Diane Devlin, Director, Office Computing
Creation of Office Practice
The Office Computing Practice Leader has the responsibility to plan,
direct, and manage the development of strong collaborative relationships
between office computing customers and I/T. Additional goals are to
promote mutual customer and I/T understanding of office computing needs
in order to ensure realistic expectation and effective release
strategies. The primary goal will be to advocate on behalf of
constituents with I/T, and on behalf of I/T with constituents,
encouraging alignment on shared Institute goals.
This work will be in concert with Process Leaders, Competency Group Leaders, Team Leaders, and I/T staff. Identifying customers' I/T needs, launching projects, adhering to standard, supportable approaches to I/T, and providing a continuing communication link and I/T relationship in order to meet the many needs of the office computing customer will be the on-going goal and focus of this practice.
Presently, there is a strong and successful advocacy and relationship
model in place between the academic computing area and I/T. Although
I/T has been serving the needs of the office computing customer, there
has not been an advocate to encourage the alignment of shared Institute
goals between the constituents and I/T. Likewise, there has not been a
dedicated resource to establish the discovery process. Collaborative
relationships between the office customer and the I/T organization,
which begin to emulate what is happening in the academic area and
working collaboratively with the discovery process should help to assure
the opportunity to create and continue improved business relationships
and encourage alignment of MIT's I/T and computing goals.
To that end, planning efforts to explore the synergies which exist
between the Academic and Office Computing Practices and Discovery
Process have been underway. A proposal was presented to the ITLT
for a Practice and Discovery Start-up Team which would work together focusing on customer needs. This approach would help to assure
a quick and successful start-up for the discovery process and the office
practice area. (see Greg or link)
Planning has also begun in these four major areas:
This work will involve the resources of people throughout the Institute
within and outside of I/T as well as outside MIT partnership. It will
require the efforts of cross-functional, interdisciplinary teams
working together toward our common goals.
Planning work has begun and initial meetings have taken place with the
people involved with the SAP, TAP/TQF, and ARTS projects as well as the
R-IT teamwork. These affiliations will continue and the relationships
will be on-going throughout the work on these projects.
In order to begin to form the important relationships needed to develop
the office practice, a map of key players and projects will be built and
a strategy for the future of office computing will be defined and
articulated. Defining the critical success factors and building toward
success will need the collaboration of the customer. To this end,
"Rounds" as established in the academic practice area will be duplicated
in the office practice area. Outreach meetings will be scheduled in
conjunction with the discovery process leader and will be interactive
communications with the office customers.
During the phase two time frame, work will be on-going to continue to define IT at the Institute. This work will continue with the assistance of all of the resources available to leadership team.