Timeline & Progress

✓ We developed the high-level project and resource plan and reviewed its data and integration components.

✓ We onboarded new members of the project team and refined our long-term work plan.
✓ We hosted 42 Empowering UF Discovery Sessions for carefully selected UF stakeholders from all levels of the university in which they shared their insights and experience to help shape the future state of Workday.
✓ We also determined our data conversion strategy.
✓ Outreach efforts began in earnest with college- and unit-level information sessions, bringing Empowering UF Roadshows to departmental HR and fiscal teams. These personal connections will continue to help us understand staff and faculty technical and functional needs and guide our organizational change management efforts.

March-July 2025 Phase 1

✓ We engaged selected UF stakeholders and subject matter experts in 84 Design Sessions to gather insights for configuration, reporting, integrations and conversions and completed the project’s initial system design.
✓ We began mapping future-state business processes and identified change impacts that will affect users’ day-to-day interactions with Workday.
✓ We also recruited and onboarded 100+ UF staff to the Change Agent Network to represent their units, departments and colleges as trained liaisons to support organizational change management.
✓ Meanwhile, we are developing a production support model and planning for the re-implementation of other administrative systems as needed.

August 2025-February 2026 Phase 2

✓ We’re using documented stakeholder feedback from summer Design Sessions to build Workday to meet the needs of our staff and faculty. Collected feedback now guides our focus on configuration (hardware and software design), reporting, integrations (connecting software applications into a shared ecosystem) and conversions (the transition from one data format/platform to another).
✓ Data reporting processes and the Enterprise Data Warehouse (OneLake) Program launched in August. Efforts will integrate data across systems, enabling complex and cross-program analytics plus an efficient and organized way to store, share and learn from collected data.
✓ We’ve also surveyed stakeholders with two of six Change Readiness Assessments and will use results to guide our change management strategies.
✓ This Empowering UF website was refreshed with improved navigation and expanded content.
✓ Security Role Mapping is underway: HR Liaisons, Financial Accountable Officers and representative teams across the university will begin to identify user roles in Workday to grant faculty and staff specific access to Workday business processes and reports.
✓ The 100+ strong Change Agent Network continues to meet quarterly, and the Organizational Readiness Team held dozens of Change Agent Coffee Chats to connect more personally with these engaged stakeholder representatives.
✓ The Gator Business Administrator Services Fall Institute had 250 attendees who saw Workday demonstrations and were introduced to Workday’s core concepts and business processes.
✓ Following two configuration “sprints,” December stakeholder Customer Confirmation Sessions will include overviews about updates to UF’s Workday system, live demos and a review of business processes by functional areas.
✓ The Empowering UF team is partnering with Secondary Systems owners in a continual review process, with monthly forums beginning in January 2026.

– With Architect & Configure (A&C) complete, the Empowering UF Project Team has built UF’s Workday platform to align with the university’s unique needs. Now that the initial configuration is finished, we are moving into the Testing phase of the project.  

– Testing will run from March 2026 through April 2027, during which the Empowering UF Project Team will validate that the configured business processes function as intended ahead of our July 2027 go-live. The Empowering UF Project Team will confirm that processes, data, security and integrations perform reliably through the different phases of Testing.  

– The end goal of the Test phase is to ensure the Workday experience is as stable, accurate and ready to support UF as possible in July 2027. 

Here are some brief definitions and timeframes for each test type included in this phase:  

E2E (end-to-end testing)  

• Testing ensures that each new application/module meets the design goals established by stakeholders in the Design phase and via subsequent user stories.  
• E2E requires two test cycles and will run from April 2026 through November 2026. 

PCT (payroll compare testing)  

• PCT compares the calculated payroll results between UF’s original/legacy systems and Workday, assessing identified pay periods to provide a reasonable level of assurance that Workday Payroll will provide similar results to the existing system. This Test phase specifically focuses on Payroll calculations and resolution of unknown variances.    

• PCT requires three test cycles that will take place from December 2026 through March 2027.   

UER (user experience review)  

• UER engages stakeholders in an exploration of the new platform, providing select UF stakeholders with hands-on experience in the Workday environment while validating training materials.  

• Feedback provided will help inform ways UF’s Workday experience could be improved to better support users’ daily business activities and requirements. Users will provide input on user interface, improvements to training materials, and Workday’s operational readiness for use in end-user training and go-live.   

• UER will take place in early 2027.  

Regression testing  

• Regression testing retests UF’s Workday functions following updates, enhancements or fixes to ensure consistent service.  

• Regression testing will take place on a recurring basis according to the Workday release schedule.  

• Performance testing 

• Performance testing measures our new Workday system’s efficiency against established baseline metrics.  

• Performance testing will begin in spring 2027 and last through July 2027. 

– We will continue conducting end-user training and share resources to ensure understanding and compliance.
– We will continue communication and change support.
– The Workday system will go live in July 2027! 🎯

– The Empowering UF team will continue providing change management support as staff and faculty adopt the new Workday tools and resources across the UF community. This will be a period of intensive support as we adapt education, training, resources and readiness communications to address users’ needs and help them become comfortable with Workday.
– This will be an anticipated problem-solving time with all hands on deck to hardwire the use of new resources

– This will be a crucial phase for increasing the efficiencies of the new system by refining configurations, streamlining workflows and addressing any remaining identified issues.