MIT Reports to the President 1997-98

• VICE PRESIDENT FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS
  • ACADEMIC COMPUTING PRACTICE
  • OFFICE COMPUTING PRACTICE
  • VOICE, DATA, AND IMAGE NETWORKING PRACTICE
  • I/T DISCOVERY PROCESS
  • I/T DELIVERY PROCESS
  • I/T SERVICE PROCESS
  • I/T SUPPORT PROCESS
  • I/T INTEGRATION PROCESS
  • I/T COMPETENCY GROUPS

VICE PRESIDENT FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information Systems (IS) supports MIT's core missions of education, research, and service by ensuring that the Institute's information technology (I/T) resources are effectively, efficiently, and equitably maintained and applied. By partnering with customers to develop and deliver timely business solutions, and by partnering with vendors to influence and adapt their products and services, IS delivers consistent and reliable I/T products and services to the MIT community. IS engages its customers in a dialogue about the substance and rationale of I/T policy, procedures, and standards, and recognizes that IS staff are key resources enabling the delivery of I/T products and services.

Three years after the launch of I/T Transformation (Trans-I/T), it is clear that IS's evolution from a traditional functional organization to a process-centered, team-based one has taken longer than anticipated. However, recent experience has begun to show the benefits of the Trans-I/T design. IS is now seeing more effective application of MIT's I/T resources through increased staff mobility and concentrated team focus on I/T activities and initiatives throughout the Institute. IS is committed to continuing to learn its way into working in the new framework and to ensuring that the new framework works for us, for our customers, and for the Institute.

By the end of fiscal year 1998, IS staff had achieved an impressive range of accomplishments, some of which are highlighted in the reports which follow. This section presents an IS overview.

Work in IS is organized around three explicit elements: IS's customers, its work, and the skills of its staff.

• 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 and opportunities to use technology in education, research, and administration. The Practices also assist in planning for the effective use of I/T resources. Of particular note during the year is Academic Computing's support for the educational computing initiatives outlined in the MIT Educational Technology Council's Report and its work to understand student computer ownership patterns; Office Computing's work to promote a standard cross-platform administrative computing environment; and the Voice, Data, and Image Networking Practice's work to develop improved physical facilities from telephone closets to building cabling.
• 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 here include Institute-wide acceptance of "discovery" as the first step in developing new I/T applications, the delivery of an important set of web-based enterprise 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. Annually, the MIT community comes 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.
• 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 work to identify key employee satisfiers and dissatisfiers, to develop a common team staffing process, and to offer a growing selection of workshops that inform and develop staff.

Late in the year, IS was fortunate to add Allison F. Dolan to the I/T Leadership Team. Ms Dolan joined the Institute as Director, I/T Staff Development and Resource Management; in this capacity, she will lead the IS Competency Group.

More information about Information Systems and its work may be found on the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://web.mit.edu/is/

James D. Bruce

ACADEMIC COMPUTING PRACTICE

The Academic Computing Practice seeks to promote and enable MIT education through the effective use of information technology (I/T). Collaborating with I/T Process teams and in partnership with academic departments, the Academic Computing Practice provides widely distributed client-server computing designed to facilitate undergraduate education. This occurs primarily through the Athena Computing Environment, which is used by thousands of faculty, students, and staff each day, with over 10,000 different "logins" on peak days. Academic Computing also provides advocacy, training, documentation, and consulting services to support academic work. During FY 1998:

