Information Technology - Instructions for Program Request Form

Supporting the Microfinancial/TimePayment user community

TBD

Instructions for the Program Request Form

A program request form (PRF) is required for all requests and changes to the system.

Procedure

Open the Program Request Form template by clicking here.
At the File Download box, click Open.
Fill in the sections as described below and save the file to your C drive. Give it a name related to your request.
Print a copy and obtain the required signatures.
Deliver the signed form to the IT Dept.

Sections of the Form to fill in

Requested By - The person making the request.

Approved By - If the requestor is not a department manager, the department manager's signature is required (no change from current process just adding an "official" spot on the document for it).

Procedure - If the procedure/process is known (for example, Payments in APW, Menu item 4 from the accounting menu, etc.) indicate it here, otherwise it can be left blank and detailed in the Detailed Description area.

Impact - If the program change has the potential to materially impact the financial information (that is, public financial information), or impacts other departments, department managers need to be made aware of the change and approve the document (this might also require additional information to be added to the Detailed Description area).

Some things may be more obvious as to what has a material impact such as "tax implications" for certain states and stopping collection fees for a certain type of account. Similarly, for the other extreme case, changing the wording on a letter that goes to a customer would most likely not have any material impact and therefore would not require additional signatures.

Detailed Description - This is the area to detail the request or problem. If additional space is necessary, additional pages can be attached/printed to the end of the document.

The remaining areas are locked and are to be filled in by the IT Dept.

Completion Control - This area is for the IT development team's use to indicate that the procedure(s) or files that were created/updated and to provide a place for any other additional comments necessary by the IT team.

Assigned/Completed By - This indicates that the IT team member that completed the request.

User Tested By - Before a change is moved into production, user testing (final acceptance testing) is required. The succesful completion of this testing/acceptance effectively provides the authorization (approval) for the item(s) to be moved into production.

This testing/acceptance varies depending upon the actual request but it may be include factors such as reviewing the report or going on the test side to test the change. This is already being done but now there is a place on the form to indicate who tested it. (Note: The development testing will still be done prior to this.)

Moved To Production (Executed By) - This identifies the IT team member who moved the item to production or executed the procedure/report or both.

Final Acceptance/Signoff - This acts as the closing of the request by the requestor after the request has been moved to production (in most cases, after it has run or can be seen in production like a daily/weekly procedure).

Note: IT needs to watch this as we don't want to create the situation where the project isn't signed off as closed until the end of the year for a yearly procedure that was changed, (or three months for a quarterly job) but usually things run periodically enough where this shouldn't be the norm. The hope/ideal is that, if there is any delay in the process - IT makes sure the values are correct during the user testing/acceptance and not after it is in production (thus the final signature is more of a closure).