The Pennsylvania State University: Modernizing and Standardizing the Penn State University Payroll...

©2013 Software AG. All rights reserved. ©2013 Software AG. All rights reserved.

Wendi Herrington Programmer/Analyst October 2013

Modernizing and Standardizing the Penn State University Payroll System

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Introduce myself. Say all the wonderful things about me. NOTE to self: Find out what all these wonderful things are.

©2013 Software AG. All rights reserved. For internal use only

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About Penn State University

Presenter

Presentation Notes

24 Campus Locations 96,562 Students in the Fall of 2012 24,703 Full Time Employees 19,088 Part Time Employees ½ Million Degrees Conferred 2013 – 2014 Operating Budget of $4.4 Billion Fun FAQs 17,409,222—Cost of Penn State’s electric bill for University Park alone last year. 2,500,000—Berkey Creamery ice cream cones eaten per year. 5—Cost, in dollars, of the Penn State ice-cream making correspondence course Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield took in the 1970s. One in 50 professionally licensed engineers in the U.S. is a Penn State graduate. Nine of every 10 golf courses worldwide use turfgrass varieties developed at Penn State,


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Current Payroll System

• Written in several different languages

• COBOL • Easytrieve • Natural

• Batch process that runs three times a month • Twice for Biweekly Payroll • Once for Monthly Payroll


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• PSU Financial data is extracted three days before payroll runs

• Output used to update the PSU Financial Database

Presenter

Presentation Notes

EXPLAIN WHY COMPUTE WAS SO AWFUL Relevant payroll related data is extracted from the system three days before each payroll run The extracted data then becomes input files for the batch ‘compute’ payroll procedure Compute – COBOL program used to calculate an employees pay check After compute is run, the payroll manager must verify information from the procedure After verification, the remaining payroll procedures run to update the Penn State Financial System


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Payroll System Concerns

Payroll System

Risky

Not Modularized

Old Technology

Limited Resources

Old Business Logic

Not flexible

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Little to no documentation Code is difficult to maintain Limited employee knowledge of the system Limited amount of COBOL programmers on staff Business Logic is in need of analysis Risk associated with running an aging system


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Modernization Project Purpose

New Payroll System

Reduce Risk

Modularize Compute

One Technology

Increase Resources

Analyze Business

Logic

Flexibility

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Standardize the use of technology throughout the Payroll system Provide additional flexibility and functionality Improve the integrity of the Payroll system Enhance the integration of the Payroll system with central and departmental systems Increase the number of programmers/analysts with knowledge of the system Reduce the workload, expense and risk associated with running the current system Document the system Modularize compute for easier maintenance


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Finding a Solution

• The payroll modernization project was approved September 10, 2010 by University senior management

• The University hired Software AG consultants to provide technical project management, analysis and Natural training for Penn State staff for the first year of the project

• Six month start up period

• Start Date of April 4, 2011 • End Date of June 30, 2014

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Payroll modernization team was an entirely new department Hired and trained all staff in NautralOne and Natural Engineer Some people hired has zero programming backgrounds


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PSU Payroll Modernization Blueprint (Provided by SoftwareAG)

Establish Modern

Development Environment

Setup Application in Development Environment

Conversion of non-Natural

Code

Application Modernization


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Establish Modern Development Environment


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Implement NaturalONE

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Identify required Natural Source and load it into the development library Initialize developer’s machines with the initial setup of the application code


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Implement Natural Engineer


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“The most critical part of the Payroll Modernization is not a modernization task but a generic software development task: Test Plan Creation and Execution”

- SoftwareAG

Setup the Payroll Application in the new Development Environment


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Setup the Payroll Application in the new Development Environment

PROD PAYROLL

PRODUCTION

DB 226

PAYROLL MODERNIZATION DEVELOPMENT

DB 232

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Isolation of Payroll Production from Payroll Modernization Environment 0 Identify test requirements – COMPUTE and Enhancements Define data requirements Load databases and files Set up parallel jobs Set up schedules


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New Development Environments

Payroll Parallel Acceptance

Environment ADA 233

_______________ • Runs on IPO3 • Production Control

must submit the JCL

• Security set up similar to production

• Copy of production data

• Copy of parallel code

• Environment is ONLY used to run parallel for the next X months

Payroll Development Environment

ADA 232 _______________ • Runs of IPO3 • Payroll Developer

must submit the JCL

• Security is set up similar to PSU test

• Copy of

production data • Copy of Production

Code • Environment is

ONLY for payroll developers

PSU Test

Environment ADA 229

____________ • Runs on IPO2

PSU Production

Environment ADA 226

_______________ • Runs on IPO2

Presenter

Presentation Notes

The new environments are for payroll developers only. Security is needed because the data in the new environments is a copy of the production database. Obviously Important for testing changes, but was also putting double work in for programmers. When a change was made to the COBOL version that was running a production, the same changes also had to go into the new Natural Version We ran a COBOL and Natural version on Compute in the parallel acceptance environment for a little over six month. We had a test plan to check all the output after every parallel run. The parallel acceptance environment is a copy of all JCL jobs that run after compute. So, if a change is made to production JCL, a change must be made to the parallel version. Acceptance is refreshed with a copy of production data before every run.


