BGSU Information Technology Services (ITS) manages a variety of technical and business process projects that support BGSU academic, physical, and digital operations, as well as specific portfolios of strategic objectives defined by Vice Presidents/Provosts and C-level staff across campus. Using Project Management Institute’s (PMI) guide to best practices, this process includes sourcing and aligning project requests to University strategic objectives through various levels of governance, providing project management and resourcing guidance to approved initiatives, delivering appropriate levels of communication throughout the project and technical lifecycles, and providing ongoing support of technical services and digital applications. ITS is built around delivering new, and maintaining existing, technologies in the classroom, in the field and throughout administrative offices by defining objectives and projects, facilitating governance and executive prioritization of initiatives and guiding each approved project to successful completion using industry standard methodologies. 

Business Process Reviews (BPRs) - ITS Project Management Office

The ITS Project Management Office (PMO) is responsible for performing project management activities for BGSU technology projects to ensure deliverables and outcomes meet (and hopefully exceed) expectations. In addition to these activities, the PMO offers LeanBGSU services that include performing Business Process Reviews (BPR) and Rapid Improvement (RIE) or Kaizen events. These services are provided by the teams’ certified Lean Green and Lean Black Belts. During LeanBGSU events, our team works with academic and business offices throughout the University to visualize the current flow of critical and repetitive business processes, identify waste or non-value-added activities, and establish action plans for improvement towards a new future state. By taking the time to first understand current state processes, project teams can better identify opportunities for improvements and ultimately increase overall efficiencies. 

Lean continuous improvement events have been beneficial in several areas throughout the University, and Lean methods are proven to work in both academic and business offices. If there are processes that you feel aren’t performing optimally, or that you know require workarounds to function, they may be an ideal candidate for a Lean review.

Below are some examples of recent business process improvement projects recently completed by the PMO:

Primary Owner

Student Employment Services

Summary

This fall (2022) ITS worked with representatives from Student Employment Services, Payroll, the Office of Human Resources, and the Graduate College to examine the process by which a student's correct OPERS selection is reflected in PeopleSoft HCM.  OPERS made a recent policy change reversing the default selection; instead of all student employees being opted out upon hire, students are now opted in unless they specifically request otherwise.  This policy change by OPERS reversed portions of BGSU's workflows for student hiring and resulted in errors and a noticeable increase in manual intervention.  To reset our approach to the OPERS selection a modified, intermittent Lean RIE was conducted over a couple of months as schedules allowed.   

Benefits

Many immediate positive outcomes were realized through the efforts of the business offices involved.  New queries were created to automate data collection and new documentation and communications procedures were created to support the students involved.  Other business processes have been tweaked to provide better results, such as shifting to a 1-week cadence for some student pay tasks rather than two. In the long term, the student's intended choice will be collected at their initial hire to streamline subsequent paperwork, and ITS will assist with project requests to improve storage of electronic forms.

Primary Owner

Office of Registration & Records

Summary

This was a cradle to grave examination of what happens from the time a transcript is received in Registration & Records for processing until the credit is posted. The objective was to understand the process to improve it and establish consistency and standardization of process tasks. The project team consisted of staff from Registration & Records, Admissions, and ITS.  

Benefits

Identified improvement recommendations to increase the efficiency of the transfer credit process and streamline the process flow through standardized processes, training, and communication activities. Moving forward, the team would like an evaluation of the transfer bridge to determine if additional efficiencies can be gained. 

Primary Owner

Office of Admissions

Summary

This BPR focused on efficiency improvements for the readmit process to streamline it for both students and staff. As part the BPR, a team of Admissions and Registration & Records staff worked to understand the entire process and identify opportunities for improvement. The process has changed over the years and as staff has transitioned, an overview of documentation, tasks, ownership, and training was needed.

Benefits

Identified improvement opportunities for establishing standard processes, updating forms, streamlining the Slate workflow, and updating training and documentation.