1. Coeus/KRA Technical Topics Andy Slusar, KRA Project Manager (Cornell) Bryan Hutchinson, KRA Development Manager (Cornell) Terry Durkin, KRA Development Manager (Indiana University)

2. Coeus/KRA Technical Topics Background Coeus and KRA compared/contrasted How we identified gaps How we are filling gaps Convergence / Divergence Q & A

3. Background The vision statement from the KRA project’s successful proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation asks: “What if any and every college and university could use, without fee, an outstanding research administration system that embodies the ‘best of’ techniques and processes for research administration, while maintaining the flexibility to fit disparate institutional structures and needs? “This is entirely possible via a community source partnership to pool resources, requirements, and execution of an efficient development process. The software and community developed through this process could meet college and university needs while providing an economically sustainable path for the future.” The KRA project is the instrument to develop this software and its community. - Kuali Foundation web site (http://www.kuali.org/communities/kra/)

4. Background A significant part of this model is the wholesale adoption of the functionality in a proven system, thereby avoiding the inertia of a “clean sheet” design. The KRA partner institutions have therefore agreed, from the outset, on the functional components that the project will deliver. The project has chosen MIT’s existing Coeus system as its baseline design. KRA will then fill in functionality missing from Coeus, update its technical architecture for easier integration with other administrative systems, and release open source software backed by the Kuali Foundation. - Kuali Foundation web site (http://www.kuali.org/communities/kra/)

5. Coeus Participation on KRA KRA Board –Steve DowdyMITVoting Member –Terri-Lynn ThayerCoeus/Brown Voting Member –Tim SchleicherJohns Hopkins Ex-Officio Member –Jen FlachCoeusEx-Officio Member KRA Functional Council –Steve DowdyMITVoting Member –Tim SchleicherJohns Hopkins Member –Jen FlachCoeusMember KRA Technical Council –Sabari NairCoeus Voting Member KRA Development Team –Rajeev MancherilFormer CoeusDeveloper –Geo ThomasFormer CoeusDeveloper KRA Subject Matter Expert Teams

6. Functionality and Features The KRA mandate is to provide all of the Functionality of Coeus in KRA. When providing COEUS functionality we are seeking Functional Equivalence not an exact copy of COEUS functionality. For example KRA screens are functionally equivalent though their appearance and flow is different. The focus has been how to bring the Features of a rich- client system to the Web.

7. Coeus and KRA Compared/Contrasted History Architecture Look & Feel

8. Coeus and KRA - History Coeus –12 years of development –46 members in the Coeus Consortium KRA –Part of the Kuali Foundation –New Development (Startup Q1/2007 Development started July 2007) –7 Partner Schools Currently

9. Coeus and KRA - Architecture Coeus –Java on top of Oracle Stored Procedures –Not Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) KRA –Kuali Architecture and Rice –Database Agnostic –SOA

10. Coeus and KRA - Look & Feel Coeus –Coeus Premium: Swing desktop application –Coeus Lite: Web Application with functionality subset KRA –One Web Application –Standard Kuali Look & Feel

11. Coeus Premium Look & Feel

12. Coeus Lite - Look & Feel

14. Kuali - Look & Feel

16. Approach to Incorporating Coeus Functionality in KRA Functional/Technical analysis of Coeus (lite and premium) in light of KRA/Kuali KRA Functional and technical team trips to MIT Regular involvement of Steve Dowdy, Sabari Nair, Jen Flach, Tim Schleicher, Rob Yetter and other Coeus Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

17. Gap Analysis - Technical Technical Gaps: things that Coeus does that Kuali (Rice) cannot currently do technically Technical Gap Proposals in Confluence Examples: –Workflow –Custom Attributes

18. Gap Analysis - Functional Functional Gaps: Functionality that Kuali won't support regardless of technology Functionality vs. Features Rollup of Functional Decisions in Confluence Examples: –Lookup Framework –Custom Attributes –Complex UI

19. How we are filling gaps Process Documentation Development

20. Filling Gaps - Process Technical Gaps –Proposals are documented in Confluence and JIRA; the Enhancement Proposal pages in Confluence include: Technical Guide (how the enhancement will be implemented in Rice) Client Developer Guide (how a developer of an application built on Rice would make use of the enhancement). User Guide (how and end user would use the enhancement if applicable). –Presented to KRA/KFS/Rice Integration Team (Weekly Meetings) –Approved Proposals are scheduled for a Rice release

21. Filling Gaps - Process Functional Gaps –Regular review with Lead SME's –Decisions/Recommendations are presented to the Functional Council –Decisions that require technical implementation are taken back to the KRA development team

22. Filling Gaps - Development Technical Gaps –Upon Approval are assigned –Work is being done by both the Rice team and the KRA Team Functional Gaps –Any Functional Gap decisions that require development work are assigned to a KRA developer

23. Example - Workflow Workflow was discussed in depth at the KRA-Coeus Technical Task Team meeting in Boston 2/28 - 3/2/07 Following this meeting, a Gap Analysis document was developed Both Coeus and KRA (through KEW) support workflow functionality. However they do it in different ways. As a result of the Gap Analysis, several Technical Gaps were identified, and several Functional Questions were raised.

