Action Project Declaration
Title – Establishing standards and processes for providing essential data reports
Timeframe: November 2012 to July 2013
AQIP Category 7- Measuring Effectiveness
Champion: Data Team
Describe this Action Project's goal—100 word limit
The goal of this project is to develop: 1) a common data dictionary, which will identify
the location of data in the institution’s information systems and 2) develop standards
and processes so that institutional data is more available to decision-makers and also
more easily accessed by others on campus. At the end of this project, when employees
request data, they will have access to a broad set of standardized data reports and will
be able to select these standardized reports from a standard, “pick-from” list. For nonstandard reports, users will request a customized report using an online request form.
A new task force will be established to aid in this transition.
Describe briefly your institution's reasons for taking on this Action Project now -why the project and its goals are high among your current priorities:
The South Dakota Board of Regents system (made up of 6 public institutions) currently
shares a student information system. At this time, the BOR system is migrating to an
Oracle database and developing a data warehouse. When we complete this action
project, DSU will have established institutional standards that will support the two
system-wide initiatives. These projects will increase the institution’s efficiency in data
programming and reporting by streamlining the institution’s data dictionary, data reports,
and data request processes. By identifying critical data reports and deleting duplicate or
outdated reports and also by establishing a standardized data dictionary (including the
location of data elements in the student information system), the institution’s
administrative programmers will have guidelines for revising and/ or rewriting programs.
List the organizational areas -- institutional departments, programs, divisions, or
units -- most affected by or involved in this Action Project:
The Champions of the project include the Vice President of Academic Affairs, the
Director of Administrative Programming, the Director and Assistant Director of
Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, the Director of Admissions and the Dean of
the College of Business and Information Systems, as a data consultant. When
completed, this project will impact everyone on campus who regularly accesses
institutional data.
Name and describe briefly the key organizational process(es) that you expect this
Action Project to change or improve:
Processes that will be improved:
 Data request process
 Data report generation (standardized data definitions and standardized
locations of data elements within the student information system)
 Data delivery mechanism
 Data programming decisions within administrative programming and the office
of institutional effectiveness and assessment
Explain the rationale for the length of time planned for this Action Project (from
kickoff to target completion):
This is the institution’s first step in a series of projects leading to development of the
larger, system-wide data warehouse project which is scheduled to be completed
December 2014. For this project, the task force will: 1) complete an inventory of existing
data reports, 2) identify and eliminate duplicative reports, thereby establishing a
reduced list of essential data reports with due dates and current report “owners”, 3)
develop a mechanism for making standard reports available to the DSU community.
Describe how you plan to monitor how successfully your efforts on this Action
Project are progressing:
Project success will be determined by:
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Completion of the data report inventory
Elimination of duplicative data reports
Development of a data dictionary and location of data elements within the
student information system
Enhancement of the current online data request form
Development of a “pick from” list of standardized data reports, which will be
available to the DSU community
Improved understanding and use of the report inventory
Describe the overall "outcome" measures or indicators that will tell you whether
this Action Project has been a success or failure in achieving its goals:
The outcome of this project is to develop a common framework and language for data
collection and analysis to improve data availability and accuracy and to inform
institutional decision making. When the project is completed, DSU will have a
systematic process for requesting data and an online list of the key reports. This will
enable DSU to make more informed data-based decisions, thereby improving the
effectiveness of the university.