Inheriting a new Slate database can feel overwhelming, even for experienced users. Use the checklist items in this article to start reviewing, learning, and planning next steps for improving your database.

This checklist is intended for experienced Slate users. If you are new to Slate, or are seeking to learn more about a specific topic, we recommend signing up for Learning Lab, reviewing topical Knowledge Base documentation, and asking questions within the Community Forums.

Initial Considerations

The contents, timing, and priorities for each Slate database will be different. Consider the following questions to help you decide what to review first:

• Does your institution have existing internal documentation?

• If yes, update and supplement this documentation as you go.

• If no, create documentation for institution-specific processes as you learn about them.

• Note that this documentation does not need to be extensive. Context about why something was built a certain way, or who helped decide parts of the process, can be helpful.

• Is responsibility for your database shared with different departments (for example, data integrations, events, or marketing)? Is the database shared between Admissions, Student Success, or Advancement?

• If yes, make a plan to open or continue existing communications between Slate administrators for each department or lifecycle, with the goal to stay aligned on training, processes, and resources.

• Consider creating a map of who is responsible for making specific decisions.

• Are there decision makers beyond the Slate administrator team?

• Learn whether these decision makers have any short-term expectations that should be prioritized for review.

• Determine which decisions require approval from these stakeholders and which can be acted on without it.

• How are users interacting with Slate on a daily basis?

• Understand their personal processes and potential pain points.

• Explore your institution’s pathways for how users can report issues, request access, and escalate action items.

• Based on these discussions, outline improvements that can be made to your processes.

• Are there specific project timelines that need to be met?

• Understand where your team currently is with any projects and where responsibility falls.

• Learn what resources are available and needed to complete these projects.

Analyzing Your Processes

Based on the considerations above, identify and prioritize which areas of Slate to review, and identify any clarifying questions. Your questions might focus on understanding specific Slate functionality, determining which parts of Slate are actively available to the public, learning why a process was designed a certain way, or determining if a process can be improved.

If the considerations above did not yield a clear prioritized list of processes, we recommend first reviewing ongoing and automated Slate processes, followed by seasonal processes.

Ongoing and Automated Slate Processes:

• Audit Users & Permissions

• This is an opportunity to get a sense of how permissions, roles, and realms are managed in your database.

• It is also an ideal time to inactivate users who are no longer with your institution or who have not logged into Slate for a predetermined amount of time, such as a specific number of months or an entire year. Navigate to Database > User Permissions to view Permissions, Roles, Realms, and Dormant Users.

• Audit Rules

• Within Database > Rules, look at Rules Health as well as Check Rules in order to ensure that the rules are running efficiently. If Check Rules identifies rules that take a long time to process filter criteria, start your investigations there.

• Limit rules and formulas that rely on Custom SQL. Look for opportunities to increase efficiency by migrating these rules to Configurable Joins.

• If your rules rely on outdated Slate Template Library and Local query bases, rebuild them using Configurable Joins bases.

• Note any rules that filter on seasonal or time-based data points (e.g. a specific date or term). Be aware when those specific data points need to be updated, but aim make them as evergreen as possible (e.g. using Active Round instead of a specific Round).

• Audit your Export and Import Processes

• Visit the Job Activity Monitor to evaluate how your database manages ongoing scheduled exports. Review exports with repeated or consistent failures or long run times. This may be an opportunity to increase the efficiency of your export queries.

• Visit Database > Sources/ Upload Dataset to review your ongoing imports and Source Formats within your database.

  • Review individual Source Format Settings to make sure the Type (One-Time / Differential or Cumulative / Replaceable), Unsafe, and Disable Update Queue settings are correct.

  • Review Source Format Mappings for any outdated mappings and make the necessary updates.

  • Inactivate any Source Formats that are no longer in use.

• Audit Populations, Campaigns, and mailings with a status of Running/Ongoing.

• Within Deliver > Campaigns, review running campaigns to see what populations are being used. Determine if the populations need to be updated. This may require stopping, editing, and updating Deliver Campaigns.

• Review other mailings with a status of “Running/Ongoing”.

Seasonal Processes

• Audit Queries and Reports

• Archive any extraneous or unused queries and reports.

• Review scheduled queries and reports.

• Review and update queries and reports for new cycle(s).

• If your reports rely on outdated Slate Template Library and Local query bases, rebuild them using Configurable Joins bases.

• Audit Forms & Events

• Review ongoing events and how they fit into Event Templates.

• Review ongoing Scheduler and Availability sessions.

• Review Event Templates. Archive any old templates that are no longer in use.

