Multi-Phase Portal Redesign
Role: IT Project Manager / Scrum Master
The Portal Redesign Project was initiated to evaluate rebuilding the Denver Public Schools academic portals on a unified platform that allowed for greater functionality and ease of use including mobile-responsive features, ADA-compliance, role-based security, minimal development efforts to support all user interfaces, and greater stability. The previous portals were built years prior on the Sharepoint 2010 platform. Over time, there were many custom patches and updates and the platform became unstable, out of date, and limited in development and enhancements that could be made.
“Sasha, I can’t thank you enough for the thoroughness of support you’ve provided throughout this project. Your follow-up and attention to detail are certainly noticed and greatly appreciated! Thanks for helping keep us accountable!”
Budget
$1 Million
TIMEFRAME
24 Months
Team
30+ Internal / External Resources
I separated the project into 4 phases over a 2-year period:
Phase 1: Pilot Project (Secretary Portal - the least complex portal)
Phase 2: Parent and Student Portals (PSP)
Phase 3: Principal Portal
Phase 4: Teacher Portal
The below screenshot is a high-level timeline of Phase 2 of the Portal Redesign Project, including wrap-up activities for the pilot project and key milestones for the Parent and Student Portals (PSP) release. This timeline was created to provide a snapshot of upcoming project activities for executive leadership.
High Level Timeline Snapshot: Pilot Project Monitor / Control & Close, Parent & Student Portals Planning, Execution, Monitor / Control & Close
Other Relevant Project Artifacts:
Link: Student User Journey Workflow - The content in this document was gathered throughout project planning and includes summarized data from stakeholder interviews (students, parents, principals, teachers and support staff), portal user behaviors, business challenges, and necessary student resources. Creating a profile of each type of student user was important in the prioritization of specific user stories.
Link: PSP Project Success Criteria - I created this during the planning phase of the Portal Redesign project and secured approval from business and technical sponsors prior to the start of execution. This document details the standards that must be met in order for the project to be considered successful, along with outcomes of each standard.
Link: PSP Project Deployment Plan - Production Deployment Plan for the Parent and Student Portals (PSP) release. I gathered the contents of this plan through daily Scrum meetings, meeting with tech leads, business resources, and release management to clarify details and confirm ownership. Deployment plans ensure that all involved parties are aware of each step that needs to occur and to track activities in case of an issue.
What Was Accomplished:
New Product Platform: Moved the portals from an outdated, difficult to manage portal platform to a more interactive, more customizable, platform with more features for product managers to control. Greatly decreased the involvement of technology department in minor portal updates.
Accessibility: Translated the Parent and Student Portals into 10 different languages (previously only two) and made ADA-compliant. Student online engagement increased by 52% within 2 months of go-live.
Collaborative Governance: Created a cross-department governance structure consisting of leaders from Technology, Academic Departments, Schools and Support to determine future enhancements, release priorities, and to inform product roadmap. Gained involvement from departments across the district that were previously providing relevant information through other means.
Customer Voice: Developed a formalized feedback process to allow Product Owners to gather comments from Portal users, content owners, Production Support, and other stakeholders. As part of the process, feedback is synthesized and taken to governance to inform necessary product fixes, new features and overall product roadmap impacts.