Buff Experience Transformation Update

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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.Ìý

Buff Experience Transformation Update – April 28, 2026

Project Progress: From Discovery to Build

This is the first in a series of regular updates on the Buff Experience Transformation project—our initiative to modernize CU Boulder's student engagement and support infrastructure through Salesforce Education Cloud. In late March 2026, we completed discovery and transitioned into active build and configuration. Our implementation partner Cloud for Good, which is building the core functionality, conducted over 30 sessions with more than 50 subject matter experts, mapping 7 business processes and developing 15 foundational deliverables including personas, data models, and user stories. The Office of Information Technology’s Learner Engagement Technology (LET) team is transitioning essential functionality from the legacy Buff Portal Advising system/CRM01 to Education Cloud while maintaining current legacy systems to ensure service stability throughout the project. The LET team also conducted an additional 15 discovery sessions through March and early April. Ìý

What's Happening Now and Next

A demonstration of the recent work completed by the project team was presented to over 65 people on April 20. In the coming weeks, the project team will refine user stories, schedule more sprint demonstrations and testing sessions, and finalize approval of remaining discovery deliverables. Build sprints will follow an iterative cycle with subject matter expert validation after each demo. Configuration and development work continues through October 2026, followed by end-user testing and training. Information about future phases of the project is available on the CRM program website.

Key Decisions

In early March, we held a two-day Minimum Viable Product (MVP) workshop with campus partners and students to align priorities. That helped to finalize our approach: leveraging Salesforce Education Cloud to overcome current system limitations and implementing four parallel workstreams as follows:

  • Build Education Cloud core and learner success functionality for Continuing Education – led by Cloud for Good
  • Retire legacy Salesforce org (CRM01/BPA) – led by CTO from Salesforce and LET
  • Transition from Marketing Cloud org MC01 to new MC05 org – led by Marcus Thomas (Devs United)
  • Maintenance and ongoing support of current orgs – led by LET

Decisions still in progress include detailed MVP feature prioritization, data migration scope and timelines, and the Marketing Cloud subscription data model.

Stay connected

We know many of you have questions about scope, timeline, system capabilities, and unit inclusion—including whether all Buff Portal Advising users and features will be included at launch, and how this effort differs from previous initiatives. We are committed to transparency: this is a phased implementation with core functionality at launch and continued expansion over time, supported by executive sponsorship, formal governance and working groups.

, held on Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m., are open to all campus stakeholders. Updates and working group information will be shared through ongoing campus communications. Reach out to the project team with questions or to engage more deeply. Your partnership is essential as we build a more connected, personalized student experience at CU Boulder. Ìý

Each week, this summary is created with the support of Microsoft Copilot and project notes across all Buff Experience Transformation working groups and meetings.