MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000
Information Systems (IS) supports MIT’s core missions of education, research, and service by working in partnership with its faculty, students, and staff to wisely and creatively apply information technology to reach their goals. IS strives to be MIT’s information technology services partner of choice, delivering quality products, support, and services that are customer-focused and add value to the MIT community. To achieve this vision, IS people must be leaders and technical innovators, continuously gauging their work against customer needs, expectations, and wants, as well as higher education and industry trends. IS’s ultimate success, and therefore the success of its people, is dependent upon customer satisfaction.
During fiscal 2000, IS staff achieved an impressive range of accomplishments, some of which are highlighted in the reports which follow. Throughout IS, we organize our work around three explicit elements: IS’s customers, its work, and the skills of its staff. The environment that we are building for IS is functional, attractive, and meets staff needs.
Leaders of I/T Practices advocate both on behalf of customers to IS, and on behalf of IS to customers. The Practice directors promote and enable technology-based work at MIT. They assist the Institute community in identifying information technology needs, as well as opportunities to use technology in education, research, and administration. The Practices also assist in planning for the effective use of I/T resources. To support academic computing, IS was deeply involved this past year in supporting the work of the Council on Educational Technology (CET), working with MIT faculty and staff on student-owning computing, wireless, educational portals, lifelong learning, and alumni involvement initiatives. To support administrative computing, IS continued to promote standards and hardware and software renewal. To support voice, data, and image networking, IS was involved in Internet2 efforts. IS also presented and received approval for new communications rates. Additionally, IS outlined a plan for renewing the MIT communications infrastructure and making the improvements necessary to support the next generation of research and teaching at MIT. Key work is underway in all the plan’s phases.
As a process-centered organization, the work of developing and operating I/T products and services is the responsibility of five I/T Processes–Discovery, Delivery, Service, Support, and Integration. Highlights of our work include the delivery of an important set of web-based applications, the operation of a growing set of services and servers, and support of a larger, more sophisticated community of I/T customers. Use of MIT’s I/T resources continues to grow as the I/T infrastructure is improved and expanded. IS continued to maintain MIT’s I/T environment at a high level of availability. During 1999—2000, the MIT community came to IS with some 100,000 requests for help and service changes, ranging from upgrading telephone service to installing a new office computing environment to assisting faculty in using computers in their teaching. Accomplishments of particular note were the establishment of the I/T Architecture Group and the fact that, despite fears about the Year 2000, all systems continued to work well, and we have a significantly better understanding of MIT’s entire I/T environment as a result of our careful preparation.
The I/T Competency Group concentrates on the skills dimension of Information Systems, working to provide a staff well-qualified to meet future work requirements. Of particular note is IS’s continuing work to ensure staff retention by addressing market salary parity issues and offering a growing selection of workshops that inform and develop staff.
IS spent considerable time and energy over the past year working on its Strategic Plan that is used intentionally to guide our work; on measuring our work; and on pursuing change initiatives. IS’s Strategic Plan will be published in its final form on the Web and on paper this fall. The Strategic Themes guiding our work are:
More information about Information Systems and its work–including information about its affirmative action progress and plans–may be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/is/.
James D. Bruce
The Academic Computing Practice (ACP) provides a robust infrastructure to support MIT’s educational computing needs. In its work, it plans and supports new academic initiatives; responds to new developments in technology, media, and educational practice; and creates new organizational arrangements to better serve its clients. The ACP was a key participant in the efforts to frame a coherent agenda for educational technology at MIT and its application to address the changing environment of university education.