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Conversion of non-Natural Code • Analyze and convert COBOL code into Natural

• PSU sent almost 100 COBOL programs to Germany to be automatically converted to Natural

• A SoftwareAG consultant converted the compute module from COBOL to Natural in about four months

• Manually analyze and convert PL1 and Easytrieve code into Natural

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Mention BORIS.


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Application Modernization

• Build/Update data models • Document physical and logical application data model • Utilize Natural Engineer to identify unused fields and identifiers • Identify new data requirements from COBOL conversions • Analyze and update business requirements • Normalize data structures • Identify Missing or unused modules • Analyze partner applications


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Project Approach - Work Streams

- Established a series of work streams focused around key objectives as follows: - Payroll Enhancements - Payroll Analysis - Non-Natural Code Conversion - COMPUTE Conversion - Testing and Code/Change Management - Infrastructure

- Run the work streams in parallel and manage dependencies between the work streams

- Teams - Create teams with focus on a work stream - Designate a team lead to be primary point of contact - Teams have a primary team but support all work streams as needed


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Development Work Streams

Work Stream 1 Enhancements

Steve

Deductions Taxable Benefits

Time-Cards

Pay by Object Code

Project Management

Software AG Support

Work Stream 2 Payroll Analysis

Karen

Repository Load

Impact Analysis

Payroll Development Standards

Work Stream 3 Non-NAT Code

Vicki

Automated COBOL

Conversion

Prioritize Code Inventory

Iterative Conversion

Development

Work Stream 1

Vicki

Phase 1 Convert to NAT Create Test Plan Run in Parallel Deploy to PROD

Phase 2 Modernize Phase 3

Update with Enhancements

Work Stream 5 Testing/Code Mgt

Clyde/Steve

Create Code Mgmt Approach

Subversion

Create and Execute

Test Plans

Work Stream 6 Infrastructure

Rusty

Confirm Parallel Environment Requirements

Confirm Data Requirements

Update Repository as

Necessary

Work Stream 4 COMPUTE

State Taxes

Pay Grid in HR Forms

Steve Savard – Resource Manager and Payroll Subject Matter Expertise

Modernization Plan with Priorities

Modernization Development

Exception Reporting

Create Release Schedule

Manage Mainframe

Infrastructure

Vouchers

Spec out Parallel

Environment

Set up Parallel Environment &

Scheduling

Other Non-NAT Conversion Analysis

Project Approach – Work Streams


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Development Work Streams

(Gray shades indicate completion)

Work Stream 1 Enhancements

Steve

Taxable Benefits

Time-Cards

Other Deductions

Project Management

Software AG Support

Work Stream 2 Payroll Analysis

Karen

Repository Load

Impact Analysis

Payroll Development Standards

Work Stream 3 Non-NAT Code

Vicki

Automated COBOL

Conversion

Prioritize Code Inventory

Iterative Conversion

Development

Work Stream 1

Jeff

Phase 1 Convert to NAT Create Test Plan Run in Parallel

Phase 2 Modernize

Phase 3 Update with

Enhancements

Work Stream 5 Testing/Code Mgt

Clyde/Steve

Create Code Mgmt Approach

Subversion

Create and Execute

Test Plans

Work Stream 6 Infrastructure

Rusty

Confirm Parallel Environment Requirements

Confirm Data Requirements

Update Repository as

Necessary

Work Stream 4 COMPUTE

State Taxes

Pay by Object Code

Steve Savard – Resource Manager and Payroll Subject Matter Expertise

Modernization Plan with Priorities

Modernization Development

Exception Reporting

Create Release Schedule

Manage Mainframe

Infrastructure

Vouchers

Spec out Parallel

Environment

Set up Parallel Environment &

Scheduling

Non-NATURAL Conversion

(EZTrieve, Etc.)

Accomplishments

Presenter

Presentation Notes

New, non technical hires competed six months of programmer training Entire payroll staff was trained in NaturalONE and Natural Engineer Natural version of compute is running in production. It was put into production about six months earlier than planned Exception reporting enhancement is in production Paper voucher reports are eliminated Taxable Benefits and Other deductions enhancement is complete Time Card changes are 50% complete 65% of Easytrieve programs are converted�Parallel environment and development environment has been up and running Mandate Changes: Affordable Care Act/Stopped printing paper checks Annuity discontinuance/Bank File Changes/G3 GSI’s Department of Labor changes/Age Graded Life Insurance�PA Act 32 – local taxes/Physical Plant On Call Time changes Hershey Medical Center over time hours changes


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What our customers are Saying

“This enhancement eliminated six boxes of paper a month, plus it saved mail services, printing services and payroll staff time. This is a win win situation since

everything is now available electronically. This also helps in

retention of security of these reports. My staff is now

celebrating!”

Ray Burke – Payroll Manager

Voucher Distribution


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What our customers are Saying

“The biggest benefit so far has been this report

because it made this office proactive instead of

re-active”

Ray Burke – Payroll Manager

Exception Reporting


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Lessons Learned • The process takes time • Would have tired more staff in supporting roles such as database,

middleware and systems architect departments

Project Future • Currently working on finished enhancements • Using built in features of NaturalONE to call web services

The Pennsylvania State University: Modernizing and Standardizing the Penn State University Payroll...

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