Category: IT Projects

Updating faculty profiles on the legacy nursing.uw.edu site was a manual and time-consuming task for administrators, relying on outdated systems. With the decision to rebuild the website and integrate the Interfolio platform, we took the opportunity to enhance the faculty directory.

The  Faculty Directory was developed with the goals of:

• Empower faculty with an easy way to update their profile data, using information they already maintain.
• Automatically create and update faculty profiles using data from Interfolio, ensuring accuracy and reducing manual effort.
• Ensure faculty profiles are easily found on Google and other search engines through SEO best practices.

Our team proudly launched a new, publicly accessible webpage that allows users to effortlessly search for School of Nursing faculty members and view their detailed profiles. This initiative enhances transparency and accessibility, showcasing the expertise and contributions of our esteemed faculty to the broader community. 

The success of this project was made possible by the dedicated efforts of our team. Alex Abplanalp, our Marcomm & Project Lead, expertly guided the project from start to finish, ensuring clear communication and effective management. Nevine Isaak provided essential WebOps support and design, contributing to the visual appeal and functionality of the site. Jeremy Peters handled infrastructure support, ensuring seamless integration and robust performance. Brad Coston, our IT Director and IT Project Sponsor, offered key support and executive sponsorship, driving the project forward. Their collaboration and expertise ensured a smooth, efficient experience, delivering a valuable resource for our community. 

The Interfolio Faculty Directory project began in June 2024, with a successful go-live in September 2024. 

Nursing Site Migration Timing 

With the migration date to the new nursing site already set, ensuring timely delivery of MVP features was crucial. This risk was mitigated by prioritizing essential functionalities for the initial launch, followed by iterative updates and improvements. Close collaboration with the nursing team and stakeholders helped guide the process, ensuring a smooth transition and continuous enhancement of the site post-launch.

Exposure of Potentially Sensitive Information 

We discovered that Employee IDs were visible in profile URLs, posing a privacy risk. By consulting with the UW Privacy office, we developed a solution to replace these IDs with secure internal ones. This ensures that faculty data remains protected and confidential, reinforcing our commitment to privacy and security.

The Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting platform was developed with the goals of:

• Empower faculty with a seamless way to track and maintain their academic contributions—automatically gathering and staging relevant data to keep their CVs effortlessly up to date.
• Provide administrators with accurate, real-time insights for workload reporting, accreditation, and faculty activity tracking—eliminating manual processes and ensuring data integrity

A streamlined platform that automatically gathers and organizes faculty activity data—making it easy to track mentorship, publications, coursework, volunteer work, and more. It simplifies reporting, keeps CVs up to date, and supports workload and accreditation needs, all in one place.

The School of Nursing IT team was instrumental in bringing this project to life, with executive sponsorship from Abbey Schwarz and faculty representation from Andreas Brockhaus. The School of Nursing IT Director, Brad Coston provided key support, while Jeremy Peters engineered the integration that seamlessly connected Interfolio to the University of Washington Enterprise Data Warehouse. Collaborating closely with UW IT, the team streamlined data retrieval and built the essential connectors—ensuring a smooth, efficient experience from end to end.

The Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting project began in January 2023, with a successful go-live in September 2024—bringing in a new era of streamlined faculty reporting and academic insights.

Data Integrity & Source of Truth
With the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) containing vast amounts of replicated data, identifying a single, reliable source was critical to ensuring accuracy. This risk was mitigated through close collaboration with UW IT, who served as the escalation point for EDW-related issues. Their expertise helped guide Jeremy Peters in selecting the correct data source, ensuring consistency and reliability across the platform.

The Website Services project was initiated with the goals of:

• Develop an intuitive platform where departments can effortlessly showcase their work, research, and more, with the ability to manage content independently, eliminating the need for IT intervention.
• Provide top-tier user experience support to ensure the website aligns seamlessly with UW branding and adheres to the latest UX standards.
• Guarantee outstanding IT customer support by implementing solutions that are user-friendly, easy to maintain, and simple to train on.

We provide enhanced web services to help customers align their sites with current University of Washington branding and design standards. Our cost-effective site refreshes not only save money but also improve ease of use, enabling site owners to manage their sites effortlessly. 

The success of our project is thanks to the collaborative efforts of our dedicated team members. Nevine Isaak, our Senior Interactive Web Designer, led the design, development, prototyping, UX/UI consultation, and WordPress training, ensuring high standards of creativity and functionality. Janelle Azucena, our Service Desk Subject Matter Expert, supported the site updating process. Brad Coston, the Director of IT, provided key support, ensuring seamless adoption across departments. Their combined expertise and dedication were instrumental in achieving our goals, streamlining processes, and ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for everyone involved.

Initiated in 2016, the Website Service Project is a continuous effort dedicated to advancing the field of digital innovation.  

Microsite Migration

Transitioning to a new service, Pantheon, while maintaining the existing functionality risked losing essential features. The School of Nursing IT team preserved all previous functionalities through intensive testing ensuring continuity and improved usability.

Maintaining Content Style

Ensuring ongoing technical support for departments and making sure their content continued to work seamlessly was a significant responsibility. The School of Nursing IT team provided continuous support, ensuring all content functioned correctly. Their commitment to making it work was crucial to the project’s success.

