This session will describe Wake Forest University's experience upgrading from Banner 7 to Banner 8. While all departments on campus using Banner were intimately involved in testing new functionality, it was the Information Systems department newly formed Project Management Office (PMO) that was instrumental in coordinating the interactions between the functional departments and the application developers. In collaboration with SunGard via their Process Improvement Assessment (PIA) services, the PMO was able to combine both traditional software development and project management models with more efficient and iterative agile techniques. The end result was a large scale project plan that was both collaborative and highly responsive to the needs of all customers. Also to be discussed will be the experience of reducing the extensive list of 'user required' modifications and how they were addressed during the upgrade process.

This session will be beneficial for those who are currently using the traditional waterfall development methods and are considering moving to a more agile programming model such as Scrum. Those institutions who are also considering upgrading or even installing Banner will also find value in hearing about the uniquely collaborative experience at Wake Forest University.