Buff Experience Transformation Update – May 5, 2026
Build Progress and Stakeholder Engagement
Since the April 20 demonstration—which drew over 65 participants—the Buff Experience Transformation project has continued active build and configuration work across all four parallel workstreams. Cloud for Good is building core Education Cloud functionality for Continuing Education, while the Office of Information Technology's Learner Engagement Technology team continues to work on data and integrations for the new system while maintaining current systems to ensure uninterrupted student support. Marcus Thomas (formerly Devs United) is advancing the Marketing Cloud transition, and all teams are refining user stories and conducting sprint validation sessions with subject matter experts.
Discovery Deliverables and Build Cycles
The project team has been finalizing approval of remaining discovery deliverables, including the Security Framework and Data Cloud Design Plan. Build sprints—focused three-week development sessions—are following the planned iterative cycle: refinement, configuration, demonstration and subject matter expert testing. This approach ensures that campus expertise directly shapes the system before it reaches end users. Additional sprint demonstrations and testing sessions are being scheduled to maintain momentum through the summer build phase.
Help Shape Campus Adoption: Nominate an Adoption Lead
As we move closer to deployment, we need your help identifying Adoption Leads—individuals within your unit or department who can serve as local champions during the transition to the new system. This group plays a vital role in shaping the future system by providing feedback throughout the build process, participating in testing, and helping guide change across campus. We are seeking nominations from across campus to build a network of leaders with experience in our current processes and who can bridge the project team and end users. If you or someone in your unit is well-suited for this role, please submit a nomination before end of business Wednesday, May 13.
Decisions and Next Steps
Work continues on detailed feature prioritization, data migration scope and timelines, and the Marketing Cloud subscription data model. These decisions involve careful analysis of technical trade-offs, campus needs, and long-term scalability. We remain committed to transparency about what will be available at launch versus what will be delivered in subsequent releases. Configuration and development work is on track to continue through October 2026, followed by end-user testing and training and platform go-live at the end of 2026.
Weekly Engagement Opportunities
Weekly Q&A sessions continue every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. and remain open to all campus stakeholders. Recent sessions have addressed questions about system scope, timeline, feature parity with Buff Portal Advising, and how this effort differs from previous initiatives. We encourage you to join these conversations, share your questions, and stay informed as the system takes shape. Working groups are meeting regularly and can convene additional sessions on specific topics as needs emerge.
For more information, visit the program website. Your partnership and input continue to be essential as we build a more connected, personalized student experience at CU Boulder.
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Each week, this summary is created with the support of Microsoft Copilot and project notes across all Buff Experience Transformation working groups and meetings.