Establishing an IT Process Improvement Program Carrie Regenstein-CSG- May 13, 2005 and Jeff Silber EDUCAUSE Midwest Reg. Conf.— March 23, The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

Happy 13th Birthday, DoIT! 700+ employees in ~12 departments trying to –Present seamless service –Develop interoperable & robust applications By… –Working across the division How about security? What about communications? And don’t forget the My UW-Madison portal (my.wisc.edu) Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…

Cries for help Pockets of excellence, but… Grass roots & top-down process initiatives Inconsistency still abounded Shoemaker’s children

February 2004 Commitment “To put in place the resources we need to adopt the work that many of you have been doing — and to continue to improve our DoIT processes and procedures.” “To have improved, consistent processes, consistently implemented, to make it easier to do our work and to free our energy to do our work.” “To identify and implement standards for the work we do: project management standards, development standards, documentation standards.” “To put resources to this work.”

Eliminate confusion, but No new bureaucracies! “The intent is to build processes and procedures that make some of our messy stuff cleaner and thus easier to accomplish.” “Everyone working in this area now is doing it on the margin — doing it over and above getting regular work done.”

Hire a senior staff member! “Key responsibility is to coordinate getting this work done. “Facilitate our procedure and process improvement. “Assist us in defining appropriate processes and procedures; ensure documentation, communication, training, and implementation support. “Evaluate processes and procedures; modify and improve them, as necessary. “Recommend more resources, as necessary.”

Wow! Inclusive hiring process: six groups, and new Process Task Force Office of Quality Improvement (OQI) partnership Facilitator, not project manager Comfortable with all staff; courageous with leadership; ombudsperson

Welcome to UW-Madison and DoIT! Phenomenal orientation notebook But what does it mean to have a new role?

What Was Thought Higher ed and private industry best practices would apply. Customer service and DoIT goals were aligned. “Right makes might” rather than “Revenue makes might.” What Was Found Best practices need to flex when valued uniqueness in the academic environment is warranted. Customer Service does matter but translation is important! Without revenue as a driver, what matters?

Partnered with existing project teams  Operational Framework  Project Management  Security  Enterprise Collaboration Tools  Communications Successes

Process example: Operational Framework Consistent way of handling incidents Better change awareness Process ownership & accountability Defined process for moving service into production Defined roles and responsibilities Review process for success and weaknesses Framework to engage process stakeholders to assure better service delivery

Raising Awareness: Project Management Requires a Social Contract Defining the purpose, principles and roles  Sponsors  CIO  Directors  Project Managers  Project Teams  Management  Staff

Looking for a place we would like to be Culture Vision Strategy Philosophy Enterprise Understanding Alignment & architecture, infrastructure principles, practices tech systems integration quality tech products Project Management Standards Process Management

Budget pressures create sense of caution over intent of improvements. Process is “Not the fabric, but what makes the fabric softer.” People don’t want to be told how to make their fabric, yet expect demonstrable results. Internal consultant role in influencing change - expert telling the experts how to work differently. Foster creative, independent thinking while implementing standards and consistent practices. Trust & Communication. Challenges