Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

ACM

Advanced Certificate in Management - a programme offered by the UCT Graduate School of Business, on a modular basis. The ACM targets middle management administrative and support staff, working in the higher education sector. UCT has used this programme for the purposes of middle management training.

AIM

Associate in Management - a programme offered by the UCT Graduate School of Business, on a part-time, full-time or modular basis. "Action AIM" is the name given to the modular delivery form of the programme, which UCT has used for the purposes of junior management training.

AIMS

Audit and Integration of Management Systems - the project at UCT for which this is the website.

AIPF

Associated Institutions Pension Fund - a former UCT pension fund.

AS-IS

The current state of affairs; processes or structures mapped out as they are.

BPR

Business Process Reengineering. A methodology for process improvement comprising a study of the "As-Is" state of the process and then the development and implementation of process changes, leading to the "To-Be" state of the process, together with policy changes, organisational structure changes and a variety of other "interventions".

BROWN PAPER

A large (sometimes long) piece of brown paper on which a "story", process or other set of information is presented by a workstream for information-sharing/gathering and comment. The audience is encouraged to engage actively with the brown paper by commenting directly on the information using post-it notes. A "Brown Paper Fair" is an even at which a large number of brown papers are shown collectively to a large audience.

CAL

Commercial Accommodation and Letting (a section within the Properties & Services Department).

CFU

Classroom Facilities Unit (a section within the Properties & Services Department).

CHAMPION

The UCT head of an AIMS workstream, generally the senior line manager in a department or process area under AIMS review. Champions provided strategic content input and were accountable for the "sign-off" of each milestone in the stream's progress.

CHARTER

AIMS workstream plan detailing the objectives, deliverables, key activities and critical success factors of that particular piece of work.

COIN

The Costing and Information Project - managed together with AIMS during the duration of the AIMS Project.

COULD-BE

A proposed future state of affairs; processes or structures mapped out as a potential change from the current (undesirable) state of affairs.

CPS

Campus Protection Services (a section within the Properties & Services Department).

DILO

Day-in-the-Life-of study: a methodology whereby a person's activities and use of time in the workplace are observed and recorded, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a job, activity or function; observations are recorded on a specially-designed form; under certain circumstances, an individual may be asked to record data for him/herself - a "self-assessment DILO".

DRD

Department of Research Development at UCT.

FSO

Functional Strategic Overview. A methodology for determining the strategic roles required of a functional area at UCT (e.g. Finance), the high-level processes required to deliver the roles, the organisational design required, the governance structure (as a "RACI" chart), and the key policies required to enable and support the function.

FTE

Full-time-equivalent. A complex measure used to calculate the number of students (and sometimes staff) in a higher education institution, significant in terms of the higher education funding formula.

GOB

The University's "General Operating Budget". This is the portion of the budget that is derived from income that is not designated for a specific purpose. It is mainly, but not exclusively, derived from fees and from government "subsidy".

GSB

The Graduate School of Business at UCT.

HEMIS

Higher Education Management Information System - the national student management information system based in the national Department of Education.

HOD

Head of Department (usually with reference to an academic head) at UCT.

HRM

The Human Resource Management Department at UCT.

HUC

Heritage Users Committee at UCT.

ICT

Information and Communication Technology.

ITS

The Information Technology Services Department at UCT.

iUSC

Interim University Strategy Committee - the precursor of the University Strategy Committee, in place from June 2000-March 2001.

JTM

Joint Team Member - the term used to describe UCT staff "lifted out" to the AIMS project in either a full-time or long-term part-time capacity. JTMs worked outside of their usual work areas, together with external consultants - hence the term"joint team" - progressively acquiring skills to take project work forward independently.

KPI

Key Performance Indicator; a measure designed to track a critical performance variable over time.

LRMC

The Labour Relations Management Committee at UCT (formerly the Employee Relations Management Committee or ERMC).

NEHAWU

National Education Health and Allied Workers Union.

NSFAS

National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

NWT

Natural Work Team - a group of people supporting the AIMS project on a short-term project process, with members drawn from the academic and/or support staff, and who are often subject or areas experts; NWTs are formed as the need arises, are not full-time, and generally conduct their work within their usual domains.

ODG

Organisational Design and Governance - a workstream of the AIMS Project.

OTV

One-time Vendor - technical term for a vendor used in the SAP purchasing process who is not a vendor defined in the master data tables.

OVC

Office of the Vice-Chancellor - an entity comprising Executive members of the University, as defined by the Organisational Design & Governance stream of AIMS.

P&S

The Properties and Services Department at UCT.

PDR

A process structured on the logic of Plan-Do-Review, relating to tasks and meeting management.

PO

Purchase order.

PPS

Purchasing and Payments section in the Finance Department (created as a result of an AIMS recommendation).

PPU

The Physical Planning Unit - now part of the Properties & Services Department at UCT.

RACI

Definition of who has the Responsibility, Accountability, and who must be Consulted and Informed with respect to specific activities or actions. This information is normally presented in the form of a chart or table in which rows are actions/activities and columns are people, the intersections (table cells) then holding one or more of the RACI letters. An example of such a chart is Fig. 7-6F taken from the Reactive Maintenance BPR workstream.

RFP

Request for Proposal (to supply goods or services).

RIB

Revenue increasing Budget - an automated process in SAP R/3 where revenue in designated funds is automatically converted to budget (spending permission) in a process which runs overnight.

S&P

The Systems and Procedures Office at UCT.

SAP

Systems and Applications Products - the company that supplies the R/3 software which is used for all financial, HR and plant maintenance transactions and reporting at UCT.

SDSD

The Student Development and Services Department at UCT.

SLA

Service Level Agreement.

SLG

Senior Leadership Group - the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Deans, the Director of the GSB, the Registrar, and the (Executive) Directors of major support departments.

SLF

The Student Loan Fund at UCT.

SPS

Secure Payment Solutions - the company supplying the software that links procurement card information into the SAP R/3 system.

STRAWMODEL

Draft document up for discussion.

TEPF

Tertiary Education Pension Fund - a former UCT pension fund.

TO-BE

The future state of affairs; processes or structures as they are to be after a change and implementation process.

UCTRF

UCT Retirement Fund - the current UCT pension fund.

UDMS

University Document Management Systems - main supplier of photocopying and printing services to UCT.

UFC

University Finance Committee.

UFO

The Undergraduate Funding Office at UCT.

UIF

The national Unemployment Insurance Fund.

USC

University Strategy Committee.

^ Top

Last updated: 2001-10-04