We are GO for launch!

July 21, 2023

"I'm pleased to announce that Workday Student, our new student information system, has been approved to move forward, with launch dates as planned in October 2023 and February 2024. IRP Student has been working towards the launch of Workday Student for some time and - with the dedication, work ethic and continuous care of the whole program team - will deliver a renewed, reliable, and secure student information system as the foundation to support UBC’s academic mission." – Lesley Cormack, UBC Vice-Chancellor and Principal, UBC Okanagan

Recently, UBC entered a critical period of the university’s implementation of Workday Student – the “Go Decision”.

This term is used by the IRP Student program for the process to determine if, at a certain point in time, UBC is ready to launch Workday Student. The Go Decision does not determine if UBC implements Workday, but rather, when.

The critical step of the implementation of Workday Student at UBC involves rigorous checks based on a pre-approved set of criteria including measures of system, support, and community readiness to ultimately determine a proposed Go Decision. These criteria and decisions are reviewed through all levels of IRP Student Leadership and UBC Governance.

What was the outcome of the recent Go Decision?

The Integrated Renewal Program - Student Leadership presented a recommendation to IRP Student Governance to proceed with a:

CONDITIONAL GO

A Conditional Go is a GO with explicit conditions that must be met, and transparency around the critical work that needs to be done ahead of Launch.

What criteria were included in the Go Decision?

The pre-approved set of criteria below was reviewed at multiple stages to determine if UBC is ready to move forward with Workday Student. These criteria included: system readiness, support readiness, and community readiness.

What was the process to come to the Go Decision?

In mid-July, IRP Student presented a Conditional Go recommendation throughout all levels of IRP Student Leadership and UBC Governance. The following meetings occurred to review the proposed Go Decision and impacts on UBC. We have received unanimous support and approval for a Conditional Go!

July 17: IRP Student Leadership Team
July 18: IRP Student Steering & Executive Sponsors
July 20: UBC Executive
July 20: Information Technology Advisory Council (ITAC) + Interim President & Vice-Chancellor for approval

How was the outcome determined?

This decision was based on whether all functional and non-functional capabilities have either met the criteria or have an action plan in place to complete the criteria in an agreed to timeframe (or have agreed upon workarounds in place).

Executive Summary

You can familiarize yourself with the GO Decision and the details around how it was approved by reading the Executive summary here (CWL Login required).

Next steps – prepare for launch!

Launch 1 of Workday Student will take place in October of 2023. This launch impacts a minority of system users (mostly those who work in Admissions-based roles). To prepare for launch, you can:

The most up-to-date information about the transition can be found on the IRP Student blog.

Program Updates