Enhancement Request Process and Form

Purpose: This guide is intended to provide an overview of the Enhancement Request Process, including:

Audience: All ctcLink system users

Looking for the status of a submitted Enhancement Request?  Refer to the Enhancement Request Status guide to see all Enhancement Requests (ER) ever submitted. 

Don't see your submission? Reach out to ctcLink Customer Services Team to ensure it has been properly tracked and made visible on our guide.

Enhancement Request Process Flow

Flow chart displaying the steps for the enhancement request. Steps explained in great detail in the Steps in the Enhancement Request Process section.

Steps in the Enhancement Request Process

All Enhancement Request forms are to be submitted through the Service Desk (SolarWinds) ticketing system. 

All Enhancement Requests will be stored in the Service Desk (SolarWinds) ticketing system under a Request Type of Enhancement Request.  For transparency, a publicly accessible Enhancement Request Status is available on the ctcLink Reference Center.  

Step-by-step instructions are provided below to help submitters complete the Enhancement Request form itself.

Not sure if this change needs an Enhancement Request form?  Review the guidance in the Does this change needs an Enhancement Request section to determine whether your change should take this path.

NOTE: Prior to initiating an ER, first discuss the issue with colleagues and/or Commission and Council to vet details. Then, request time on upcoming ctcLink College Collaboration Group (cCCG) agenda to present ER Idea.

  1. Requester downloads Enhancement Request (ER) form and seeks Sponsorship  
    • Sponsorship must be one of the following: College President, Commission Chair, Data Governance Committee Co-Chair, or a ctcLink College Collaboration Group (cCCG) Co-Chair 
    • External mandates and SBCTC ctcLink Lead sponsorship are reserved for SBCTC staff only
  2. Requester/subject matter expert (SME) presents proposed ER to cCCG for vetting and prioritization  
  3. Enhancement Request is submitted to ctcLink Customer Support SolarWinds Service Desk ticket system.
    • If you are NOT authorized to submit tickets for your college, please send your ticket information to the authorized person at your college for assistance. Each college has an identified ctcLink College Leader who should be able to help.
  4. cCCG will meet to review and vote on whether they are requesting this ER replace an existing Next Up queue ER/Project:
    • If no: cCCG notifies ctcLink Customer Support that the ER should be added to the Future Work queue, and which ranked position within that queue. Unranked items will be added in the order they are received.  
    • If yes: cCCG identifies which item this ER will replace in the Next Up queue.
  5. SBCTC Support completes impact analysis and effort estimates .
  6. ER Submitter/SME presents ER to Working Group for decision.
  7. College staff can then monitor progress on the change delivery in the Service Desk ticket system and/or on the ctcLink Enhancement Request Status page.  

Enhancement Request Form

Instructions on How to Complete the Enhancement Request Form

Enhancement Request Form Completion - [Completed by Request Submitter]

The updated Working Group Enhancement Request form (for Operational Governance changes) should be completed as outlined in the section descriptions below.

Form Submission Date

Enter the date the submitter intends to submit the completed Enhancement Request form in the Service Desk (SolarWinds) Ticket System. Click the field to enter a date. 

This date may be adjusted by the facilitator if it doesn't align to the actual submission date.  When drafting an enhancement request, this date can help others being asked for feedback to understand the date the request will be submitted.

Primary Service Desk Ticket Reference

This field is intended to record the primary Service Desk Ticket (SDT) that all activity for the submitted Enhancement Request (ER) would be tracked under.  This will become the field where the official Enhancement Request (Request Type) SDT will be listed. The person submitting the ER can enter the primary ticket they use as a reference for any issue reported and the WG facilitator will update it to the official SDT number for tracking.  All tickets related to a submitted Enhancement Request can be linked to that request within the Service Desk (SolarWinds).

Enhancement Request Title

Descriptive title to differentiate this from other similar requests.

Pillar-Module

Pillar and Module associated with this requested enhancement? Separate Pillar name and Module with a hyphen: Pillar-Module. Once the SBCTC Staff have had an opportunity to assess the enhancement(s) being requested, this may be updated if the request results in an impact across multiple pillars and or modules.  The person submitting the ER form need only provide their best understanding of the request upon submission.

Enhancement Request Sponsor

To ensure any system request has the proper support to be considered by governance for action and expending of shared system resources, the Enhancement Request (ER) must go through specific channels to be considered for approval by governance bodies.

These organizations or individuals are referred to as "Sponsoring" the request and may initiate change requests; though they may not be the same as the individual submitting the ER form. 