Strict Timelines

The extensive scale of microsite support, with Nevine Isaak as the sole interactive web designer, made it challenging to meet deadlines, increasing the risk for the team. This risk was mitigated through meticulous prioritization and planning, ensuring tasks were effectively managed and deadlines were consistently met.

The Modernization of the School of Nursing Website was initiated with the goals of:

• Transforming the site to reflect the new organizational culture and align with University of Washington branding, to enhance user experience and improve marketing efforts.
• Condense site pages to ensure concise, relevant information, and implementing accessibility improvements to make the site inclusive for all users.
• Optimize the experience of site owners by minimizing custom code and aligning with the University of Washinton Shortcode handbook to empower them.
• Minimize plug-ins to lower financial costs and simplify site management.

The School of Nursing IT team introduced a newly modernized, intuitive website. Seamlessly aligned with the University of Washington’s design, it offered an enhanced web-building experience for site owners, keeping content fresh and reducing plug-ins. With top-tier UX and UI improvements, this site set a new standard in digital accessibility and user engagement. 

The success of the project was a result of the combined efforts of the IT and Marcomm teams. Nevine Isaak, the Senior Interactive Web Designer, spearheaded the design, crafted a comprehensive user experience, contributed to coding, and managed the entire project, ensuring high standards of creativity and functionality. Brad Coston, the IT Director, along with Systems Administrator Jeremy Peters, handled the system integrations. Meanwhile, the Marcomm team focused on creating and reviewing content. Together, these teams streamlined processes and built essential connectors, ensuring a smooth and intuitive experience.

The Modernization of the School of Nursing Website project began in November of 2023, with a successful go-live in September 2024—bringing in a new era of digital innovation and accessibility.

Unprecedented Project Scale

The project was unprecedented in scale for the team, bringing significant responsibility and uncertainty about meeting requirements and handling the scope. The team meticulously planned and collaborated, leveraging their strengths and ensuring thorough preparation. Despite being an in-house project typically outsourced, they embraced the challenge and executed it successfully.

Project Delivery & Timeliness

Managing a large project for the first time with a strict deadline before the 2024 academic year start posed a risk of potential delays and fall-throughs. The team prioritized tasks effectively and maintained a rigorous schedule, leaving no room for errors. Their well-structured planning ensured the project stayed on track and met the deadline.

Simplification of Custom Code

Transitioning to new code while maintaining the existing functionality risked losing essential features. The team developed new, user-friendly code that preserved all previous functionalities. This careful approach ensured continuity and improved usability.

Maintaining Content Style

Ensuring ongoing technical support for Marcomm and making sure their content continued to work seamlessly was a significant responsibility. The technical team provided continuous support, ensuring all content functioned correctly. Their commitment to making it work was crucial to the project’s success.

· What are the desired outcomes?

· Why are they important?

· What is considered done?
· What is the Minimum Viable Product? (What’s the minimum we can get away with to consider the project successful?)

· What needs to be created and/or purchased?

• Stakeholders
• Budget

· Who can help with the plan?

· Who is a good point of contact (for each group or team involved)?

· Who will be impacted positively and/or negatively?

· Who has a strong personal interest in the outcomes?

· Who needs to know about project progress?

· What do they each need to know, why, when, how often, and how should the info be shared with them?

· When must the project be complete?

· What key events/milestones do you expect to see to ensure that the project is progressing as expected?

• Start Date (If needed/)
• Completion Date (If needed)
• Project Duration

· What could go wrong that you are you aware of?

o For each, if it does go wrong, what should be done about it?

· What are the desired outcomes?

· Why are they important?

· What is considered done?
· What is the Minimum Viable Product? (What’s the minimum we can get away with to consider the project successful?)

· What needs to be created and/or purchased?

• Stakeholders
• Budget

· Who can help with the plan?

· Who is a good point of contact (for each group or team involved)?

· Who will be impacted positively and/or negatively?

· Who has a strong personal interest in the outcomes?

· Who needs to know about project progress?

· What do they each need to know, why, when, how often, and how should the info be shared with them?

· When must the project be complete?

· What key events/milestones do you expect to see to ensure that the project is progressing as expected?

• Start Date (If needed/)
• Completion Date (If needed)
• Project Duration

· What could go wrong that you are you aware of?

o For each, if it does go wrong, what should be done about it?

· What are the desired outcomes?

· Why are they important?

· What is considered done?
· What is the Minimum Viable Product? (What’s the minimum we can get away with to consider the project successful?)

· What needs to be created and/or purchased?

• Stakeholders
• Budget

· Who can help with the plan?

· Who is a good point of contact (for each group or team involved)?

· Who will be impacted positively and/or negatively?

· Who has a strong personal interest in the outcomes?

· Who needs to know about project progress?

· What do they each need to know, why, when, how often, and how should the info be shared with them?

· When must the project be complete?

· What key events/milestones do you expect to see to ensure that the project is progressing as expected?

• Start Date (If needed/)
• Completion Date (If needed)
• Project Duration

· What could go wrong that you are you aware of?

o For each, if it does go wrong, what should be done about it?