New activities in ACP in FY2000 focused on planning for new initiatives in educational technology. It collaborated with the Center for Advanced Educational Services (CAES) to launch the Education Media Creation Center (EMCC) and with the MIT Libraries to implement Spatial Data Services for the campus, as well as in the Digital Shelf Space (DSpace) initiative to address storage needs for digital materials. Staff from Information Systems worked with the MIT Council on Educational Technology through its subgroups, particularly on strategic and infrastructure initiatives. Among these initiatives were a wireless network for the Institute, development of re-configurable classrooms, and an investigation of an educational computing environment where each student has a laptop computer. This last initiative is expected to lead to an academic computing environment that supports mobility, that is multi-platform, and where Athena clusters are transformed, over time, into multi-functional teaching and learning spaces and special-purpose clusters. Implementation of this model will lead to an infrastructure that supports student-owned computers more intentionally and extensively than at present.
During fiscal year 2000, the Academic Computing Practice continued its annual efforts to renew the Athena Computing Environment purchasing some 200 workstations for public and departmental clusters to replace machines at the end of their useful lives. As part of this work, ACP initiated several investigations of Linux and has developed a "layered" Linux Athena release that provides key Athena functionality to the Linux platform. ACP also chartered a Discovery effort to examine the place of SGI workstations in the Athena environment. As a result of this study, ACP announced that SGI machines would be eliminated from Athena in 2003. Staff will work with faculty who are now dependent on this platform to identify alternatives.
Work also continued on Project Pismere to build a scalable, centrally-managed Windows 2000 environment that works within the MIT computing infrastructure, so that both clients (desktops) and servers can interoperate with all MIT services, including those provided by the Athena computing environment. A Fall 2000 Pismere deployment in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning is planned.
The Academic Computing Practice was also active in supporting the development and delivery of academic subjects. Among these were work in 6.003 Signals and Systems; in Berliner Sehn, a hypermedia documentary for German Studies; in an experimental performing arts collaboration with New York University delivered using Internet2; in PIVOT (Physics Interactive Video Tutorial); and in the use of streaming video.
In the coming year, the Academic Computing Practice will expand its role in influencing and directing information technology resources by extending its partnership with the Deans of Undergraduate Education and Residential Life. It will also continue to work closely with the MIT Council on Educational Technology and with faculty in the schools and staff in the Libraries and other areas to develop effective support for new educational technology initiatives.
M. S. Vijay Kumar
The Office Computing Practice seeks to maximize the value that administrative computing customers obtain from MIT’s information technology (I/T) resources. To assist MIT in achieving its mission, the Office Computing Practice uses partnerships with administrative departments and collaborations with I/T teams to build constructive relationships with organizational units. The work of this Practice relies on a current understanding of office computing needs, business processes, opportunities, and priorities, as well as the accurate and efficient anticipation of its customers’ future needs.
In keeping with its core mission, the Office Computing Practice promotes standards for hardware and software platforms. These standards are predicated on the interoperability of applications with MIT’s I/T infrastructure. In today’s I/T marketplace, it is a formidable challenge to find the right balance between personal and institutional value while meeting the security and reliability requirements of a world-class university.
The Office Computing Practice actively assists departments as they evolve their use of I/T by replacing their hardware and software components. In fiscal year 2000, the Practice continued to sponsor MIT-wide efforts to identify needs, and to upgrade older desktop computing environments. As the year closed, a formal program to renew the administrative computing environment was instituted. The overall goal of this program is to ensure that administrative desktops always have current versions of software, and that one-third of all administrative desktops are renewed every year.
In response to expressed customer needs, the Office Computing Practice led efforts to charter a Software Release Team. This team focuses on recommending the desktop software that IS will support, as well as communicating information about the life cycle of supported products. With the IT-Partners Group’s endorsement, the Practice ceased supporting Windows 95 and Eudora v 2.2. This team will continue to focus on current software versions, improved reliability, compatibility, and support in the coming year.
The Office Computing Practice continued its work to shape the vision and direction of information technology at MIT by participating in the development of the Information Systems Strategic Plan. As result of this planning effort, the Practice continued strengthening its partnerships. During spring 2000, the Practice planned and coordinated a Microsoft Executive Visit, which included key I/T staff from across the Institute, as well as IS staff. The key goal of this visit was to learn about Microsoft’s current and future directions, while strengthening MIT’s relationship with them through education about the challenges facing a research university now and in the future.
