The UCPath Common Data Mart
Submitter:
Al Course, Manager of Data Services, Albert.Course@ucop.edu, 510.987.0761
Project Leaders:
Donna Capraro
Al Course
UCLA Director of Information and Data Strategy
UCOP Senior Application Manager, Data Services
Core Team:
Deborah Hill
Hilda Duggan
Greg Hamilton
Micheal Schwartz
UCOP
UCLA
UCB
UCOP
Project Manager
Data Architect
Data Architect
Data Architect
Project Description:
The Challenge: Integrating UCPath into Campus Decision Support Systems
UC campuses have long-established data warehouse and business intelligence environments that
integrate data and deliver decision support derived from UC’s 35 year old Payroll and Personnel System
(PPS).
The current replacement of PPS with Oracle’s PeopleSoft Human Capital Management application
(UCPath) will not however “plug and play” into the existing PPS-based data warehouse and business
intelligence environments. Highly revised if not entirely new data warehouse and business intelligence
environments are required to integrate UCPath into campus-based decision support systems.
The total cost for campuses to separately provide solutions to this challenge is substantial. PeopleSoft is
new to most of UC and the application structure and operations must be independently learned by the
campuses. The learning process is complicated because PeopleSoft does not maintain referential
integrity or business rules in the database. Data and business rules are enforced by the application and
campuses are dependent on UCPath functional experts to understand these processes.
The estimated summed cost to UC of the separate campus efforts to integrate UCPath into their decision
support systems is over $10 million dollars (see Appendix A: Table A1: Total Costs without Collaboration).
The UCPath Common Data Mart – Collaboration
The Business Intelligence Collaboration Group (BICG) is a working subcommittee of the UC Information
Technology Leadership Council (ITLC). BICG membership is comprised of representatives across UC
campuses. The mission of BICG is to plan and coordinate UC-wide business intelligence programs
related to common administrative systems and to establish an integrated data management environment.
Members of BICG and other campus stakeholders approached BICG with the proposition that while
campuses are responsible for meeting their data warehouse and business intelligence requirements,
substantial efficiencies might be gained through a campus-wide collaborative design of a common
UCPath data warehouse.
BICG agreed to develop and promote the proposal to design an UCPath common data warehouse and
after several reviews and revisions the proposal for the “UCPath Common Data Mart” (CDM) was
submitted to ITLC and successfully approved for funding in March of 2014.
Cost and Funding
$375,000 of seed funding covering the project’s one year timeline was provided by the Office of the
President. $865,000 of contributed staff costs were provided primarily by UCLA and also by UCB and
UCOP.
Total Project Cost: $1,240,000. See Appendix A: Table A2: UCPath CDM Funding by Source and Stage.
Resources
1
Resources for the project included 6.0 FTE for the project leads, project manager, data architects, data
modeler, ETL mapping specialist and a reporting developer. Others included UCPath and campus
functional experts that were often called up to provide an understanding of PeopleSoft and UC
customizations. These contributions were not minor.
The Process – Innovation, Collaboration and Communication
The UCPath CDM was structured to ensure the efficiencies of collaboration among all participating
campuses. This required that the step-by-step procedures for designing and producing the deliverables
were well understood by the participating stakeholders, including, with some emphasis, the procedures
for communication.
All communication was channeled through a single point person, the Project Manager, who used the
UCPath CDM Response Tracker to log items. The Core Team reviewed the Response Tracker on a
weekly basis, providing responses to new issues and tracking the progress on outstanding issues. If
issues required call outs to UCPath and campus functional experts, then the Project Manager sent these
requests and was the contact person to receive and post the returned answers to the Response Tracker.
The Response Tracker was also formally reviewed throughout the project and extensively with all of the
stakeholders at each UCPath CDM Design Review Session.
This communication procedure resulted in reduced confusion, kept all stakeholders “in the loop,” and
facilitated cross-campus discussions and broad based stakeholder participation.
The general strategy that led us to our project deliverables is presented below.











target one subject area at a time – person, job, absence management, benefits, payroll,
commitment accounting, labor ledger, budget export, job profile management
capture and review business use cases from campuses by subject area
o seek assistance from UCPath functional experts as required to determine how UCPath
CDM can meet the requirements
begin design of logical dimensional model with ULCA’s initial dimensional model design
o review and revise design as required
o rename tables and attributes according to the agreed upon design standards
apply data naming abbreviation standards
capture entity and attribute definitions in data dictionary
develop and document ETL mapping specifications for all data
prepare sample reports
publish deliverables for review by all stakeholders
document review questions and comments in Response Tracker
o seek assistance from UCPath functional experts as required
schedule and hold UCPath CDM Design Review Session to review all deliverables by subject
area and review Response Tracker
make all final revisions to deliverables and publish to SharePoint
2
Deliverables
The UCPath CDM proved the feasibility and efficiencies of campus collaboration on a complex
system-wide project. The project reduced the collective as well as the local costs for the design of
UCPath data warehouse and business intelligence environments.
Over the course of its one year timeline UCPath CDM met and surpassed the project
deliverables. All the deliverables discussed below are published on the UCPath CDM
SharePoint.
https://sp2010.ucop.edu/sites/itlc/committees/bicollaboration/BI%20Collaborative%20Data%20Warehous
e%20Project/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Business Use Cases
256 distinct business use cases were received from UC campuses and were the requirements
foundation of the project. Business use cases were discussed and assessed by the Core Team
with the campuses through several meetings and during the UCPath CDM Design Review
Sessions. The design review sessions were held six times, three of which were face-to-face
meetings of all campus stakeholders and were held at UCLA (twice) and UCI.