• Review conditional logic within registration forms and update if needed.

• Review form and event communications and update if needed.

• Review form and event rules and update if needed.

Admissions Processes

• Audit Applications

• Look at the Slate-Hosted applications in your database. Migrate away from modified standard application pages to custom Slate-Hosted Application Pages.

• Determine if any parts of the Application Go-Live Review List should be updated or revisited.

• Review your Slate.org application sharing settings and update if needed.

• Audit Workflows

• Review bin structure, bin movement automations, and tabs for each workflow in your database.

• If you are not using the Workflow Editor, plan to migrate your reading process from Reader (Legacy) and Workflows (Legacy) into the Workflow Editor as soon as possible.

• Audit Decision Letters

• Review decision letters for each decision code.

• Verify any export methods for decision letters are still in use and working as intended.

Additional Processes

• Check Slate Credit account balance(s) to ensure enough funds exist for the communication needs of your team.

• Verify your Compliance Dashboard is approved and that A2P compliance requirements are being met if Slate is being used for Slate Voice/text messaging.

• Review the Inbox Setup in your database to understand your Inbox Roles, Groups, Rules, and permissions.

• Review and understand use cases for the custom Dashboards in your database.

• Review active Portals to ensure the data being referenced and displayed within them is still relevant.

💼 Try This!

Suitcase the queries below into your database to view examples of how you can use different Configurable Joins bases to review objects.

User Permissions Audit: c861b75f-675d-4d93-b6db-2bcd4891ae23:slate-examples

Rule Audit: 7411d148-41f3-411e-a103-de3519168cf0:slate-examples

Scheduled Exports Audit: e06235bb-b2d1-4cf1-830b-30f8540a3ab4:slate-examples

Import Audit: 16082fc0-31f1-4f5e-8c24-5b2877a8390d:slate-examples

Query Audit: 59413927-b05f-437a-b09d-45d2e70eb7f2:slate-examples

Evaluating Your Data

Once you’ve reviewed and familiarized yourself with a process in your Slate database, you’ll have a better sense of the data it collects and interacts with. You can then review where and how that data is housed and determine whether the process is still needed.

• Audit Fields & Prompts

• Start by auditing and identifying vital fields used within your processes. The Field Search tool, found within the Database tab, can help you locate a custom field used within forms, source formats, imports, or rules.

• Identify fields or prompts that are outdated or in need of adjustment.

• Audit Datasets & Entities

• Familiarize yourself with data collected and displayed through Datasets and Entities.

• Look at the configuration of any custom Datasets in your database to understand the connection between parent and child datasets.

• From fields and prompts, audit both dataset-scoped and entity-scoped custom fields and prompts.

• As with Fields and Prompts, identify areas that are outdated or in need of adjustment.

💡 Tip!

Use the following queries from the Standard Query Library (Database > Standard Query Library) to audit your fields and prompts:

• Current Custom Fields

• Current Prompt List

• Field Configuration Review

• Unique Fields Usage

Identifying and Removing Unnecessary Data

As you complete the steps above, you may identify fields, prompts and other objects that are no longer pertinent to your institution’s current process. Consider the following:

• Plan to remove or inactivate field data that is no longer relevant, or is connected to objects that are no longer in use.

• Before removing any field data, first decide which, if any, data should be backed up in a data warehouse or another long-term storage solution. Slate is not a data warehouse, and functions best when data that isn’t used in a transactional manner is removed at regular intervals.

• Coordinate with your Slate administrator team and any other decision makers to follow internal processes before removing any data from your Slate database.

• We recommend first verifying these changes in your Test Environment before applying changes within your Production environment.

• Determine which objects or processes are built on outdated functionality.  Examples include:

• Slate Template Library and Local Bases - Configurable Joins is the modern standard, and older bases should not receive further investment.

• Event Landing Pages - Event landing pages have been deprecated in favor of Portals using the portal events widget.

• Reader (Legacy) - The Workflow Editor features the most up-to-date functionality, and should be adopted as soon as possible.

• Consult the Database Stewardship tool to see additional considerations for your database.

What Now/Next Steps?

Once you've completed the steps above, consider the following:

• Review the Resource Auditor to see if there are additional unused items in your database that can be archived or inactivated.

• Continue to explore the Database Stewardship portal for your database.

• Review tasks and projects that you noted while auditing your database.

• Bring Slate questions to an upcoming Community Conversation, or create a post within the Community Forums or another community space.

• Ask Slate AI questions as you dig into and analyze data in your database.

• Join a User Group for your region or institutional focus, and connect with peers about Slate or your institutional process.