BPA Process

SMART employs a highly structured and deliverable-centric approach to conducting Business Process Analysis (BPA).  Their BPA approach primarily takes place during the Design phase and it begins with a review of their extensive BPA listing to determine which processes are deployed or need to be deployed at Alamo Colleges.  The objective of the SMARTWay BPA activities is to document and assess current operations and define future state processes in a manner that aligns with the Alamo Colleges’s objectives and the Banner system’s capabilities.  This process is often referred to as ‘packaged software reengineering’ because it identifies and leverages the underlying Banner functionality as each process is defined. 

For each process identified, SMART will facilitate an interview session with key stakeholders.  The outputs of these sessions will include Current State Narratives  and Current State Process Flows that document how each college is executing a given process.  These outputs will be circulated among the impacted parties to ensure that an accurate depiction of the processes have been captured.  Having a solid understanding of the current state process is important because it captures the Alamo Colleges specific requirements that will be built into the Banner system and it provides a baseline understanding of each process at Alamo Colleges. 

The Core Team will then develop the Future State processes, based on best practices contained within the Banner application.  The Future State documentation will include Future State Narratives, Future State Process Flows and a Gaps matrix that highlights key process issues that will need to be handled differently in Banner.  The main outcome of this process is to develop a common way of doing business among the five schools. 

The Future State processes will be further refined as part of the end-user training that will be conducted approximately 6-8 weeks prior to each go-live date.  The training will include procedure manuals on how the new Banner processes are executed using the Banner application.