Ext Sap to Sprt Univ Policies

HERUG 2005Extending SAP to Manage University Policies

Extending SAP to Manage University Policies

Kathy GatesThe University of Mississippi


Abstract

• Most universities have hundreds of policies in place. What are they, who has the authority to update and approve them, and when were they last reviewed? This presentation will demonstrate a new policy administration system at the University of Mississippi which is implemented using a customer extension to the SAP HR object model. Among the topics covered will be the project objectives, the design blueprint, routing and authorizations, the realization in SAP, and “go live” lessons learned.


Agenda

• Background and Process

• Design Choices• Demonstrations• Future Work


Policy Pop Quiz

• UM established “speech corners” to allow the public an opportunity to exercise their First Amendment Rights. How was this accomplished?– A. A task force of students, law faculty,

and staff met to outline the policy.– B. A vote was taken of the ASB Senate,

Faculty Senate, and Staff Council.– C. MIT’s policy was copied.– D. Two administrators decided it

needed to be done and rewrote the M-Book.


Policy Pop Quiz ~ continued

• What is UM’s policy regarding reading employee’s e-mail messages?– A. It’s ok to read them, but don’t

open the attachments.– B. E-mail is intellectual property

of the University of Mississippi.– C. We go by “If it’s olemiss.edu,

it don’t belong to you.”– D. We don’t have one.


The Problem

• Policies are difficult to find.• The process for instituting new

policies is unclear.• What constitutes official policies?• Who “owns” a particular policy?• How are policy questions and

suggestions addressed?• Some policies are out of date.• Policies overlap/conflict with one

another.• There are gaps in coverage.


Formation of Policy Task Force


Task Force Activities

• Many Meetings!• Review of Online Policy Presence by Other

Universities– University of Virginia

• http://www.virginia.edu/uvapolicies/– Arizona State University

• http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/

• Policy on Policy Management• Brainstorming on System Functionality• UM Policy Inventory

– About 500 policies identified.– Helped determine who needed to be

trained.

http://www.virginia.edu/uvapolicies/

http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/


System Goals

• Provide an automated tool for managing the submission and approval of policies with appropriate access control.

• Provide a consolidated web repository of approved policies with good navigation and search capabilities.

• Standardize the presentation of policies, e.g., with the use of common templates.

• Should track policy revisions over time and allow for historical notes about policies.

• Should be easy to use.• Should not create substantial new work load for

any one department.• Should not interfere with existing protocols for

policy development.


Design Choice #1

• The body of the policy will be submitted and stored as a PDF document.

• Advantages– Some policies will be long and may

require specific lay-outs. This will allow the one developing the policy more control over the part of the policy that is “narrative.”

– The policy can be developed using any word processor and converted to PDF as the last step.

– The policy will be presented on the web as an unchangeable entity using a widely available format.


Design Choice #2

• Design will build on existing SAP system, specifically metadata about the policy will be stored in SAP.

• Advantages– Can store policy information by adding

a few user-defined objects and relationships.

– SAP already contains org and people relationships.

– SAP allows us to time-delimit data to track policy revisions.

– Should allow for easier integration with future projects such as facility reservation system.


Design Choice #3

• Every policy will have an associated “responsible office”.

• Related Details– Each office will be responsible for

uploading the policies for which it is responsible.

– Each office will have associated “policy agents.”

– There will be two approval steps:• Administrative Division• Policy Manager


New Entities in SAP

• Customer-Defined “Policy” Object– Time-delimited– Short (12 chars) and long (40

chars) names– Additional attributes via

customer infotypes– Use ISTAT = Planned for

policies in development


New Entities in SAP

• Customer-Defined Relationships– Person X is a policy agent for

Org Y• A priority of 1 on a

relationship indicates Administrative Division approval privileges.

– Policy X is related to Policy Y


Policy Attributes

• Effective Date*• Status*• Policy Code

– Free-form field used for indexing purposes, e.g., ADM.IT.100.001

• People Affected• Policy Summary /

Purpose

• Policy Notes• Related

Resources– Hyperlinks to

other web addresses

• Policy Approve By and Date*

• Next Review Date• Keywords• Other

* System generated

1.2.

3.

4.

5.


Interfaces

• All - Policy Index• Responsible Office Policy

Agent• Administrative Division Policy

Agent• Policy Manager


Related Processes

• Reminder Service– ABAP program that traverses all

policies looking for those that are within three months of review due date or are past due.

– Sends out e-mail alerts to org agents.– Runs weekly.– For policies that are more than one

month past due for review, also sends e-mail alert to Administrative Division agents.

– Allows for a report-only mode to view list of past due policies, policies that will be due for review in the next month, etc.


Technical Choices

• Web interfaces implemented using JSP and JavaBeans.– JavaBeans handle data retrieval from and

storage to SAP and PDF repository. • Basic set of RFCs created to access,

create, and maintain policy data in SAP.• Authorizations derived using people to org

to policy relationships in SAP. • Infotype 1002 stores narrative data about

the policy, e.g., summary and notes• Policies that have not been approved yet

are stored using the “Planned” status on the object and infotypes.


Examples of Other Issues

• How/whether to indicate that policies are past due in the public interface?– Task Force decision was to not indicate

them in any way. • How are policies classified?

– An attribute called “Policy Code” is available to allow for presentation/organization of policies based on a UM-defined coding scheme.

• Do we need a Policy Manager?– Ideally, yes. This person is the last step in

the routing process before a policy is added to the public repository. This person validates data and assigns codes to policies so that they can be presented/organized using a UM-defined coding scheme.



Online Demonstrations

• Policy Directory• Responsible Office Policy

Agent Interface• Administrative Division Policy

Agent Interface• Policy Manager Interface





Advantages

• Easily accessible• Clarity & ease of use

– What are our policies and how are they made?

• Takes personalities out of enforcement

• Assures regular review• Provides means to capture

innovative ideas• No longer limited by the constraints

of paper delivery


Future Work

• Integration with digital imaging system for storage of PDF documents


Acknowledgements

• IT Project Team– Jie Tang– Linda Bailey– Stephen Phillips– Eric Aitala

• UM Policy Task Force• KUL

– Concept influenced by KUL HERUG 2004 presentation on faculty research projects


Questions and Answers


For More Information

• Kathy Gates– [email protected]

Documents

Ext Sap to Sprt Univ Policies