Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
February 13, 2009
9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Room 102, Landon State Office Bldg.

Carol Foreman, Department of Administration
Denise Moore, DISC
Kent Olson, Sunflower Project Director
Gary Schneider, Sunflower Project Implementation Manager
Peggy Hanna, Deputy Project Director
Chris Howe, Department of Administration
Jeff Peter, Judicial Branch
Marcia Ferrill, Department of Transportation
Cindy Hooper-Bears, State Treasurer
Paul Lavery, Accenture
Elaine Frisbie, Division of Budget
Becky Kersting, DISC
Connie Guerrero, Enterprise Readiness Team Manager, Sunflower Project
Les Lauber, Communications Lead, Sunflower Project

Carol Foreman informed attendees that today’s meeting would include status reports on several Project related topics but no major decisions would be made at today’s meeting.

I.      Project Status & Activities

The Next Six Months of the Project
Kent Olson began the meeting by sharing the quote "If not us, who. If not now, when?" which has been attributed to John F Kennedy. He shared the quote to the ASTRA group the previous day because of its relevance to the Sunflower Project. Kent reported that the Analyze phase of the project has ended. The Change Agent Launch was held on January 22nd and was one of the final activities that occurred during the Analyze phase of the project. The initial PeopleSoft environments are now available for Project Team members. The Project Team has currently identified a total of 23 environments but it is expected that it could go to as many as 30 different environments. Kent thanked DISC for their role in getting these environments ready.

Project Status and Activities
Kent Olson gave an update on the current status of the project and activities. He reported that Project Team managers are working on breaking down and refining tasks for Phase 2 of the Project Plan which includes activities for the Build, Test and Deploy Phases. All major milestones are on-schedule or ahead of schedule including the development of interface standards and configuration designs.

The Training plan is under development and Training Team members are working on a detailed plan to identify learning objectives for each course. It is anticipated that as many as 330 classes may need to be offered in order to get everyone trained on all of the modules.

Over 50 reports have been identified for development including some that are needed to gather statewide data and some that are at the agency level.

Personal Learning Plans are being developed for all State of Kansas Sunflower Project team members to facilitate knowledge transfer from Accenture.  Sunflower Project Leadership has developed and presented options for the Post Go-live support organization to Project sponsors and hope to have a decision by late spring of this year.

The remaining deliverable documents from the Analyze phase are in the process of being finalized. These include the KDOT, FARMS and Central Cashier analysis documents. Project staff are also working on developing a data warehouse and reporting approach to determine what software tools will be used to extract data from the warehouse.

Kent Olson reported that boundaries are being put in place by Project Leadership to address system access for each of the Regents Institutions at go-live. At this point is has been determined that Regents Institutions will 1) interface vouchers and receipt revenue into SMART similar to current interfaces with STARS and SOKI; 2) access SMART directly to perform business processes currently performed in STARS and SOKI; 3) view and retrieve agency data entered in SMART after attending training; and, 4) not be required to load any assets into SMART at this time.

II.     Findings from Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Review

Peggy Hanna informed Steering Committee members that the report received from the IV&V vendor was not a draft but the final version of their report. The report included some positive findings including the partnership between Accenture staff and their State of Kansas counterparts, well organized and staffed project team, and the Conference Room Pilots that were conducted.

The report did include a few findings that need to be addressed including the large scope of modules being implemented and the number of agencies being impacted. They recommended the Project do some contingency planning. The IV&V vendors also noted that Accenture does not have a Quality Assurance Lead assigned to the Project. Paul Lavery from Accenture is working on a response regarding Quality Assurance methodology used by Accenture. The vendor also pointed out that the project may be understaffed in the area of Agency Readiness. The State currently has a team of four individuals dedicated to this function. Peggy reported that there was recently a change in leadership for this team and the Project is recruiting for an Agency Readiness Liaison.

Steering Committee members did not have any questions about the report.

III.     Change Control

Peggy Hanna provided an update on the Change Control process. The Change Control Board (CCB) comprised of Paul Lavery, Kent Olson, Peggy Hanna and Gary Schneider is meeting weekly. A flow chart of the Change Control process is included at the back of today’s presentation. Project Team Managers initiating change requests come to the weekly meeting to give a short presentation on their Change request.

Peggy indicated that two change orders had been approved since the last Steering Committee meeting.  One for the Labor Distribution solution and for modifications and interfaces to support the new set-off system.  Sunflower Project Leadership would like to formalize this process and get the Steering Committee involved at the front end of the process.  Peggy informed the group about the analysis and recommendation for the Set-Off solution included in their meeting materials.  All Steering Committee members were in agreement with the selected alternative.

Denise Moore asked how we handle changes that result in a decrease in scope such as the elimination of the eGrants module.  Does the Project get to use those hours on something else or how is it handled? Paul Lavery, Accenture Project Manager, stated that “Accenture just wouldn’t bill the State for that unused portion of hours.”

Change orders anticipated for the next Steering Committee meeting include the 1rst round of software modifications and enhancement requests, the reduction in scope of FARMS, Central Cashier and reduction in the number of Purchasing modules being implemented.

IV.    Pending Project Decisions

Peggy went over some of the Project Design decisions that are still pending. The results of a survey to determine the feasibility of decentralizing security is being compiled and a decision on the approach will be made next month. The Chart of Accounts is expected to be finalized by the end of the month. Agencies were recently sent an activity to map their existing chart of accounts values to the new structure. The method for interfund processing continues to be discussed. Since SOKI is going away we need to have a new method for interfund processing. A few options are being considered and a group of Sunflower Project team members are at Kansas University to see a demo of the University’s Interfund system.

Sunflower Project Team members are also working with staff in the Office of the State Treasurer to determine if the Warrant Tracking System can be replaced. Three options are being considered and no matter what decision is selected the issues of agency satellite warrant writing systems needs to be resolved. Peggy Hanna reported that she has spoken with all agencies that do this and the Sponsors and State Treasurer’s Office will be making a decision soon.

V.     Change Agent Network Launch

The Change Agent Network Launch held on January 22nd was well attended with approximately 180 attendees representing almost every agency. Agency Primary, Technical and Training contacts were invited to attend the meeting based on the content being presented. A Feedback received from agencies indicted they want more contact with Project team members and they are anxious to receive information on decisions being made by the Project as quickly as possible.

VI.     Agency Visits and Interactions

Gary Schneider informed the Steering Committee that several meetings have been held with key agencies such as the Department of Labor, Department of Corrections, and Department of Health and Environment to finalize outstanding decisions on these agencies interactions with SMART. Additional meetings are being scheduled with other agencies including a trip to Pratt to visit with the Department of Wildlife and Parks. An initial meeting has also been scheduled with the Legislative Branch.

VII.     SMART Branding

Kent Olson shared the winning logo and slogan selected for the new FMS system. The winning entry was SMART Statewide Management, Accounting and Reporting Tool. The SMART logo was revealed at the Change Agency Launch on January 22nd. Roger Steele from the Division of Printing designed the logo. The Sunflower Project will begin incorporating the new name into project documentation.

Next Steering Committee Meeting

The next Steering Committee meeting will be on Friday, March 13, 2008 from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. in Room 102 of the Landon State Office Building.

The meeting was adjourned by Carol Foreman.