The Office Computing Practice co-championed a "Year 2000" Delivery team to ensure an uneventful start to the millennium at MIT. To generate awareness and action, the team initially focused on explaining the Y2K problem and educating the MIT community via seminars, Web pages, and other written communications. During the last quarter of 1999, the team turned to risk assessment and contingency planning. The careful preparation by this team, Facilities, and other Institute organization, as well as external suppliers, ensured that the transition from 1999 to 2000 was, in the words of President Charles M. Vest, "a boring evening, just like we hoped."
The Office Computing Practice performs its work through active partnerships. Partnerships between customers and providers of I/T are essential in the rapidly changing world of information technology. Continued support of the IT Partners group, the Business Liaison Team, the MIT Professional Learning Center, and the myriad I/T teams and users throughout the Institute fosters a collaborative, productive environment.
Theresa M. Regan
The mission of the Voice, Data, and Image Networking Practice (VDIN) is to ensure that the necessary information technology (I/T) systems and services are available to support the communications needs of MIT’s academic, research, and administrative efforts. This includes working with IS Process owners and outside vendors to ensure that current systems are accessible and have adequate capacity. In addition, this Practice helps identify new communications technologies and facilitates their availability to meet future needs.
During 1999—2000, Information Systems (IS) accomplished the following:
Last year, the VDIN Practice chartered the VDIN Rate Review Project Team to recommend a new rate structure for IS’s voice, data, and network services. The team completed its work, and its recommendations and a set of proposed rates were presented to the Budget and Finance Steering Group (B&FSG), which approved a plan to phase in new rates by fiscal 2004. Initially, IS will be simplifying and lowering the rates charged for direct-dialed telephone calls from the campus. This change is expected to reduce the charges to Institute departments, laboratories, and centers by $500,000 per year and is the result of renegotiations of contracts and the transition to more competitive vendors. Other rate changes will occur in later years. In addition to revising rates, IS will also revamp its internal cost accounting structure to allow for more frequent and more accurate analysis of rate-based revenue and related expenses.
IS also presented a proposal to replace MIT’s Lucent 5ESS telephone system to the B&FSG; this proposal will go to the Institute’s Executive Committee this fall. This project is estimated to cost $9.1 million and is expected to be completed by December 2001.
IS continued to upgrade much of MITnet’s intrabuilding equipment this year, providing 100 mbps network service in buildings where adequate wiring exists. In addition, several projects to build new closets and upgrade wiring are underway. Over the coming years, IS will continue to renew its facilities so that 100 mbps desktop service becomes standard.
The VDIN Practice also sponsored several other projects looking into extending MITnet capabilities to support new academic initiatives. A team examined the possibility of providing higher speed connectivity to off-campus residences using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Cable Modem technology. Another group looked into adding Wireless LAN capability to MITnet. This latter group’s work resulted in a decision to provide wireless access in classroom, library, and other areas where students congregate, an effort which is estimated to cost $1.45M over four years.
MIT—IS continues to be an instrumental member of the Northern Crossroads (NoX) consortium. The NoX gigaPOP was opened this year in Boston. This facility will provide an interconnection point for Internet2 universities in the New England area with access to Abilene and other networks. Technical operations are being handled by Harvard University, and financial management being done at handled by MIT. MIT’s Internet2 connectivity is still being provided via the vBNS network until our connection to the NoX is completed next year.
Dennis Baron
The core mission of the I/T Discovery Process is to ensure that customers realize up-front value from information technology (I/T) through business analysis, best practice research, data model and conceptual design, and strong sponsorship supporting change. Discovery projects yield firmly sponsored commitments and an accelerated path for work through the subsequent I/T work processes: Delivery, Integration, Service, and Support. As an established method for linking I/T to business strategies and customer needs, Discovery teams seek to reinforce the shared nature of I/T work across the Institute. A highlight of Discovery work this year was to integrate change and policy issues into enterprise-wide projects.