On the ER form the submitter is required to specify which group/individual is sponsoring the request.The sponsor's contact information, as well as the contact information of the person who is completing the form (if different), is required in the next section.

  • College President (or designee)
  • Commission Chair (Indicate which commission)
  • Data Governance Committee Co-Chair
  • ctcLink College Collaboration Group Co-Chair
Enhancement Sponsor/Submitter Contact Information

The sponsor's contact information, as well as the contact information of the person who is completing the form (if different) is required in this section. Please include:

  • Name
  • Title
  • College
  • Phone number(s)
  • Email address
Stakeholder Group Impact

Choose as many stakeholder groups as apply to the description of the request, if known. While this information may be highlighted in the request description this section helps to elevate the stakeholder group impact visibility. 

This information will help the ctcLink Working Group better understand who is impacted by the change being requested.  The information also helps SBCTC teams in their communication approach during the solution design and implementation phases of a change.  

Check any box which applies and provide any necessary explanation in the request description:

☐ Student Self-Service in ctcLink ☐ Student Experience in HCX

☐ Student Experience in OAAP ☐ Faculty/Advisors Experience

☐ Employee Self-Service ☐ Manager Self-Service

☐ General Employee ☐ Administrative Staff (users)

☐ Other: (please detail)

System Impact

Colleges are STRONGLY encouraged to discuss with other colleges to determine the breadth of system impact before submission. Check the box that applies.

☐ All Colleges ☐ Multiple Colleges: How many? ___ ☐ Just MY College

Prioritization Level

Please check ONE box,  and complete justification and reasoning behind the declared prioritization level.

☐ Critical – Critical system impact, severely degraded critical business processes, no workaround available.

☐ Urgent – Federal/state-mandated enhancement, degraded business process; workaround exists, but is unsustainable.

☐ High – Strongly desired enhancement. Impacts business process; workaround available, high college resource impact.

☐ Medium – Strongly desired enhancement. Impacted business process; viable workaround available, but not desired.

☐ Low– Desired enhancement, productivity improvement.

Description of Enhancement Requested

Provide a description of change being requested. Provide sufficient detail, including problem statement and whether the change impacts global or local configuration.

Justification for the Declared Prioritization Level

Describe the justification for selected prioritization level. Please ensure Enhancement Request Sponsor (i.e. commission, college President) supports the prioritization and justification.

Background Information Driving Enhancement Request

Please provide background on why this enhancement request is being put forward. If the request started from an initial support request ticket, please provide details of the original issue reported that led to the eventual request for an enhancement to the system.

Impact Assessment If No Action Taken

Please describe the impact if the enhancement request is not approved. This will help the governance group understand what will or will not happen if it declines to proceed with the enhancement request or delays addressing the request.

Details of Vetting Process

Please provide details about how the enhancement request was socialized and vetted. For example, the request went through college leadership channels to the College President, through the ctcLink College Collaboration Group and/or council and commission approvals or through federal/state mandate reviews and SBCTC ctcLink leadership.

Additional Service Desk Ticket References

If applicable, provide any additional Service Desk Ticket (SDT) reference numbers that will help others understand the complexity of the issues that are the business drivers for this request for a system enhancement.

Enhancement Request Form Updates - [Completed by SBCTC Staff]

In addition to any minor adjustments of Submission Date and Primary Service Desk Ticket Number which the ctcLink Customer Services Team might need to make, the SBCTC staff responsible for impact assessment and effort estimation will update the ctcLink State Board Staff Use Only section of the form with their assessment findings. 

This helps Governance bodies to understand the implications on other areas of the system, shared system resources, and long-term resource implications to ensure they are making the best informed decisions for the system.

Impact Analysis and Considerations

Assessment of impacts that proceeding with this request will have on ctcLink (cross-module, cross-pillar) and any change implications with associated business processes based on analysis and discussion of SBCTC Customer Support, Application Services, Data Service, and PMO Teams.

Effort Estimation

Enter the estimation of effort for design, development, testing, training, and overall timeframe for delivery into Production.  

Total Cost of Ownership

Detail the effort estimation to complete this enhancement, including each area of the work, for example, solution design, development, configuration, testing, training.

Determine If Change SHOULD Be Submitted as an Enhancement Request
Excerpt of process flow to determine if enhancement request is needed

When determining whether an issue solution requires going through the Enhancement Request process there are a few key considerations. 

