Progress report on the elimination of Backlog of National Certificate Vocational [NC (V)] Certificates Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training 12 August 2015

Activity Since the Last Portfolio Committee Update  Collaboration between SITA, DHET and Umalusi has been increased substantially resulting in a small reduction in the NC (V) Certificate Backlog.  The OEM of the technology used to build the current DHET Examinations System software application has been appointed and given the mandate to coordinate “getting the backlog to zero” and “implementing measures to keep it at zero”.  The NC (V) Backlog Elimination Project “kicked off” on 27 July 2015 and will achieve its “zero backlog” objectives by end of January

Business Context of the Project  The core business application for DHET, from the beginning has not been properly synchronized with DHET & Umalusi business process changes and SOP changes.  The Examinations System was copied from the NATED System  Level 2 & 3 Certificates specifically were not initially issued by Umalusi which cause differences in processing and SOPs  SOPs not properly documented from the beginning  As a result of the “out of sync” state of the DHET Examination and Assessment application, a backlog of NC (V) certificate requests has developed between the Examination Centers, DHET and Umalusi. 3

Business Context of the Project  The SITA, DHET & Umalusi management teams have received a mandate from the DHET Portfolio Committee to work together to resolve the NC (V) certificate backlog.  In response to the DHET Portfolio Committee mandate, SITA has contracted Software AG, the OEM of Natural/Adabas technology, to provide project management and technical resources to work with DHET, Umalusi and SITA stakeholders to jointly eliminate the backlog.  The primary objective of the NC (V) Certificate Backlog Elimination project is to “Get the NC (V) Certificate Backlog to Zero, and keep it at Zero”.  The targeted timeframe for elimination of the NC (V) Certificate Backlog is six months. 4

NC (V) CERTIFICATE BACKLOG PROBLEM Understanding the 5

Project Background  Project was commissioned as a result of unresolved backlog of certification processing.  As of 6 August: 129,932 candidates are affected across all exam cycles, across all levels  Not all candidates are waiting for full certificates, many are waiting for subject certificates where candidates still have to complete certain subjects  Due to the consolidation issue in the Examinations system, the number of full certificates can go down depending on exam results  Subject certificates can go up or down depending on consolidation process  Some candidates ultimately will not receive any certifications if all subjects are not passed 6

Project Background  The backlog scope consists of:  The original backlog project with Umalusi from 2007/11 to 2012/03, and  The period post this to date, through 2015/03  Project aims to stop backlog from growing by implementing:  Corrective actions to the existing Examinations and Assessment application  New tools and techniques to ensure consistent d ata validation  Capacity to ensure data is corrected prior to updating mainframe database  Enhance visibility of the enrollment and certification process 7

NC (V) Certificate Backlog Has Many Perspectives  NC (V) Certification Requests not yet Submitted to Umalusi by DHET. Examples are but not limited to:  Candidates who have taken supplementary and subsequent exams but could not be certificated due to defects in the consolidation function of the Exams system  Quality and completeness of the data submitted by the Exam centers; and Business logic gaps in the data validation functions within the Exam system  NC (V) Certification Requests Submitted by DHET but Rejected by Umalusi  Duplicated records that are blocked by the Exam system validity checks  Condonation function is defective in the Exam system  High level of absenteeism in main and supplementary exams  Changes of marks after standardization and statistical moderation  NC (V) Certification Requests not Printed due to Non-payment of certification fees to Umalusi by Exam centers 8

Simplification of the Problem 9 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team

Simplification of the Problem 10 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team There are 5 Problem Domains

Simplification of the Problem 11 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team There are 5 Problem Domains  NC (V) Data Validation is too far “down stream” in the Candidate Enrollment and Certification business processes  Examination Centers do not have the capacity to do Data Integrity checks before submitting NC (V) data to DHET  “Garbage In” equals “Backlog Out”

Simplification of the Problem 12 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team There are 5 Problem Domains  Umalusi and DHET not fully aligned in their execution of the NC (V) Certification Business Process  Marks and Document Records not synchronized  There is no “Pre-Testing” functionality prior to submission to Umalusi  Change control is not fully operational when improving systems, directives, and certification rules