Key projects in fiscal year 2000 supported the goals of the Themes 1 and 2 of IS’s Strategic Plan:
In keeping with its strategic goal to maximize value through enterprise-wide initiatives, Discovery led the effort to implement the SAP HR-Payroll module at MIT. A highlight of this project was the Discovery team’s working closely with Administrative Systems and Policies Coordinating Committee (ASPCC) on business change and policy issues.
In support of MIT’s academic mission, Discovery teams worked on issues related to Student-Owned Computing and Lifelong Learning, two key initiatives sponsored by the MIT Council on Educational Technology (MITCET). In addition, Discovery worked as a resource for Alumni Engagement, another MITCET initiative.
Working with the Academic Computing Practice, Discovery completed work resulting in creation of the Linux-based Athena environment for MIT, investigation of a centrally supported Spatial Data service, investigation into provision of a service to provide extended computing job services via Athena, initiated work to redesign the Athena interface, and reached a decision to diminish our use of the Silicon Graphics workstation in the Athena environment. In support of MIT web initiatives, Discovery teams worked with students to determine Web portal services. Discovery teams also worked closely with the MIT Libraries on electronic reserves, electronic theses, and the initial stages of a project for a new integrated library system.
Working with the Office Computing Practice, Discovery projects recommended that IS support the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to improve email services at MIT. In addition, Discovery teams made recommendations for on-line credit card processing, implemented a new system for MIT Parking, and began work on an MIT Access Card project. The Discovery effort to improve our ability to broadcast information widely to the Institute community resulted in improved, web-based access to mailing list management services.
In the Voice, Data, and Image Networking Practice area, Discovery teams recommended an Enhanced Voice Directory Service to MIT to improve and extend telephone directory services. At the end of the year, a Discovery team was formed to explore options to provide high-speed residential networking services to the MIT community.
Discovery assisted the IS strategic planning effort by recommending a new service–"Plan Alive," a tool which is currently being developed by a Delivery team–to keep the strategic plan vibrant and current.
In July, Discovery recognized its fifth anniversary with a celebration of accomplishments, growth, and Institute-wide involvement.
Greg Anderson
As the second of the five work processes, the I/T Delivery Process exists so that MIT and its schools, departments, laboratories, and centers can realize business value as rapidly as possible from the implementation of new information technology products and services. Delivery work is organized exclusively into projects. Each Delivery project typically is launched after a Discovery project has qualified the business case and determined a technical approach. Currently there are fifteen active Delivery projects (all supporting Theme 2 initiatives); fourteen others were successfully completed in all of fiscal 2000. Both figures represent slight improvements over fiscal 1999.
In the past few years, MIT has put in place the major structures of an enterprise application architecture that will last many years. Several new client-server transactional systems (SAP, COEUS, NIMBUS, Adonis, etc) are now in place. All draw "master data" reference files from the MIT Data Warehouse, where they in turn send their transactions nightly. The Warehouse also reduces reporting demands within each of the feeder transactional systems, since its data structures are optimized for reporting and it has excellent end user tools. Use of the MIT-developed "Roles" database as the main source of user authorization information has continued to expand. Recommendations have been implemented to take the next steps in this "Roles" evolution, further simplifying and standardizing the authorization process.
Significant Delivery effort continued to be expended in enhancing SAP, including the upgrade to version 4.5. Following the successful rollout of ECAT2, a second generation, web-based electronic catalog system fully integrated with SAP, the older ECAT1 system was retired. Thanks to ECAT2 and other e-commerce initiatives, the use of paper requisitions now accounts for less than 30 per cent of purchasing activity at MIT. The MIT-developed COEUS proposal management system was upgraded with two releases, 3.1 and 3.5, during the past year. Also, the Budget Office completed deployment of the new NIMBUS budget submission system. Finally, the MIT Events Calendar system, an extension of a service previously run by The Tech, was made available to the entire MIT community in May, when it was featured on the MIT home page.
