Building a Web-Based Reporting System:

Lessons Learned

AIR 2005

Presenters

Jacque Frost

Chris Maxwell

Presentation Overview Project plan and required resources Tool demonstration Project timeline Issued faced and lessons learned:

Working with Information Technology Working with the data owners Data issues Policy/Security issues

Summery

Why a Web-Based Reporting System

Meet increasing unit level data requests Provide data to non-experts Decrease OIR ad-hoc reporting volume

Provide data standardization Provide roll-up to official totals Consistency in unit Strategic Plans

Planned Project Scope Web tools:

100% thin-client Intuitive in use, zero training

Reporting focus: Most requested type of information Start with drilling into the Data Digest totals Will not be comprehensive or a full BI solution

Planned Resources Required Institutional Research (OIR):

Will be responsible for application development About 0.4FTE for up to a year to establish a

series of web tools

Information Technology (IT) Purchase, install, configure software Set up and maintain server Troubleshoot as needed

A Typical Tool:

Student Enrollment Tool: Restricted Access

Project Timeline

November 2002: Development begins

February 2003: First application published

August 2003: First production tool published

October 2003: First three Data Digest tools

published

Project Timeline (cont.) February 2004: Salary tools and portal published

under direction of provost July 2004: Sponsored Program Services (SPS)

tools published November 2003 - Present: More Data Digest

and other tools are published, tool edits continue. Service also used for data collection and surveys

Issues Faced and Lessons learned

Working with Information Technology (IT): Issues Faced

Initial Resistance Did not see need for pre-BI solution Did not want to support non-IT chosen technology Not in line with IT’s OnePurdue vision

Agreement to OIR plan for project

Additional support: IDN datamart project If you can’t beat them, join them!

Working with IT: Lessons Learned

Do not give up or give in on key issues

If necessary, use the leverage of the OIR office

Always look forward Concentrate on successes Leave conflicts behind

Working with the Data Owners: Issues Faced

Publishing web tools can make OIR look like the data owner OIR does not own the data - yet is providing it at

any imaginable level of breakdown, at any time with the click of a mouse

Encountered initial data owner resistance/concerns Data security/policy issues Loss of control over the information

Working with the Data Owners: Lessons Learned

Involve them very early in the process - show them the earliest drafts of the web tool

Communicate continually

Quickly address concerns and suggestions

Use a “sign off” policy on tool release

Working with the Data: Issues Faced

Web tools are very demanding of the data Great data for campus reporting can look much

worse on drill downs

Data availability was a critical limiting factor in this project Time needed to build a typical new tool: days Time needed to get “signed off” data: months

Working with the Data: Lessons Learned

Do not wait until the data are perfect Release tools with notes and caveats

In general, do not fix the data with application programming The web tool needs to agree with SQL database

queries that use the same criteria Allow the web tool to expose some deficiencies, it

can spur data owners and IT to make fixes

Security and Policy issues FERPA

Drill downs can easily expose unit=1 records

Internal Purdue policies Might not be well documented – in one case we

received a waiver

Goal is to provide access to anyone with a business need for the information No real sensitive information available with tools

Summary

Overall Results Project was a success!

Proceeded on schedule with anticipated resources

IT’s IDN datamart project was a plus

Tool use 3,000 primary queries by about 300 users in our

first full year (Oct 03 – Sep 04) Increasing traffic – now averaging about 18

primary queries per business day

Overall Results (cont.) Still the source for Purdue data over the web

IT’s BI tool still not in production

Standardization of reported data a big plus

Overall Lessons Learned IT support role / OIR application developer

role worked very well Used strengths of each area OIR control of tools enabled very fast turn around

times for any needed edits / enhancements

Data Digest totals validated the tools

In retrospect, could have more aggressively marketed the project

Overall Lessons Learned (cont.) Tool logging is invaluable

Technical issues were not the most challenging aspects of this project Data, people, and politics

Accept politics as an integral part of the project

“This is exactly what I need. Now I can sleep peacefully over the weekend!”

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

Office of Institutional Researchwww.purdue.edu/oir