Simplification of the Problem 13 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team There are 5 Problem Domains  System is out of sync with current Directives and SOPs  Error resolution not implemented holistically, patches creating conflicts  There is no DHET “Pre-Testing” functionality prior to submission to Umalusi  Capacity requirements are not met in order to satisfy work demands and workforce changes

Simplification of the Problem 14 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team There are 5 Problem Domains  SITA Technical Capacity is not sufficient to keep up with DHET demands  Changes treated as maintenance work rather than full project work  SITA Support and Technical Teams have become a part of DHET NC (V) operations in order remediate Exam System functional shortcomings  All DHET NC (V) functional operations are not committed to the Examinations Software System, which consumes SITA technical resource capacity, reducing responsiveness to DHET requirements

Simplification of the Problem 15 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi SITA Maintenance & Support Team There are 5 Problem Domains  Exam Centers and 3 rd Party vendors of college management systems are limited to “batch” based interaction with the Examination system, instead of real time  Exam Centers cannot “stage” data and do data integrity checks before submitting data to DHET  DHET, Exam Centers and Umalusi do not use a common rule base for certificate processing !

The “Way Forward” for Solving the Problem 16 Examination Centers DHET Examinations & Assessments Umalusi Enrollment Data Exam Marks Registration Process Examination Process Certification Candidates Certification Process Data Admin Process Registration Errors & Confirmations Certification Errors & Confirmations SITA Maintenance & Support Team Empower Examinations Centers to ensure Data Integrity for Enrollment and Exam Data Work towards straight through processing of certificates and a common business rule base Move all manual operational activities for NC (V) data and processing into the Exam system Clearly define SOPs, work towards straight through processing Create a staging portal to provide capacity to for data integrity, visibility of performance API Portal Examination Center Portal Rules & Validation Services

PROJECT OVERVIEW NC (V) Certificate Backlog Elimination 17

Project Organization and Governance 18 Oversight Committee  Steering Committee  Project Management  Project Teams 

Project Organization and Governance  Oversight Committee  Project monitoring – final accountability  Meet once every two months, receives weekly status reporting  Steering Committee  Provide advice and decision making  Meet once a month, weekly status reporting  Project Management Team  Direct and coordinate project  Meet once a month  Project Teams  Execute delivery  Meet once every fortnight 19

Project Approach: Target Alignment of NC (V) Certificate Processing Activity 20 Subject Matter Expertise Business Process & Governance Examination System Software Examination Center Staff DHET Staff Umalusi Staff SITA Staff Legislation Directives Standard Operating Procedures Best Practices Rules Validations Processing Logic Exam and Reference Data

Project Implemented in Three Work Streams 21 Remediate the NC (V) functionality in the DHET Natural/Adabas Application Adabas Data Cleansing for NC (V) Candidate Data Natural/Adabas Health Check for NC (V) Certificate Processing Natural Engineer Code Report for NC (V) functions Alignment of Natural/Adabas to DHET NC (V) Certificate Business Process NC (V) Certificate SOP Process Modeling Technical Modeling of the Natural/Adabas NC (V) functionality Gap Analysis & Remediation: NC (V) Process vs. the Natural/Adabas Application Exam Center Data Integrity Enablement Up Front Data and Rules Validation Straight Through Processing NC (V) Process Visibility Get the Backlog to Zero Keep it at Zero

Project Schedule: NC (V) Backlog Elimination 22 August 2015 September October November December Jan 2016 Project Initiation Project Closed Project Management during Project Execution Project Closure Install & Configure Provide STD NEE Documentation NATURAL Health Check ADABAS Health Check Data Cleansing – Iterative Process Backlog Reduced to 0 Install & Configure Analysis - Certification and Enrollment – DHET, Umalusi, SITA View Create Dashboards NATURAL Service Wrapping NATURAL Event Config Create API Portal Design and Development – Enrollment and Registration Management Site Process Intelligence & Business Activity Monitoring Process Enforcement, BPM and Governance Backlog remains at 0 LEGEND Project Management Reduce Backlog To 0 Keep Backlog At 0 Post Implementation Support Post Implementation Support

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