GMAS 2.0 – Project Overview

The GMAS 2.0 project was funded and supported by the IT Capital Review Board and ran from 2014 through 2017. 

The GMAS 2.0 project sought to upgrade the core technology backbone of Harvard’s Grants Management Application Suite (GMAS) with modern, extensible architecture and address long-standing user requests for usability enhancements and functionality. The GMAS 2.0 project included a technical upgrade of the system’s infrastructure—thereby avoiding technical obsolescence—and improved GMAS’s front-end design, flexibility, and responsiveness to University and regulatory needs. 
The project was delivered over several years and through numerous releases. For more information about releases, visit the Releases page. 

Project Structure: “Convert” and Business Priorities
The GMAS 2.0 project was structured to include two main tracks of work: “convert” and business priorities. 
 

Convert
What does ”convert " mean?

• For each individual screen in GMAS, we are creating a completely new interface and refactoring all related code (retrieving data, back-end processes, etc.) to remove dependencies on legacy frameworks.
• Where possible, screens have been consolidated or retired.
• For each converted page, bug fixes or "quick win" enhancements were implemented.
• The team and business decided on a screen by screen approach (mix and match) instead of a “big bang.” 

Business Priorities
The business priorities represent the top 5 areas/functionality surfaced through the user research and prioritized by the Project Leadership and Business Steering Committees.

User Experience Improvements

• Modern user interface - improved browser support (including mobile and accessibility)
• Major system refinements delivered - based on user research and input
• Efficiencies for users - streamlined navigation, workflow, and in app help tools

Infrastructure

• Retirement of proprietary code – reduction of technical debt
• Significant system performance improvements
• Code modularization – flexibility for future code replacement, enhancements, retirement
• Cloud readiness – developing with an eye on the AWS Cloud
• Continuous integration – fully automated code deployment

Operational Efficiencies

• Administration module– eliminating need for development support of “Back Office” application configuration (including online help content)
• Error handling – allowing end users to immediately report errors with troubleshooting data included
• Testing automation – accelerating testing and test staging