I/T Policy Coordination

Overview

This page presents definitions of terms, such as policy, rules, standards, guidelines, interpretations, and checklists. It also describes the role of a Policy Coordinator.

If you have questions or comments, please contact:

I/T Policy Coordinator: Tim McGovern
Email: tjm@mit.edu
Phone: 617.253.0505
Location: N42-040k

This page was created on June 12, 2003; last updated May 22, 2007

Making Effective Policy

Below is an excerpt from an article that describes what an effective policy is. The title of the article is "Security vs. Anonymity: The Debate over User Authentication and Information Access" by Virginia E. Rezmierski & Aline Soules, in EDUCAUSE Review (March/April 2000). It is also available for download at: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0022.pdf . [Adobe Reader required]

"For a policy to be effective in guiding community behaviors, it must reflect the full range of the community's values, must be understood and embraced by community members, and must reinforce the most important values and the mission of the institution as a whole. An effective policy requires campus-wide discussion and the involvement of each of the major constituencies of the community."

Introduction

Teams within Information Services and Technology develop guidelines for the use of Information Technology. These guidelines reside within a framework of rules (also generally made by IS&T), and policies (developed and approved by MIT Senior Management).

To support these teams in their development of policies, rules and guidelines, an as yet unstaffed function exists to evangelize for the collection and dissemination of this information to the MIT community, and beyond. This is done based on our working definitions of these terms, a set of key principles, and a policy process. The work is overseen by someone working in the role of I/T Policy Coordinator.

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Principles

On February 6, 2003, the Information Technology Leadership Team endorsed a small number of key principles to guide the effort to clarify, collect and communicate our rules to the community:

1. There is no central policy making function in IS&T today, nor should there be in the future. Teams make policies and rules. Teams interpret and enforce policies.
2. There should be a central policy home page of "Information Technology Policies" at MIT. This page will provide a gateway to all of the policies that teams currently have on record, and that might be developed from this point forward. This page will be consistent with the emerging IS&T web redesign and templates for policy, rule, guideline and advisory web pages will be created.

The I/T Policy Home page is currently being reviewed.
There is a a communication link to the project team and policy coordinator via itpolicy@mit.edu.

1. We should eliminate redundant policies and rules.
2. We should strive to provide some basic descriptive information for each policy so that readers would know, for example, when a policy or rule was enacted, when it was last modified, and what team (or organization) has the authority to make such a rule or guideline.
3. Teams will decide whether their policies and rules will be migrated to the newly emerging IS&T redesign, or remain consistent with their team pages.
4. Teams will decide whether their policies and rules will be physically stored in the itpolicy locker, or in the team locker.

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Terms and Definitions

What's a Policy, Standard, Rule, Guideline, Interpretation, or Checklist?

Policy
An official plan or course of action; institutional scope, highly visible, approved by senior levels of management, sanctions range from education to expulsion.

Standard
A statement dictating the state of affairs or action in a particular circumstance; also a rule from a recognized authority, with no deviation allowed.

Rule
A habit of conduct with regard to right and wrong, departmentally based, may impact entire institution, visible to those using the services of the rule making department, approved by departmental management, sanctions range from education to loss of services.

Guideline
Suggested way of doing something, a product or service scope, visible to those using or supporting the use of a particular product or service, no rigorous approval mechanism, no sanctions if not followed.

Interpretation
A specific explanation or clarification of a policy, rule or guideline in response to a particular situation (or set of circumstances) that's facing the MIT community (time-bounded).

Checklist
One or more statements dictating how to accomplish a task, that is, commands. Sequence is important. It is written in simple language with no amplifying text.

Information in this section is attributed to Rodney Peterson, University of Maryland, and Mark Bruhn, Indiana University.

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The Policy Process [ACUPA]

ACUPA is a professional organization of policy administrators from higher education. Over the last few years, they have developed a reference process for policy development and maintenance. On October 4, 2001, ITLT endorsed this process as the framework we would use for our work.

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The I/T Policy Coordinator Role/Job Description

The Policy Coordinator takes on an advisory role. This person helps, assists and coordinates the work of teams who are creating and writing their own policies, rules, guidelines, and advisories. The Policy Coordinator is not a policy maker and does not create or own any particular policy.

The Policy Coordinator helps teams and others in IS&T.

• Assists teams in taking ownership of the whole policy process for their business activities.
• Raises the consciousness of groups to help them decide when policies, rules, and guidelines are needed in general, and when they are needed for a specific business or service area.
• Frames the issues, identifies context, synthesizes the whole picture, exposes gaps, suggests escalation pathways, and identifies risks and constraints.
• Understands the variety of decision-making models that exist, and helps the team select the appropriate one for the area being considered.
• Works on a wide variety of IT policy issues with content experts at a team, departmental, interdepartmental, and/or institutional level.
• Identifies and researches policy development that involves any aspect of information technology at MIT.
• Coordinates the posting, publication, and community announcement of new or revised policy, rule, or guideline with IS&T Publications, News Office, and other campus publications.

The Policy Coordinator is not a:

• Content expert
• Arbitrator
• Policy maker
• Decision maker
• Owner of a given policy
• Team leader / authority for the business

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