This past year saw greater investment and activity in academic work. The Athena environment was extended to new, inexpensive PC platforms with the success of the Linux Athena pilot. Further extensions to Athena were demonstrated by the development of "Layered Athena" software for selected customers of private Athena workstations. Further efforts are underway to make standard Athena simpler to install and maintain for administered systems in Departments, Laboratories, and Centers. Most of the Delivery work in the Pismere project has been completed. Pismere’s purpose is to permit the porting of almost all Athena functionality to Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system. As part of a larger collaboration effort with the MIT Libraries, projects in Electronic Reserves, Desktop Delivery of Thesis reprints, and Electronic Thesis Submission all reached important milestones. In the coming year, we also anticipate involvement with the Libraries in their collaborative project with Hewlett Packard called DSPACE (http://web.mit.edu/dspace), and in the installation of a new business system to replace the older GEAC Advance system.
There are a number of efforts initiated this year in the Delivery area that will not result in obvious changes for the vast majority of end users, but instead are aimed at strengthening the support infrastructure. These include the Enterprise Printing Project, the Enterprise Backup Project, and the Casetracker Project. More information can be found at http://web.mit.edu/is/delivery/.
Overall, this coming year should see maintenance of the recent gains on the administrative areas, with major new collaborative and development activity occurring with the Libraries, with the Alumni Association, and around the MIT Council on Educational Technology initiatives.
Robert V. Ferrara
The core mission of the I/T Service Process is to manage MIT’s information technology infrastructure reliably and efficiently. During the past year, I/T Service teams from areas including the Data Center in W91, MITnet, telephone and related services, the Athena Computing Environment, database services, and desktop maintenance (PC repair) reached significant milestones in support of Theme 3 initiatives.
A major effort for all groups within Service was to prepare for the Year 2000 (Y2K). All systems were checked, upgraded if necessary, and then tested. IS’s major accomplishment was that Y2K was a non-event thanks to a lot of hard work by teams in I/T Service, such as the Business Continuity Management Team’s Y2K Transition Team, the Network Security Team, teams in the ODSUE and Residential Life, SIPB, and Facilities, as well as the continued strong support of Academic Council and MIT senior management.
The past year has been both challenging and exciting in the Data Center. Data storage tripled this year to a total of approximately seven terabytes, the largest storage growth associated with SAP. The number of administrative servers doubled again in fiscal 2000 to 200, including a complete renewal for the SAP environments. Many business units added front-end Web servers to their existing application servers. The average availability per system reached an all-time high of 99.97%. To address the significant growth in storage and servers, Storage Area Networks (SAN) and Enterprise Storage were implemented. Additionally, a new automated backup solution was purchased and will be implemented in fiscal 2001. These major changes in the computing architecture will help address the business needs for greater system availability, performance, and reliability.
A major initiative in the Telecommunications area was a renewal process for the 5ESS telephone switch as it has reached the end of its 10-year life expectancy. We expect approval of this purchase in September and installation by the end of 2001.
The MIT Security Team is a combination of IS staff, student employees, and volunteers from the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), the AI Lab, the Media Lab, LIDS, and the Whitehead Institute. During the last quarter of fiscal 2000, the team handled an average of 37 new cases a week, the majority of which were problems discovered during routine vulnerability scans. For its second year, the team is hosting a daylong meeting focused on sharing information, techniques, and ideas among security teams at area colleges and universities. Web pages related to last year’s event are at http://mit.edu/net-security/Camp/.
Over the past year Athena Cluster Services and PC Service were effectively merged into a single team and have adopted the team name of Hardware Services. A new service that has been successful is the Disaster Recovery and Assessment Service. Here, Hardware Services assists departments in assessing damage to computer systems caused by floods, power surges, etc. We have been able to quickly assess computer systems and peripherals, get many systems back into service and expedite replacement, working with the Office of Insurance and Legal Affairs. As in previous years the team continues to provide system deployment services and Repair and Maintenance for both Academic and Office Computing Practices, along with other department owned systems and printers.
