What Are We Running Towards? FST Sprints Explained

The Finance Strategic Transformation (FST) project continues in Phase 3 - Implementation. Now firmly in the Configure & Prototype (C&P) period, the team’s current main focus is sprints.

As the name implies, sprints are defined amounts of work that occur within a specific time frame. The functional workstream's first sprint runs from Jan. 25 through Feb. 15, meaning we're in week 3. The concept of sprints comes from Agile project management methodology. Benefits of the approach include swift feedback, iterative development, and the likelihood of better usability in the final UVA Workday Financials system. An added positive of sprints is that they help project team members build familiarity with Workday Financials, which enables them to plan better for adoption and prepare meaningful training that will benefit end users ahead of the system going live in July 2022.  

The goal of these sprints is to work through selected user stories. User stories are short, simple descriptions of a desired system feature told from the perspective of the end user who wants it. These statements follow a specific pattern: "As a [user], I want to [thing user does] so that [reason user does the thing he/she does]." Here's a user story example: "As a person responsible for departmental account reconciliation, I want to view the supplier's actual invoice so that I have it for documentation."

To prepare for the sprints, the project team reviewed the user stories we've gathered and evaluated which are ready, based on set criteria, to be part of a sprint. Prioritization then helps to determine which stories should be scheduled for which sprints. When possible, high priority user stories, meaning those that affect a critical process and/or provide an opportunity for UVA to improve how we do business, are scheduled for earlier sprints. 

A user story is considered done when it has been

• Configured/tested in the UVA master Workday Financials tenant
• Validated that it meets necessary specifications
• Confirmed all tasks associated with it are complete

For the reconciliation user story example, the acceptance criterion for it to be validated as done is that users have the ability to locate and view paid or unpaid invoices. 

Finished user stories are then ready for end-to-end testing later in C&P's Test phase. As part of the project's commitment to continuous improvement, sprint cycles include reflection after a sprint is complete to identify refinement opportunities and incorporate lessons learned for future sprints. FST will complete another sprint after this one, followed by the second build of our Workday Financials tenant. A second round of Customer Confirmation Sessions (CCSs) will take place after that, with another set of sprints afterwards.