As the PTAS project continues to progress, we recognize recently there has been limited messaging while County employees and contractors have been hard at work identifying requirements, finding efficient ways to work, and considering impacts to the project schedule and timeline. In this newsletter, we would like to share a few project updates.

Where did we begin?

First, it is always important to understand why the County chose to invest money and time to replace our property tax administration system. This transition was a way for us to improve how we assess properties and process critical information for the County since the old system involved several complex applications that were difficult to maintain, limited our ability to respond to policy and legislative changes, and hindered the speed at which we could bill, collect, and distribute property tax payments. Our goal with the new system is to create one, integrated system of record to reduce data siloes and to enable better departmental communication while providing the taxpaying public with new and better ways to interact with the County about property taxes. When you think about it, it’s a big undertaking, and we want to make sure it’s done right.

So, where do things stand now?

This project – the first of its kind to be based on Microsoft Dynamics – has proven to be even more complicated than we anticipated, in part because we are integrating customized, stand-alone applications, many of which have been in use for over 25 years.  

Over the summer, we conducted a big push to carefully document the requirements for our new property tax system. As a result, we better understand the unanticipated complexities and what it will take to complete PTAS—including additional time and funding. Although the project has been experiencing significant scope, schedule and budget issues, the next section highlights the actions we are taking to move the project forward.

What are we doing to address this?

The goal of “ensuring the project is delivered within scope, schedule, and budget through the application of appropriate project management and delivery controls” has not changed. Previously, this goal and responsibility was shared across three organizations (KCIT, DOA and Treasury) each with varying degrees of experience in these areas.  All three of which were also responsible for interacting and ensuring deliveries from the single primary supplier. The leadership of KCIT, DOA and Treasury got together and decided to create a centralized organization staffed with individuals experienced in both implementing large business transformations and managing complex supplier relationships.  This was an effort to create a uniformity of standards and a central interface with the primary supplier. This also allows the Program Directors from DOA and Treasury to focus on the most important aspects of running their organizations and ensuring a successful implementation of the PTAS system once it is delivered.

We’ve switched to a “Hybrid” approach where we are incorporating best practices from both disciplines. From the Agile Management Style, we are keeping: Short release cycles focused on delivering high value in short bursts. Open communication between all disciplines (Business, Subject Matter Experts, Developers, Testers and Trainers etc.) in a small team concept. Utilizing a collaborative platform like DevOps as a central source for tracking development and release efforts. From the Waterfall Management Style, we are adding: Greater focus on managing the pipeline of future requirements prior to adding them to a specific Sprint release. A Macro methodology of tracking requirements that are needed by the business and making sure that they are added to the correct release based upon business priorities.   A Lifecyle tracking methodology to make sure that we are tracking work that is in process and identifying potential challenges before they become issues.

Given what we have learned about the complexity of the project, we are in the process of reassessing the project’s overall scope, schedule, and budget.  The project sponsors have authorized a third-party consultant firm, Grant Thornton LLC, to assess whether the projected costs are in alignment with the scope to deliver what is referred to as the “minimum viable product” for PTAS. More details will be shared later when the consulting team completes its analysis in late October 2021.

What should I expect in the future?

In the coming weeks, the PTAS project will be shifting to a mainframe retirement focus. Accordingly, activities will be adjusted to ensure Accounting, Treasury, and other processes that currently rely on the mainframe system will be prioritized to mitigate risks to the County’s ability to bill, collect & distribute property tax payments.

The PMO and the development team continue to collaborate closely to determine the Go-Live timeline, ensuring appropriate time for testing, training, and other Go-Live activities while also considering busy periods. Additional timeline updates will be shared as soon as they are available, but the transition to the new technology will likely begin in 2022, pending the outcome of the consultant analysis previously mentioned.

Given many of you might not see the impact of these project changes, we’d like to share what you can expect moving into the coming months. When we enter our “Countdown to Launch” phase for PTAS, end-users can expect to see more detailed updates and helpful resources through programmatic communications, product demonstrations, targeted meetings, and PTAS Central (the one-stop-shop for users). In the next few months, we will also be hosting a Town Hall to provide a forum for live Q&A.

A Big Thank You!

Finally, the PTAS team has tapped many team members recently to help with activities, such as reviewing requirements in Azure DevOps, to ensure an aligned path forward. We’d like to thank everyone who has provided their valuable time and support to the PMO and development teams. Our progress would not have been possible without your guidance and support!

For any questions, please submit an inquiry via this link.