10.1 Not it, not business processes, but organizational culture  (Page 11/13)

10. patrick masson - july 6th, 2007 at 10:46 am

Craig,

Thanks so much for the considered and detailed response–you have me thinking churning–I don’t know where to start.

I am particularly struck by

“I urge IT organizations (and their clients in appropriate situations) to look… …how these software acquisitions would fit into the larger IT portfolio.”

I wonder how many IT Departments have an accurate inventory of the scope of services and the number of systems (including their dependencies) they support (and even the operational costs associated with these)? When I entered my current position, I was struck by how unaware both the IT department and the campus (business units) were, of not only what was in production/development, but also how current systems and services were technically integrated with one another and functionally integrated within business processes. Without this understanding (portfolio management: (External Link) ), it seems logical, decision making, project readiness and prioritization will not be qualified and the risk of project failure increases.

Here at Delhi, I began the “inventory process” (building an IT portfolio) using an operational budget. Looking back at annual expenses from the past two years (that’s as far back as the records went!) allowed us to define groups of services (help desk, training, etc.) and list the systems (email, archiving, phones, etc. Further, and more detailed analysis (e.g. one time costs vs. repeating) provided greater detail into the services and systems but also their inter-dependencies. In the en, not only did we have an operational budget, but it was itemized based on the now defined IT Business Units.

What methods did you use to understand and develop your IT portfolio (even distance learning), especially considering the previous deployment of WebCT, where, after considerable time and effort, you where informed that the University simply could not afford that many licenses? Was that a reference point through which you demonstrated the need to better understand, perhaps not only your IT portfolio, but institutional goals and business processes as well (understanding the hesitance to preach or criticize)? It seems like a failed deployment of WebCT (for non-technical reasons), would be a good starting point to understand not only the IT portfolio, but also departments’ and even institutional objectives (i.e. why wasn’t there an understanding of the associated costs for a successful online learning program by the institution?) I just hope that kind of “learning experience” isn’t always needed!

I am also very impressed to hear of your, what might be called “institutional values.” I was wondering if you could give some examples of specific instances where these principles came into play, either with existing faculty/administration/IT staff (those who pre-dated your arrival) or with regard to a project? Did the issues with the WebCT deployment trigger a reassessment of the IT department’s culture and operations? Or if the culture was in place prior to or during the deployment of WebCT, what advise could you give for those who would like to implement the same culture, but avoid the first outcome?