The Database Services Team worked with the Institute’s major administrative departments to maintain 90 databases supporting SAP, Admissions, Alumni, Payroll, Pension, Personnel, and IS-Telecommunications, among others.
Roger A. Roach
The core mission of the I/T Support Process is the effective and efficient delivery of high-quality support services to the Institute’s information technology users. Support is provided by a variety of standing teams: I/T Help Desk; Business Liaison Team (BLT); the MIT Computer Connection (MCC); Training and Publications; Software Release Team; Adaptive Technology Support (ATIC Lab); Departmental Computing Support (DCS); Web Communications Services (WCS, formerly CWIS); Athena Help/Residential Computing Consulting; Academic Computing Support; 5ESS Support; Stopit; and Support Team Headquarters. Non-standing teams, such as the Usability Group, also provide key elements of support. Customer support is provided via e-mail and the Web, by telephone, at the customer site (including dormitories and FSILGs), or through walk-in service in several locations.
To better identify and refine support services, Support team members work to improve the help process by listening carefully to customers and balancing customer feedback with Institute goals and resource availability. While focused on different aspects of users’ needs, the highly qualified staff on these teams share a common commitment to the I/T Support mission. During 1999—2000, the Support Process focused on Theme 1 of the IS Strategic Plan: engage customers to realize value from I/T through ongoing dialogue about their academic, research, and business computing needs and improve responsiveness, availability, and expertise of I/T staff while controlling costs.
In response to customer feedback, four key initiatives were identified as part of Theme 1 of the IS Strategic Plan. Work related to these initiatives commenced in the current year and will continue during 2000—2001. The initiatives are:
Some specific activities during 1999—2000 that contributed to the goals of these initiatives include:
William F. Hogue
The mission of I/T Integration is to implement an information technology infrastructure that has high levels of reliability, availability, and serviceability; provides excellent price/performance; meets current MIT needs and can quickly adapt to meet future needs; and enables the effective performance of the other I/T processes. This year, as in previous years, Integration teams concentrated on helping development teams use MIT’s current I/T infrastructure. Educational and consulting efforts continue to be the most important work of Integration. During the past year, teams working in the Integration Process made progress on several fronts, usually in support of Theme 3 strategic goals.
The I/T architecture tasks of the Integration Process moved to a new MIT-wide group chartered by the Provost and the Executive Vice-President, including representatives from MIT Libraries, Sloan School of Management, Lab for Nuclear Science, Financial System Services, Student Services I/T, the Provost’s Office, and Office of Sponsored Programs, as well as Information Systems Integration staff. This group determines the I/T architecture, standards, and guidelines; reviews I/T projects for fit within the current standards and guidelines; and communicates their directions while gathering feedback from the community.
Educational efforts continued for software designers, developers, and integrators about MIT’s current I/T infrastructure and new directions. The monthly seminar series drew 50—80 MIT developers per session continued, covering such topics as: Kerberos for Macintosh; The Network Security Team; Wireless Networking; Oracle Web Development; Web Server Programming Using Java Servelets; Controlling Read and Write Access to Oracle Database Tables, Columns, and Rows; Formula One for Java, an Enterprise Java Bean; Web Database Design for Dummies, and The Data Administration Function at MIT. This year, the Integration process extended the exchange of information to a new forum including the Institute’s business leaders.
Integration staff also acted as consultants for MIT designers and developers, as well as outside vendors selling systems to MIT. Discussions with vendors to explain technology paid off with the addition of certificate technology in a SAP web product and in positive responses from Library management vendors. The Integration Team also worked with commercial vendors to ensure that products incorporating Kerberos would interoperate, and they helped organizations outside MIT learn about and use Kerberos. With IS’s help, Microsoft added Kerberos to Windows 2000. Apple also agreed to ship Kerberos with Max OS X. These two vendors join SAP and Oracle as major vendors supporting Kerberos.