Dimensional Models
Driven by the business use cases, 30 dimensional models were designed across the subject
areas of person, job, absence management, benefits, payroll, commitment accounting, labor
ledger, budget export, and job profile management; 100 total tables with over 3,000 columns.
The data models were delivered in multiple formats including ERwin so that campuses were able
to easily visualize and share the dimensional models with different audiences.
Common Data Mart Data Dictionary
Two data dictionaries were created to facilitate an understanding of the business meaning of the
data across all of the models. The UCPath CDM Data Dictionary provides definitions for 97
tables and 2,752 columns. The UCPath CDM Entity Definitions is an “at a glance” dictionary to go
with the “at a glance” entity only diagrams.
ETL Mapping Specifications
Over 160 ETL mapping specifications were developed to assist all campuses in the load of their
local UCPath CDM, providing maps of the data from the local ODS into the local UCPath CDM.
Sample Reports
Sample reports and associated reporting frameworks were developed so that campuses could
both test the dimensional models and begin developing other reports. It was agreed by campuses
that sharing reports and the code to query the UCPath CDM was a significant and would be a
continuing cost saving benefit.
Design Standards
Early in the project it was agreed that the known and generally accepted data warehouse
practices, terminology and architecture of Ralph Kimball would be adhered to throughout the
design of the UCPath CDM. This was beneficial to this project as it standardized communication
between participating stakeholders and set expectations regarding the format of the deliverables.
UCPath CDM Design Standards were also published for data naming, abbreviations and
definitions. Over 1000 standardized abbreviations were applied to derive the abbreviated column
names in the physical model.
These design standards established a common understanding across campus stakeholders of
the business meaning of the data in the UCPath CDM.
3
Response Tracker
The UCPath CDM Response Tracker was also developed to capture and track questions,
comments and issues regarding the UCPath CDM design. The availability of the Response
Tracker on SharePoint improved communication between campus stakeholders. The responses
that were received were discussed, resolved and shared with all stakeholders through regular
meetings and at the UCPath CDM Design Review Sessions. 249 total responses were received
and resolved.
DDL
The code (DDL) to create the UCPath CDM will be published in conjunction with the final
revisions to UCPath PeopleSoft at the end of SIT testing and just prior to the UCOP UCPath Go
Live. This publication will include the development and burst of masked data to all campuses.
The DDL will be burst for Oracle, SQLServer and IBM.
Implementation and Operation
To facilitate post project implementation both the UCLA Informatica Handbook, aka “RunBook”
and a UCPath CDM Location Implementation PowerPoint presentation were developed. Both
outline the steps required to implement and operate the UCPath CDM, from establishing and
loading the local ODS to building and loading the UCPath CDM as well as executing queries.
The Efficiencies of Collaboration
In the year prior to the UCPath CDM, UCLA designed initial dimensional models and Cognos report
frameworks for their perceived UCPath data warehouse and business intelligence environment. At that
time UCLA was considered the front runner for UCPath Go Live and this drove their initial work.
When the campuses agreed to move forward with the design of a common UCPath data warehouse,
UCLA contributed their initial dimensional models and reporting frameworks to this collaborative effort.
This was a major contribution to the project and one of the first realized gains of collaboration.
Some campuses such as UCSC, UCI and UCB had existing implementations of PeopleSoft applications.
Collaboration on UCPath CDM enabled these campuses to share their expertise and experience.
The UCPath CDM also drove the collaborative creation of data naming, abbreviation and data definition
standards. These may now be utilized across UC and will enable accurate UCPath reporting, the sharing
of UCPath reports, and provide a foundation for future collaboration across campuses.
Concrete Savings
The collaborative design of UCPath CDM constitutes 80% of the design and system integration work that
campuses would have to undertake individually. The project has resulted in significant collective savings
for UC and will enable campuses to efficiently implement local UCPath data warehouse and business
intelligence solutions.
The campuses agree that an estimated 2.0 FTE per year has been saved from UCPath data warehouse
and business intelligence design and development work the will be required to integrate UCPath into
campus decision support systems. This equates to total UC savings of $3,500,000. See Appendix A:
Table A3 - Cost Savings through Collaboration.
4
Conclusion
UCPath CDM used effective cross-functional collaboration to design a system-wide information
technology solution. The deliverables of the project are a collective product of numerous stakeholders
across all 10 UC campuses and UCOP.
UCPath CDM has been a collaborative success that may be emulated by future system-wide information
technology projects.
Appendix A: Calculations of Cost, Funding and Savings
Assumptions
1920 person hours for a yearly FTE
$91 average hourly rate of the 6 required FTEs
A1: Total Costs without Collaboration
Totals
Assumption: Person Hours Per Year
Per 1 FTE
Required FTEs Per Year/
Total Hours Per Year
Average Hourly Rate for FTEs/
Total Cost Per Campus
1920
6
11520
$ 91
$ 1,048,320
Total Cost for 10 Campuses
$10,483,200
A2: UCPath CDM Funding by Source and Stage
UCOP
- incremental costs specific to the UCPath CDM project
$
375,000
UCLA
- initial version 1 UCPath dimensional models designs prior to UCPath
CDM project
$
692,700
UCLA
- incremental costs specific to the UCPath CDM project
$
125,000
UCB
- incremental costs specific to the UCPath CDM project
$
23,650
UCOP
- incremental costs specific to the UCPath CDM project
$
23,650
$
1,240,000
Total Project Funding and Cost
A3: Cost Savings through Collaboration
Total
Person Hours per Year
FTEs
Average Hourly Rate
1920
1920
2
3840
$ 91
$ 349,440
Total for 9 Campuses and UCOP
$3,494,400
*UCLA not included as UCLA expended funds for full development of the solution
5