Greg Anderson, Director, I/T Discovery
Diane Devlin, Director, Office Computing
Greg Jackson, Director, Academic Computing
IT Planning for Customers: Practice and Discovery Start-up Team Practice and Discovery (PD) Startup Team, August 15 Introduction The IT framework mandates that the dimensions of processes, practices, and competencies work toward the goal of delivering customer-focused, high-quality, value-based systems quickly. Within this framework, however, the Academic and Office Computing Practices and the Discovery Process have focused responsibilities to customers for enabling IT to deliver quality information technology solutions in direct support of MIT's mission and business goals. In this business process focus, these three areas share affiliations and approaches. Current experience has also confirmed that collaborative efforts between customers and IT organizations are more effective for realizing opportunities and for creating and sustaining effective business relationships. In the long term, these relationships are more important than any one particular service or product. In the ITLT transition planning effort, a task was identified to explore synergies among the two Practices and the Discovery process, and to propose a plan that would leverage these common goals and needs most effectively. Peter Roden joined Greg Jackson, Diane Devlin, and Greg Anderson in this effort to identify shared principles to frame this proposal, to explore the common types of work accomplished in each area, and to describe shared work assignments to leverage IT resources and to provide increased productivity and integration of services to customers. Principles In order to create a common foundation for its proposal , the PD Startup Team articulated and affirmed a set of shared principles among Academic and Office Computing Practices and the Discovery Process. The underlying reality of these principles is that we have finite resources to accomplish our key IT business imperatives: We must form strategic partnerships with our customers in order to derive maximum value from IT. We must form strategic partnerships with our colleagues in order to deliver maximum value from IT. The processes underlying these partnerships form the foundation of Academic Practice, Office Practice, and Discovery. Academic Practice, Office Practice, and Discovery each need dedicated resources. Discovery and Office Practice must quickly become effective agents for IT change. Work within Academic Practice, Office Practice, and Discovery spans many common processes. Considerable synergy can be realized among Academic Practice, Office Practice, and Discovery. Synergy can best be attained through a consistent, collaborative approach. By leveraging common processes and shared resources, Academic Practice, Office Practice, and Discovery become proactive in improving MIT's use of IT. Practice and Discovery Work Following identification and agreement on these principles, the task group then identified common work processes that occur across the three areas. Again, the description of this work does not imply that it occurs only in the Practice Discovery space; the work described here is based upon synergies and efficiencies that enable these three business-focused areas to enhance IT impact for customers. The following work processes have been identified among Academic Practice, Office Practice, and Discovery: Engagement. This work includes Advocacy: for the customer to IT, and for IT to the customer; building and sustaining relationships, and market management. As a working name, we are calling this type of work "ambassador". Analysis. This work includes business, financial, and process analysis and measurement. The goal is to understand better the business processes, systems and the information content of the business. Our suggested names for this work are "analysts" and "surveyor/appraisers". Exploration. This work encompasses opportunities to challenge the existing rules and procedures and to explore the use of technology to dramatically improve the effectiveness of the Institute. Exploration includes research, prototyping, investigations of advanced technologies, and future thinking about technologies and customer needs. We are calling the work in this area "technology explorers" and "prototypers". Strategy. This area of work includes collaboration with customers to provide the IT perspective for business planning, and integration of Practice and Discovery perspectives in the IT decision-making efforts. The Practices are critically important to help identify the Institute's business imperatives that are the driving factors for priority setting. The results of strategic efforts are the combined products of everyone involved. Communication. All members of the IT environment are engaged in communications. Within the Practice and Discovery environment, however, communication refers particularly to exchanges and interactions among customers, from customers to IT organizations, from IT organizations to customers, and public relations; i.e. presenting IT to customers, potential customers, key partners, and all of our constituents in an effective, persuasive manner. Finance and Administration. In order to sustain the Practice and Discovery environment, our financial and administrative responsibilities must be fulfilled, and in that fulfillment process, information will become available to improve work and productivity and to provide information for future planning. Learnings As the task group worked on this synergistic proposal, we learned a few lessons that have been experienced by everyone involved in the IT transition. First, our discussions confirmed that the learning experience to understand and work within this new framework is continuous. As our learning increases our perspectives and views change accordingly, so that a strong position felt last week has shifted to another place this week. These experiences have been concrete realizations of the creative opportunities in a transition period, when radically different solutions and models can surface. PD Startup Team August 15 - December 15 Completing the PD Startup Team discussion and realizing this framework is a priority for the ITLT. It is important to establish the Office Computing Practice and the Discovery Process to become operational efforts in concert with and building upon the success of Academic Computing. Within the larger context of and deliberations about IT resource and staff allocations, the PD team will begin its work early in this August 15 - December 15 timeframe. A goal is to have resources allocated by the end of September.