Hand-over plan
The EMREX network will continue under the EMREX User Group, to be established 16.1.2018 in Stockholm. The preliminary statutes for the EUG
The hand-over plan.
Project Management Plan
Project scope
EMREX is the solution for electronic transfer of student records between higher education institutions in Europe. The project addresses the EU 2020 target that 20% of higher education students should be mobile. The biggest benefit of EMREX will be the increased availability, quality and reliability of information about student records of achievement information.
The EMREX field trial aims at testing new ways to make the administration of student mobility easier and thus promoting higher attainment level to student mobility in higher education and also encouraging more effective recognition of prior learning and avoiding overlapping studies. In the first phase the transfer will be set-up between four Nordic countries and Italy.
A more detailed description of the scope and targets can be found in the full proposal submitted to EACEA: EMREX Full Proposal
Project management approach
The project team consists of 8 partners from 6 countries. Thus we have a distributed project team. Each country also has a different setup, when it comes to the current technical solution, organizational structure and in some cases slightly different business goals in the project. Furthermore, most team member have many other duties as well and are only allocated to Emrex with a very small percentage.
This means that emphasis has to be put on internal communication and transparency. So that the project scope and goals are clearly understood and understood in a similar way. And also that progress and internal decisions are communicated to all team members. So that also team members who are less active easily can stay up-to-date with what is going on in the project. In a distributed project there is a risk for sub-teams starting going in different directions and for sub-optimization as the "big picture" easily gets fuzzy.
The overall strategic leadership will be done by the Steering Group, who will provide policy guidance to the project and also make decisions on possible major change requests to the project plan. The Steering Group will consist of high-level representatives from Ministries and similar bodies in each participating country. This way a direct link to national policies will be maintained at all times. The suggestion is that the Steering Group will meet once per quarter to evaluate the process of the project and to provide guidance when necessary.
The operational management of the project will be done by the Project Group. The Project Group will consist of experienced project managers, representing each partner in the consortium. The members of the Project Group are also in charge of the Working Groups, where the project activities are performed. The Project Group will monitor and the steer the project progress. Progress reports, risk analyses, resource issues, technical decisions, etc will all be handled in the Project Group. Also issues relating to the Consortium will be prepared in the Project Group.
All plans and activities will be reviewed and approved by the Project Group. Thus ensuring that all partners can contribute and are aware of what is going on in the other work packages. It is then up to each team leader to make sure the local team are informed.
The overall management of the project is done by the Project Co-ordinator and the Emrex project manager.
Project schedule and milestones
Emrex consists of seven Work Packages and each WP plans its own activities. The original high level time plan can be found here (MsProject) or also as a .pdf
More details per work package can be found from the respective wiki pages.
Milestones:
| Status | Date | Milestone | Content / comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 19.2.2015 | Overall technical solution agreed | Overall solution with NCP, SMP and EMREG agreed in workshop in Oslo 28.2. |
| 1.4.2015 | Uses cases ready | Final workshop 21.4, approved with changes |
| 15.4.2015 | External website launched | Launched in April |
| 1.5.2015 | Marketing plan ready | Working document under Dissemination and Scaling-up |
| 4.5.2015 | Specifications ready for development and subcontractors | Final workshop 21.4, planning approved and ready |
| 1.6.2015 | Report on existing standards | We didn't really dive into these standards as we selected ELMO, but a short report is written |
| 1.6.2015 | Decision on HEIS to include in pilot | Small, defined group of Norwegian students going to either Finland or Sweden. |
| 30.6.2015 | Trial planning ready for WP4 | Time schedule and participants known, rest of planning in WP4 during fall 2015 |
| 30.9.2015 | Communication plan for each country | Delayed. Hopefully ready by early 2016 -> approved |
| 30.10.2015 | First version of SMP ready | Ready both in Norway and Finland |
| 1.12.2015 | First version of NCP ready for pilot | Postponed until 18.1.2016 -> pilot started in March 2016 |
| 1.12.2015 | EMREG ready | Ready |
| 31.12.2015 | Final report on standardization | Standardization work will continue in 2016, final report by end of 2017 |
| 1.2.2016 | 1st year report | Progress report to EACEA sent in, questions answered |
| 1.2.2016 | 1st quality evaluation | Intermediary report on quality assurance with recommendations ready, reviewed and action points discussed |
| 4.1.2016 | Final acceptance of solution | Postponed until 18.1.2016 -> Field trial started in March 2016 |
| 29.4.2016 | Field trial network ready | All countries now in production |
| 1.8.2017 | Data collected from trial | Decision to continue field trial until Sep 2017, data sent in by all partners |
| 31.1.2017 | 2nd year report | Progress report to EACEA sent in in May 2017 after some confusion about whether it was needed. Yet no response. |
| 31.1.2017 | 2nd quality evaluation | Intermediary report on quality assurance with recommendations ready -> deadline 9.2 consortium meeting |
| 2.6.2017 | Final report on evaluation | Needs to moved as field trial extended -> end of September. Done |
| 1.11.2017 | New steering group established for post-project EMREX | An EMREX User Group will continue maintaining the network. Statutes written and first meeting decided for 16.1.2018 |
| 31.11.2017 | Final quality report | Final report on quality assurance in EMREX and how well targets were met. Quality reports done via two audit rounds. Targets met and will be described in final progress report. |
| 1.2.2018 | Final project report | Final report to EACEA |
Resource management
Each partner is responsible for providing the resources needed to complete their tasks. Local team leaders will manage the local team and assign tasks. Also time reporting and scheduling.
On a project level mailing lists and contact details are maintained, so that the whole project is aware of who is doing what.
Cost management
Financial information will be here: Financial
Monthly costs reports are gathered and used to estimate the run rate of the project and its adherence to the budget. The Consortium Group will monitor the spending and take decisions on e.g. the division of grant funds. Each partner is responsible for adhering to the agreed budget.
When made known to the project, the financial reporting requirements from EU will of course also be followed.
Change management
In EMREX any proposed change to the approved project plan will be prepared by the Lead Partner for the Work Package in question and then analyzed in the Project Group. Minor changes can be approved by the Project Group and major changes, i.e. if there is a significant impact on the project scope, budget, timeline or deliverables, will be decided by the Steering Group. Also all changes to the Consortium will be handled by the Steering Group, although the legal approval in done by the Consortium Group.
Change Requests will be logged in the Project Group meeting notes and the decision recorded in the appropriate Work Package.
Quality Management
The approach to Quality Management is described in the Quality Plan.
The Project Deliverables are listed in the Deliverables List.
Risk management
All risks are maintained in the Risk Management and Register.
Current and immediate risks are listed in the same place. The risks will be monitored by the Project Group.
A risk matrix is maintained here.
The Risk Plan (to be added) will be reviewed and updated when necessary in combination with the Consortium meetings.
Communication management
The project communication is done through mailing lists (found here: Getting started), a common chat tool and through the project internal wikipages.
Much of the work is done in workshops and telcos. From each meeting the responsible person will write a short summary to the whole project team.
Each month a project status report will be prepared and send to both internal and external stakeholders.
An external website, www.emrex.eu (to be launched) and the Stakeholder Forums will be used to update stakeholders about the project.
Procurement management
Each partner according to local procurement processes, but also taking into account EU requirements.
Document templates and logo
- Powerpoint template
- Word template
- Reporting template
- EU-flag
- Logos in different format
- RGB, RGB: 0/51/153 (hexadecimal: 003399), see http://publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-5000100.htm
- CMYK
- Reflex-coated
- Reflex-uncoated