24. Example - Workflow Rice Enhancement Proposals were written for the technical gaps and presented at the Rice Integration Team meeting where they were approved. JIRA Tasks to implement the proposals were assigned. Some have been completed and some are still in progress. Functional Questions were presented to the Lead SMEs who provided answers and shared information back with the larger Functional team.

25. Example - Workflow Technical Gap: 'Meta-Rules', 'Rules', and 'Conditions' Context: Coeus Rules can have multiple conditions combined with boolean logic, and each condition can be based on a database column, YNQ answer or a database function. Coeus has the concept of Meta Rules where individual rules are combined with ordering and if/then logic. Proposal: We can model Coeus conditions and routing rules as KEW rules if we make some modifications to the framework.

26. Example - Workflow Technical Gap: 'Multiple Approvals' Context: Coeus prompts the user, when they get their first approval request, if they are going to get future approval requests and allows them to choose to receive these requests or bypass them (opposite of ignorePrevious KEW configuration where system determines if user gets future requests based on static configuration.) Proposal: We could do routing report and look for user in those, then prompt if necessary & pass flag to KEW if this action should stand in for future action requests (the flag to KEW is the enhancement).

27. Example - Workflow Technical Gap: 'Inbox - View Resolved Gap' Context: Coeus shows users both pending and resolved items in their Inbox (Action List equivalent) Proposal: Enhancement Show Resolved items in action list, perhaps as a separate tab (this is the same thing as the My Outbox enhancement request described in Workflow Document Search Enhancement Request.)

28. Example - Workflow Functional Questions Context: Coeus contains a nice UI to maintain Routing and Notification Rules and Meta Rules, while most of the workflow configuration for KEW is done in XML. Rules can be maintained via a web UI in KEW, but it is not as nice or full-featured as Coeus. Question: How much of the existing Routing Maintenance UI In Coeus Premium should be kept?

29. Example - Workflow Question: Can we deliver version 1 of KRA without the fancy UI and depend on the XML configuration in KEW, and then include the Rule Maintenance UI improvements in a later release? Proposal: Stick with the existing KEW XML configuration for Phase 1 of KRA, and then deliver a more full-featured UI that is similar to Coeus Premium (allowing for differences between desktop and web clients) in a later Phase. This will allow us to concentrate on functionality first and features later.

30. Example - Workflow Implications: –If we stick with existing KEW XML configuration for Phase 1 of KRA, there will be more technical expertise and possibly more training/documentation required for implementing schools, however, it reduces the demand on the development team and allows them to concentrate on replicating Coeus Functionality. –If we need to implement a more complex UI in Phase 1, this will take developer resources away from replicating other Coeus functionality (Reality Triangle). Decision: We will move ahead using the KEW XML based configuration for Phase 1. A more advanced Workflow configuration UI (similar to Coeus) will be deferred until Phase 2.

31. Filling Gaps Rice Enhancements for KRA Release 1.0 –19 Enhancements Proposed –17 Approved, 1 Deferred for KIM, 1 Not needed based on existing KEW functionality –15 Development Complete, 2 In Process Functional Questions –18 Decisions based on initial gap analysis, some of which led directly to Rice Enhancements –Continuing dialog via Lead SME/LBA/DM meetings

32. Convergence / Divergence Long-term proposal: Coeus and KRA products merge into one. What is our upgrade path? Until the product merge, how do we keep KRA and Coeus from diverging? How can we pro-actively help these two products converge?

33. Managing Divergence Coeus has regular releases, and these aren't slowing down, nor should they at least for now KRA needs to have a complete functional release that can be implemented to show we're legitimate We need to keep track of new Coeus releases and manage which features get put into KRA Future –Joint design –KRA team members actively monitor Coeus enhancement requests

34. Proactive Convergence Proposal: KRA as a replacement for Coeus Lite Maintain shared db to make sure both KRA and Coeus can run on top of any database changes KRA makes Develop future Coeus modules using Kuali architecture / Rice framework Coeus’ offshore team helping port grants.gov to KRA / Kuali architecture / database agnostic code

35. Upgrade Path Strategy Keep the Coeus database structure largely intact –Minimize table changes –Create views to help maintain backwards compatibility Develop scripts to enable a seamless upgrade for Coeus Institutions to KRA

37. For Further Information http://www.kuali.org/communities/kra/ –General KRA Information https://test.kuali.org/confluence/display/KRADOC/Home –KRA Documentation Contacts: –Andrew Slusar - as833@cornell.eduas833@cornell.edu –Bryan Hutchinson - bh79@cornell.edubh79@cornell.edu –Terry Durkin - tdurkin@indiana.edutdurkin@indiana.edu

38. Questions?