses, funding, tracking Funding, support Public Schools Public Grants, tracking Provider search Practitioners Qualifications, tracking Reports, Revenue tracking Federal Govt. Licenses, resid placement, tracking Other State Agencies Reports Legislature & Administration Placements, background checks Payment, contracts Intake RFR UFR Placements Background checks OSD (Comm-PASS) DCF OSC(MMARS) DTA EOHHS(VG) CHSB Legend Consumers Intermediaries Service Providers Note: The interactions described in this diagram are intended to illustrate information flow Fund Sources Other State Agencies Practitioners The Unified System Vision • Supports activities to measure and promote child outcomes and program effectiveness • Improves decision making capabilities through integrated and expanded data capture and analysis • Promotes process improvements and operational efficiencies • Increases transparency and information sharing • Uses modern technology that is easier to support and change including supporting regulation and policy changes * Based on the Strategic Roadmap developed in 2007.

5. What is Included in the Unified System? Unified System TO4: Provider Development TO5: Integrated Child and Family • Search for providers • Add/edit providers • Create and maintain licenses (renewals, visits, complaints, docs, etc.) • Receive payments • Process BRCs • Manage compliance issues and legal actions • Promote provider quality • Search for child/family • Add/edit child/family • Refer child from DTA/DCF • Determine eligibility for financial assistance • Manage child care wait list • Place children • Track attendance • Manage billing/payment • Assess children’s progress • Promote program effectiveness TO6: Purchase of Services TO7: Professional Development • Manage RFR process • Add/edit contracts • Manage budgets/ expenditures • Manage fiscal compliance • Assess risk • Manage payments (leveraging MMARS) • Track workforce • Manage practitioners certifications (e.g., application, certification, decertification, etc.) • Maintain professional development repository • Search for professional development opportunities

6. Expected Outcomes • Easier for children and families to request and receive services • Ability to track children and families including child outcomes • Expanded online resources for professional development • Flexible tools that support ongoing data analysis, policy- making, and budget planning • Comprehensive reporting across all provider relationships • Greater collaboration with state agencies that serve children and families • Easier to do business with EEC (billing, payment, and compliance) • Reduced operational and management complexity

7. Accomplishments To Date • Selected Vendor • Developed Statement of Work between EEC and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) which defines key deliverables, milestones, and payment points. • Prepared for Design by documenting functionality of legacy applications • Updated TechnicalInfrastructure (e.g., hardware, software, network, etc.) so it is capable of supporting the new system • Implemented mini-projects to support the overall goals of the Unified System (i.e., new background record check functionality, improved the quality of existing provider and child information) • Established Governance Committee to resolve policy issues and business process changes; coordinate staff participation in the Unified System Project; prioritize operational needs, engage external agencies and stakeholders

8. Engaging External Stakeholders • The majority of the users of the Unified System are not EEC staff • There is a need to involve individuals who have knowledge of the existing processes (e.g., CPCs, CCR&Rs, contracted providers, other state agencies, etc) early on in the project to: • Promote communication between EEC and its partners • Improve the quality of the design of the Unified System • Facilitate the adoption of the Unified System • EEC Advisory and Parent Advisory Teams will play a key role

9. Project Plan and Timeline

10. Introduction to the IT Development Cycle • Inception Phase (aka Requirements) • Defines the scope (or vision) of what is to be implemented. Typically includes high-level business and technical requirements and an estimate of cost or resources required to implement the vision. • This phase defines the overall nature of the project. For the US, this is the Vision and Requirements Document and Unified System RFQ. • Elaboration Phase (aka Design) • Transforms the vision for the project into specifications suitable for system development. This is a critical phase where the design of the “to be” application is detailed and where business rules and requirements are specified. • Resulting from this phase are the design documents and models that will guide development. These documents set the expectations for later user acceptance testing of the system. • Construction Phase (aka Development) • Focuses on the coding and development of the functionality and features of the designed system. Unit testing is conducted to make sure individual pieces of the system meet the specifications of the various design documents. • In large projects like the Unified System, this construction phase (and the corresponding elaboration and transition phases) is divided into several manageable iterations. • Transition Phase (aka Testing/Training/Deployment) • “Transitions” the application from development into production. It is in this phase that users will confirm the functionality developed during Construction in a process called User Acceptance Testing (UAT). • The key criteria for the successful completion of UAT is the proper implementation of the designs developed during the Elaboration Phase.

11. Next Steps • Formalize IT Governance processes • Finalize approach to involving external users in the project • Begin to address policy issues and business changes that will impact the Unified System (e.g., regulation changes) • Conduct requirements “baselining” sessions • Plan for the development of the first Unified System development package focusing on Professional Certification • Arrange staff availability to participate in design sessions