Integration project teams worked both to update current I/T infrastructure and to add appropriate new infrastructure. Key among these were efforts are new desktop versions of Kerberos for the Macintosh and PC with better user interfaces, the addition of triple DES to Kerberos to increase security, the extension of Athena authorizations for class lists, the addition of a new interface to our mail servers to better handle stored e-mail and newer e-mail clients, helping with the design and implementation of an e-mail notification system for SAP events such as requisition approval, building a component used first by Personnel to facilitate secure database connections from a Java applet, and purchase of a Java component for spread sheets.
The "I/T watch" subprocess is designed to track technology directions. During fiscal 2000, Information Systems staff tracked changes in such technologies as Java, web development tools, web servers, object-oriented technology, Corba developments, modeling tools, in addition to the vendor software products that we have already deployed at MIT.
Susan S. Minai-Azary
The I/T Competency Group (CG) is responsible for ensuring that IS has the right people in the right jobs, with the right technical and behavioral competencies, at the right time. This is the key work outlined in Theme 4 of the IS Strategic Plan. In order to achieve this mission, CG is involved in processes and programs focused on recruiting, retaining, retraining, and restructuring staff. In addition, CG continues to work closely with MIT’s Human Resources department, and acts as an internal focal point for IS employee relations.
After several years of work to address market pay parity issues–the most common reason cited for voluntary staff departures–IS’s attrition rate dropped to 8% in fiscal year 1999. Unfortunately, with the tight market for qualified I/T staff, attrition rose is fiscal year 2000 to 16%.
Since retention involves more than pay, CG also continued to conduct staff opinion surveys and exit interviews to understand why people stay in IS and why they leave. Based on these interviews, CG worked to address other areas, including quality of leadership, quality of worklife, and sense of organizational focus.
CG participated in the MIT Classification and Compensation Project’s Advisory Team and rolled out the new Administrative job classification to IS staff. The new classification was generally well received. CG is in the process of defining IS jobs using the new system. In addition, CG is providing input to other I/T job definition efforts to help ensure consistency across MIT.
CG continued to sponsor or participate in a number of activities designed to inform and/or develop competencies in IS. The CG web pages were enriched with a development resource guide and a recommended reading list, both linked to the list of IS competencies. In addition, CG worked with the Performance Consulting and Training Team (PC&T), to pilot a program on ‘Exercising Influence,’ which ties to the MIT Compensable Factor of ‘Influencing and Leading.’ The pilot program was considered very successful, and PC&T plans to offer it again.
CG continued to promote competency-based interviewing and to provide assistance to other MIT departments seeking assistance with recruiting, including the MIT Police Department, PC&T, and the central Human Resources (HR) organization. HR continued to use the web "wrap" program, which posts all MIT jobs on the boston.com web pages. (CG introduced this to HR last year; it is an increasingly robust source of candidates.) CG sponsored a new web recruiting service for I/T skills (techies.com) which was made available to MIT departments. To increase the effectiveness of the recruiting process, CG hired a part-time contract recruiter. This has helped significantly in reducing the cycle time to fill positions, as well as increasing the number of qualified candidates hiring managers can consider. CG is also a participant in the central HR ‘Recruiting and Diversity’ Initiative.
Working with an external consultant, CG continued to work on team development and team leader development. This included several interventions with teams: coaching team leaders and facilitating team meetings. Attention was also focused on performance management. The new classification model, including the eValuation tool, has been used to set and clarify expectations of staff. Through coaching and working with employees one-on-one, changes were made in several situations, including some employees’ decisions to leave MIT.
In addition, the CG Director continued to have responsibility for Administrative and Business Support Services, including the IS finance team, and the various site teams. As a result of attrition, the finance team has been almost completely restaffed since January 1999, and is now well positioned to provide high quality financial analysis services, including financial modeling. The site teams continue to provide administrative support to over 200 IS staff in some six locations across the MIT campus.
Allison F. Dolan
MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000