Psychology Department Information System (PDIS)
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[edit] Project Contact
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Kenneth A. Heskett (kheskett@umich.edu).
[edit] Project Description
The Psychology Department Information System (PDIS) unifies the business practices between the Department of Psychology’s Student Academic Affairs, Human Resources, and Business Offices. It coordinates the faculty-preferred teaching workload, class scheduling, research grants, leaves, awards, and CV updating for 97 faculty and 280 graduate students, who serve over 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students each term. The data mining, aggregation, and presentation provided by PDIS, saves the effort of up to four staff members.
[edit] Business Need
- In general, an efficient, easy method of managing Psychology Department data related to 97 faculty members, millions of dollars in annual research grants, and over 9000 graduate and undergraduate students each term.
- More specifically, information for making decisions about hiring, tenure, grant proposals, annual reports, and graduate student admissions.
[edit] System/Application & Data Sources
PDIS can import data from M-Pathways and other external sources as needed.
[edit] Project Purpose, Scope, & Deliverables
- Replace multiple data management systems such as paper records, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, FileMaker Pro databases, personal e-mail, and even an individual’s memory to provide administrative services to the faculty, students, and staff of the department.
- Establish consistency in the ways each administrative office manages data in terms of metrics, levels of granularity, and other factors to inform decision-making at all levels of the department.
- Import data from sources outside the department, such as M-Pathways.
- Simplify the aggregation of data regardless of source to generate predefined or ad hoc reports.
- Enable comparison of information between offices in the department to improve departmental decision-making.
- Present information in the same format to improve communications throughout the department.
- Reduce the cost of handling and processing of graduate student applications.
[edit] Audience/Users
- Department of Psychology administrators and staff
[edit] Project Sponsors/Partners
- Department of Psychology Steering Committee
[edit] Duration/Timeline
In 2002 the Department of Psychology implemented PDIS, which fundamentally changed its business practices regarding the way information was collected, stored and shared. With reports generated by PDIS, the department operates much more efficiently, despite a five percent reduction in administrative staff in FY 2008.