  • Global configuration changes require an Enhancement Request, but Local Configuration changes do not, unless those locally controlled configuration pages contain system defined 'Global' values.  
  • Bug fixes do not require an Enhancement Request, but programmatic solutions that are not fixes to system bugs will require an ER form. 

Look through the quick assessment details below to determine whether or not to file an ER form.

Quick Assessment to Determine If It Is a Local Configuration?

Is the change requested achievable by adjusting your Local Configuration?

When considering the issues driving the request for change it is important to determine wheter that change is "global" or "local." Some pages or processes can work differently by making an adjustment to your local configuration.  

If you're not sure whether the page or process in question can work the way you desire based on a change in local configuration you can either submit a Service Desk Ticket to ask what your configuration change options are or research for yourself what is controlled by local configuration.

Refer to the Local Configuration Guide below

  • If the answer to the question above is YES, you don't need to request an enhancement, you can make the change yourself.
  • If the answer to the questions above is I don't know, then perhaps a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to solving the issue for your college.
  • If the answer is NO, download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues to get input and buy-in.

Check out the Local Configuration Guide materials to better understand whether the page you want to make a change on is already under your control. Local Configuration Guides pertain to "Local" configuration values that are not related to a "system defined" value sets. 

"System Defined" means there is a protected range of values which have been defined as "Global" rather than local and do require an Enhancement Request to change.

Quick Assessment to Determine If It Is a global configuration?

Is the solution one that requires a global configuration change?

Refer to the Local Configuration Guide(s) linked in the shaded (green) box above.

  • Global Configuration is a configuration setting that everyone shares and making a change to this configuration does not just impact your college, but impacts ALL colleges using that functionality.  In a few cases, this could be a portion of local configuration reserved for strict system use, meaning those values are tied to a process and cannot be changed without impacting the process for everyone using the system
  • If the answer to the question above is NO, then perhaps a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to solving the issue for your college 
  • If the answer is YES, then it's time to download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues and get input and buy-in.
Quick Assessment of a Bug Fix

Is this an issue of the system not working as it always had, but now something is suddenly different? Are you getting an error message suddenly that you have never encountered before?  Start by submitting a Service Desk Ticket or reaching out to colleagues in your communication network.

  • It could be that a PeopleSoft Update Management (PUM) release has occurred, or a change was recently deployed and you are encountering an issue in an area that wasn't discovered in testing.  By reaching out to your ctcLink Customer Support team you can confirm whether the issue is a bug introduced to ctcLink from a recent change.  
  • You can also check with your colleague group or application area listserv to ensure you did not miss reading a notification of a recent business process or system change that is the reason the system does not appear to be working as you believed it should.

If the answer to the question above is YES, then pursing a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to begin solving the issue for your college. 

If the answer is NO, download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues and get input and buy-in.

Quick Assessment of a Technical Change

Does this change relate to any of the bulleted items below?

  • Does the solution require a modification to any existing pages or components, in other words, something that must be done by a technical developer?
  • Does the solution require the development of a report that requires technical assistance or Data Services assistance to deliver to all colleges in our system?
  • Is the solution something brand new the system cannot currently do and would need to be designed and coded?

If the answer to all the questions above is NO, then perhaps a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to solving the issue for your college. 

If the answer to any of questions above is YES, download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues and get input and buy-in.

Quick Assessment of a Security Change

Does this change relate to any of the bulleted items below?

  • Requests to change page/component access in a security role or permission list.
  • Requests to change what fields are able to be seen or updated an on a specific page.
  • Request to automate role assignment or removal.

If the answer to the questions above is NO, then perhaps a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to solving the issue for your college 

If the answer is YES, then it's time to download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues and get input and buy-in.

Quick Assessment of a Third Party Software Integration Change
  • Does the solution require integration to an external, third-party software and many or all colleges are using it, therefore worthy of the financial investment that will be incurred as a result of building and testing an integration to ctcLink?

If the answer to the questions above is NO, then perhaps a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to solving the issue for your college. 

If the answer is YES, then it's time to download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues and get input and buy-in.

Quick Assessment of a Business Process Change
  • Does the change being requested impact state or federal reporting or pose a significant change to standard best practices for a business process that all colleges must follow?

If the answer to the questions above is NO, then perhaps a support request or working with the College Collaboration Group is a better path to solving the issue for your college. 

If the answer is YES, download the Enhancement Request form and get your ideas down on paper to begin to share with your colleagues and get input and buy-in.

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