Workday Student Team Structure

By now you've been hearing a lot about the Workday Student implementation but probably don't know much about how it works day-to-day. Let's dive in!

A Workday implementation's project team is comprised of Workstreams, and each Workstream is a dedicated group whose focus is a very specific set of tasks or type of information that make up a student information system. The Workstreams each have a consultant from Cognizant assigned to lead the discussions, as well as a Bowdoin lead to be primarily responsible for making sure decisions are being made and information is being provided accurately and on schedule.

Bowdoin's implementation is made up of twelve workstreams, some very functional and some very technical. The workstreams meet for an hour to two hours each week, and most members of the Workday Student Project Team attend multiple workstreams each week. In addition to these workstream meetings, there are project meetings that are attended by every person on the team as a way to ensure that communication is happening across all workstreams. 

Bowdoin's Student Project workstreams are:

Admissions and Recruiting

Student Foundations

Student Core

Student Records and Academic Advising

Student Curriculum

Financial Aid

Student Finance

Data Conversion

Integrations

Reporting

Security

Change Management & Training

There is also a weekly All-Hands meeting, which includes both Bowdoin and Cognizant teams, and a weekly Bowdoin internal meeting where only the Bowdoin team gathers to discuss the implementation. Additionally, a Workday Steering Committee regularly meets to discuss high-level information about the implementation and its progress. For some team members, this means about 15 hours of meetings dedicated to Workday, not including any prep, testing, internal decision-making, or research time. 

Typically, each workstream meeting operates by having our Cognizant consultant demonstrate Workday functionality, such as setting up an academic calendar for the year. The Cognizant lead would ask questions about how Bowdoin sets its calendar and which types of controls are needed. During the meeting the consultant would build out an academic calendar for us to review and show us how those dates populate other items, like course sections. Choices and decisions about that day's topic are logged, and Bowdoin may be sent off with some homework. Before you know it, that hour of time is up and the meeting is over just in time for you to head off to the next one! Little by little, those daily meetings add up to all the decisions that go into building a full Enterprise system.