Project Glossary

The following is a glossary of terms related to the implementation of Workday Student. As we move through implementation, the glossary will continue to grow and will include a robust list of functional terminology.

Academic Unit (AU) Workday Student's primary organizational structure is built around Academic Units. An academic unit could be a senior college, division, or other unit that admits students and offers programs of study or courses. Academic process flows, security access, Workday rule inheritance and reporting are often structured by academic unit.
Architect and Configure Stage (A&C) Workday Student implementation stage in which the bulk of future state design work occurs. During this stage, the project team gathers academic process requirements and technical specifications, then uses them to configure the software solution. The team also prepares for testing activities during this stage.
Business Analyst (BA) LSU ITS project team member who evaluates academic and student processes and how they align with stakeholder needs. This team member assesses the impact of process changes; captures, analyzes, documents, and manages requirements for assigned projects; and supports the communication and delivery of those requirements to stakeholders.
Business Process (BP) In Workday a business process is an automated workflow that routes tasks to designated users. Common tasks include to-dos, reviews and approvals. Alerts can also be set up to notify a user that a step has begun or was completed, or a particular review response was selected.
Change Liaison LSU project member who serves as a liaison between a functional area workstream and the Change Management team, providing insight into changes in functional processes to inform end-user training and communication. The change liaisons will also be a point of contact for LSU community members who have questions about how design decisions in the workstream will impact their functional use of Workday Student.
Cloud-Based Refers to software and services that run on the Internet instead of on a server at LSU or locally on your computer.
Cross-Functional Workday functional area comprised of representatives from all other areas on the implementation project who design, review, test and modify system functionality that reaches across multiple functional areas. 
Curriculum and Advising Workday functional area that addresses critical areas for the Workday Student implementation related to advising, academic plans, degree audit (academic progress reports), and curriculum/course creation and management.
Data Conversion The process to migrate data from legacy systems to Workday.
Data Governance Guidelines and standards to effectively manage data. Aligned with policies and procedures set forth by the IT Governance Council. 
Data Load The process of importing legacy system data into Workday.
Data Validation The process of confirming that data form LSU legacy systems has loaded properly into Workday.
Data Verification The manual review of data in Workday against data in our legacy systems.
Data Warehouse A centralized repository of data so that a shared, single source of data may exist. This central repository – along with tools, training and processes – will enable units to better leverage the university’s data as an asset.
Deploy Stage during Workday Student implementation; final preparations occur during this stage prior to systems going live for end users.
Discovery Stage In advance of the Workday Student implementation, the LSU Workday Student project team engaged in a Discovery Phase with Workday consultants to better position the project for success. Cohort 1 discovery occurred March 2020 to May 2021, and cohort 2 from July 2023 to October 2023.
End-to-end (E2E) Process A series of tasks and activities that includes each step of an action that may occur across functional areas. An E2E process may be fully within Workday or may also include external systems.
End-to-end (E2E) Testing A comprehensive review of the end-to-end process. E2E testing includes moving through all steps of a process to ensure that the steps and functionality is as expected and produces the desired end result.
Finance (FIN) Workday system for managing financial data and processes. LSU implemented Workday Finance in 2016.
Financial Aid Workday functional area; addresses critical areas for the Workday Student implementation related to financial aid.
Functional Area Group of related processes and data that support a core academic or student activity or function, such as advising, student records or student financials. Much of the Workday Student project work is organized around functional areas.
Functional Lead LSU project team member assigned to lead the configuration of a Workday Student functional area. The functional lead is responsible for driving the design of Workday processes, policies and integrations.
Homegrown Systems developed by LSU, as opposed to a purchased system.
Human Capital Management (HCM) Workday system for managing human resources and payroll data and processes. LSU implemented Workday HCM in 2016.
Inbound integration Inbound integrations move data from a different system into Workday Student
Institutional Academic Unit (IAU) The apex of the academic unit hierarchy at each LSU institution. (Ex: LSU Eunice = IAU, LSU A&M = IAU) 
Integration A connection between different systems currently being used by LSU institutions so that data can be shared to meet business functionality goals in Workday Student.
