Timetabling Transformation Assurance Review

CASE STUDY - TOP 25 GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

The Requirement

A top 25 global university engaged Maxica to conduct an independent assurance review after a major timetabling transformation created disruption for academic staff, professional services teams and students.

The assignment needed to move quickly. The university required clear evidence of what had happened, why delivery had become difficult, and which actions would stabilise the service before future academic planning cycles.

The programme was business-critical and high-impact. It affected timetable publication for the academic year, involved multiple workstreams, introduced new SaaS timetabling and room booking products, and changed a long-established distributed process into a more centralised operating model.

The Challenge

The programme combined new timetabling software, room booking, business process change, data integration and organisational change under a fixed academic deadline.

Scale and complexity were significant. The project had taken around 12 months to move from initiation, as procurement were negotiating the contract, leaving approximately four months for delivery and execution before timetable publication. A two-month manual data cleansing exercise followed data capture issues, and post-publication recovery required teams to resolve thousands of clashes and timetable exceptions.

The cost exposure was broader than software licensing. It included SaaS procurement, integration consultancy, legal support for contract negotiation, internal delivery effort, temporary data-entry support, contractor development work, supplier support and recovery activity.

Stakeholder confidence reduced when the first timetable publication created heightened risk, uncertainty and pressure across the university community.

Our Approach

Senior Assurance Leadership: Maxica deployed a highly trained and seasoned project professional with extensive experience across higher education, complex technology delivery and commercial transformation environments.

Rapid Evidence Review: The consultant assessed a large body of project evidence at pace, including plans, risks, issues, board materials, testing evidence, technical documentation, data processes, communications and service transition artefacts.

Stakeholder Insight: The review drew on interviews and inputs from more than 30 stakeholders and stakeholder groups, including senior leaders, academic representatives, project team members, operational teams, supplier representatives and student-facing stakeholders.

Structured Delivery Assessment: Maxica reviewed the programme across seven core areas: project controls, governance and organisation, planning, design/build/test, solution readiness, cross-functional workstream readiness, and business engagement.

Practical Recovery Focus: Findings were structured around root causes, immediate stabilisation actions and longer-term improvements to governance, planning, testing, data quality and business readiness.

Our Solution

Maxica produced a comprehensive assurance report setting out root causes, delivery risks and prioritised recommendations. The report created a clear evidence base for the university’s wider review and gave leaders a practical view of what needed to change.

The review identified where governance, project management, testing, data preparation, business change and operational readiness needed to be strengthened. It also separated software issues from data, process, supplier, governance and readiness issues so corrective action could be targeted effectively.

Recommendations included:
- Pausing and replanning after the immediate timetable cycle
- Reinstating stronger programme governance
- Clarifying workstream ownership
- Improving data quality controls
- Implementing integrated testing
- Strengthening supplier management
- Introducing more robust go-live and early-life support practices.

The solution also highlighted the need to align scope, cost, resource and risk decisions with the fixed academic cycle, rather than compressing critical delivery stages without clear gateway decisions.

Benefits

Speed of Assurance: Rapid independent review provided timely input into the university’s wider internal report and recovery planning.

Scale of Evidence: Assessment covered a 64-slide assurance report, seven delivery domains, multiple workstreams and more than 30 stakeholders and stakeholder groups.

Delivery Risk Clarity: Maxica identified how a 12-month procurement and contract phase had compressed delivery into approximately four months before a fixed academic deadline.

Cost and Resource Visibility: The review highlighted cost exposure across software, integration, legal, supplier, temporary resource, contractor and recovery activity without making unsupported financial claims.

Actionable Recovery Roadmap: Recommendations gave the university a practical route to stabilise operations, rebuild confidence and improve future academic year planning.

Why it Worked

The engagement worked because Maxica combined independent assurance with senior project delivery judgement. The consultant was able to assess governance, technology, process, supplier and operational readiness issues through the lens of a practitioner who had delivered complex change in both higher education and commercial environments.

That experience mattered. The review did not treat the issue as a software failure alone. It examined the full delivery system: scope, benefits, procurement, dependency management, data quality, testing, business readiness, operational support and stakeholder confidence.

Maxica focused on evidence, root causes and practical recommendations. This gave the university a clear view of immediate recovery priorities and the longer-term delivery disciplines required for sustainable transformation.

Learn More

If your organisation is delivering complex transformation involving technology, data, process change and multiple stakeholders, Maxica can provide independent assurance, recovery planning and practical delivery support.

Call us on +44 333 700 2014

Email us on hello@maxica.com

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