In summer 2019, the Registrar's Office (RO) engaged IST to help launch a new service that would enable a student to select a chosen/preferred name that would be used consistently across the University. This functionality was very important because the RO was getting weekly requests from students to select a preferred name, and the only response available was for the student to complete a legal name change.
Designing the process
A project team was assembled with representation across IST and the RO. The first decision was how to design the process. The team had to determine whether chosen/preferred name changes should be processed in WatIAM, the University’s identity management system, or in Quest, the student information system. WatIAM was selected because this approach positioned the University for an enterprise solution that would enable both students and staff to select a preferred name.
The project required support from all the system owners who receive name information from Quest and WatIAM as it was important that all systems use a student’s preferred name instead of their legal name. Meetings were held with approximately 20 system owners. Changes were implemented in Quest and the downstream systems to ensure preferred names would be used consistently throughout the campus community.
Implementing the new design
Implementation of this new service required a high volume of changes to Quest as follows:
- Modification of 12 interfaces from Quest to outside systems
- Modifications to 36 Quest data extracts
- Changes to academic requirement reports and unofficial transcripts so they would display a student’s preferred name
- Modification of internal processes that included reports (e.g. academic progression, ranking)
- Updates to over 20 student and applicant inquiry pages in Quest
- Changes to over 100 applicant/student/former student self-service pages
Implementation of this service for the campus community over a relatively short period of time (6 months) was a significant accomplishment and the result of cross-campus consultation and support. While there were a few bumps at go-live, we are happy to report that since this service was implemented in January 2020, there have been over 9000 updates to preferred name made in WatIAM.