Integrations Workstream Workday Student implementation workstream focused on developing integrations between Workday and other university systems.
Launch Workday Student implementation term; denotes the point at which LSU will begin using a defined set of Workday functionality to conduct business and academic processes. See the timeline for more information.
Legacy System Current technology system or application in use at LSU.
Milestone Often referred to as a "Business Function Milestone" indicating a goal date by which designated processes and functionality within a business area will be fully built, tested, confirmed, and ready for end user utilization within Workday Student.
Move to production (MTP) Workday Student implementation term; denotes the dates during which Workday configuration and data move into the production tenant. MTP's are different from go-live, which is the point at which the university will begin using specific functionality in Workday Student. There are two moves to production in each cohort's Workday Student implementation timeline.
Move to production 1 (MTP1) The first move to production.
Move to production 2 (MTP2) The second move to production.
Organizational Change Management (OCM) Team A functional workstream area focused on organizational readiness and preparing the LSU community for change. The OCM team drives project communications and training based on changes to the end-user experience. 
Organizational Change Management (OCM) A framework that assists individuals and their organizations move through changes that will achieve a specific outcome.
Outbound Integration An outbound integration takes data from Workday Student and loads it into a different system.
Planning An initial stage during implementation in which LSU (by cohort) works with Workday consultants to map out the calendar of work, identify resource needs, and address any potential roadblocks prior to beginning the Architect & Configure stage. 
Platform A single system with multiple product/functionality offerings. Workday’s tools for HCM, Finance and Student operate on a unified platform that creates a seamless end-user experience with one place to access data and processes for all these areas.
Production Tenant The version of Workday Student that is being used to complete live transactions.
Production A system is “in production” when it is being used to complete live transactions.
Recruiting and Admissions A functional area workstream that conducts design activities related to student recruitment, admissions and entry into LSU institutions.
Reporting Informational summaries that extract data from Workday Student in order to inform decisions or actions.
Role A grouping of specific responsibilities within an organization that are assigned to positions. A role is assigned to a security group to gain access to data associated with the role's responsibilities. People are assigned to one or more roles in Workday based on their job responsibilities.
Security Role Security roles are how Workday manages what each user can see and do in the system. Roles are assigned to position types in Workday to enable data access and the ability to perform certain tasks.
Security The framework for managing user access within the system.
SIS Student Information System; SIS is the official record of the university and contains academic records and data for all students. Each LSU institution is currently functioning on a unique "legacy" SIS. At LSU A&M, the legacy SIS is "Mainframe." Legacy systems will be replaced by Workday Student.
Student Financials Workday functional area; involves calculating charges, producing bills, receiving payments and preparing tax statements for students.
Student Records & Core Workday functional area; involves programs of study, academic records, calendars, and student enrollment.
Subject Matter Expert (SME) A member of a LSU community who possess the operational knowledge around a specific subject including related policies and governance for changes.
Tenant-Wide During implementation, for a myriad of reasons, many decisions are made at the tenant level, or are tenant-wide, meaning they must be the same across all four LSU institutions to provide consistency across the project. 
Tenant A tenant is a Workday software environment, similar to development, test, stage and production environments. LSU will use and manage several Workday tenants throughout the course of the implementation.
Testing Stage Workday Student implementation stage during which the project team conducts several rounds of testing to confirm that the system works as designed.
Training Team A functional area in the Workday implementation responsible for identification and development of training content and materials. The training team will provide the training curriculum for the successful adoption of Workday Student. Beyond implementation, the Workday Student Training team will support new and continuing users of Workday Student.
Workset A workset contains a collection of objectives to be completed within a defined timeframe (6-7 months) during the Architect & Configure stage. Workset objectives include the design and functionality of processes that will be conducted in Workday Student. LSU's implementation will have four worksets: A, B, C & D.
Workstream Workday Student implementation term used to organize related project work areas. Various representatives and subject matter experts from across all four institutions are integrated into each cohort's workstreams.