• The Academic Computing Practice continued its annual renewal of Athena equipment, purchasing workstations and peripherals to replace older equipment. This past year, 132 Sun SPARC5 workstations and seven new Quickstations were deployed to public Athena clusters. Academic Computing also participated in the commissioning of two New Media Center facilities: the Faculty Project Laboratory in Building N42, and the Foreign Language and Literature Satellite Center in Building 16.
• To support educational computing initiatives, the Academic Computing Practice deployed computers to academic department clusters, laboratories, and libraries, including the Hypermedia Teaching Facility. These deployments supported diverse projects: the integration of visualization segments in Chemistry subjects (Professors Christopher Cummins and Larry Stern) for lecture, demonstration, and interaction; work in Optical Astronomy subjects (Professor Stephen Slivan); courses in Civil and Environmental Engineering; advanced instruction in Electromagnetism (Professor Markus Zahn); and courses in Japanese language and Economics.
• As part of an effort by the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education (ODSUE) to make instructional support resources visible and readily accessible to faculty, Academic Computing, in conjunction with other departments and offices, set up the Electronic Teaching Toolkit (http://web.mit.edu/faculty/ett), a "one-stop" information point for instructional resources.
• Academic Computing also facilitated several important initiatives. In collaboration with the Dean of Engineering's office, it coordinated the deployment of Intel-granted hardware and organized training for faculty and departments. Academic Computing also facilitated two new initiatives central to the development of a robust educational technology infrastructure, consistent with the recommendations of the MIT Educational Technology Council. The first project focuses on developing and supporting web-based environments for teaching and learning; the second focuses on exploring new networking technology and infrastructure services to facilitate the design and development of next-generation educational computing applications. Within IS, Academic Computing sponsored "Project Pismere" to develop a remotely-manageable, serially-reusable Windows NT environment. To understand the evolving student computing environment, Academic Computing researched peer institutions and surveyed students. This data led to the implementation of an experimental dormitory computing cluster in the McCormick and Burton-Conner houses in the summer 1998.
• During FY 1998, the Academic Computing Practice continued Crosstalk Forums to engage the academic community in issues related to technology and pedagogy. During the past year, Crosstalk topics included: Web-based environments for teaching and learning; the Next Generation Internet; integration of cross-platform technology in curricula; technology/teaching methods; an Instructional Management System (IMS); new models of student computing; and uses of technology in teaching foreign languages.
• Academic Computing hosted visitors from institutions in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, England, Sweden, Germany, and Japan, as well as the United States. The Practice maintained relationships with external groups such as CAUSE, EDUCOM, the American Association for Higher Education, and IVY+, and with vendor partners such as Microsoft, IBM, SGI, Sun, Intel, and Steelcase. Under the auspices of this Practice, IS collaborated with various MIT agencies involved in delivering and supporting I/T applications for instruction, such as CAES, Media Services, and the MIT Libraries.

M. S. Vijay Kumar

OFFICE COMPUTING PRACTICE

During FY 1998, the Office Computing Practice continued its efforts to ensure that administrative computing customers and providers derive maximum value from MIT's information technology (I/T) resources. Collaborating with I/T Process teams and in partnership with administrative offices and departments, the Office Computing Practice worked to build constructive relationships with individuals and organizational units that share the Institute's administrative responsibilities towards its primary mission of research and education. The work of this Practice relies on a solid and current understanding of office computing needs, opportunities, and priorities. These are essential to discovering, implementing, and supporting the best applications of information technology for the administrative computing environment.

• In keeping with its primary purpose of advocating on behalf of customers to IS and on behalf of IS to customers, the Office Computing Practice devoted a substantial amount of time in FY 1998 to meeting with administrative customers to assess their I/T needs. Throughout the year, Office Computing met with most of the Administrative Officers from each of the Schools. These meetings were opportunities to exchange ideas, to address issues, and to promote a standard, cross-platform administrative computing environment. Discussions spanned work on-campus, off-campus, and between campus and colleagues on other campuses.
• Under the auspices of this Practice, IS collaborated with the MIT Audit Division, Libraries, Sloan School, and Student Services on I/T evaluations, recommendations, and decisions. IS provided knowledgeable resources to support I/T efforts within these offices, and encouraged various training initiatives to meet immediate and ongoing needs.
• Throughout the year, the Office Computing Practice continued to promote the I/T Partners program as a unique opportunity for IS's customers to reach IS and for IS to reach its customers. Participation in this group remained strong throughout the year, and biannual conferences were well attended. Recently, smaller informal luncheons were sponsored to bolster continuity and momentum between I/T Partners meetings, and to provide opportunity for critical announcements. In the future, timely announcements - particularly with regard to software acquisition, evaluation, recommendation, and deployment - will be a focus of this program.
• During FY 1998, the Office Computing Management Group (OCMG) grew as a forum for IS and other administrative I/T staff to meet, share ideas and information, discuss mutual concerns, and plan together for the future. In the coming year, the Office Computing Practice plans to generate greater interest in OCMG across MIT by inviting guests from within the Institute to quarterly meetings.
• To a large extent, MIT's reengineering initiative has meant a reexamination of MIT's business practices. Combined with shifting work demands, this has created a rapidly changing environment for the Institute's administrative processes. In response to the phased implementation of SAP, the Office Computing Practice continued in FY 1998 to emphasize readiness for SAP and other "mission critical" applications. Collaborating with administrative customers and IS teams in Service and Support, the Office Computing Practice participated in readiness-planning for MIT's departments, laboratories, and centers (DLCs), as well as the MIT Professional Learning Center. This effort included the deployment of over 500 new desktop computers, which were delivered by Service teams to DLCs with administrative software and networking installations as needed.
• In close collaboration with Service and Support teams, the Office Computing Practice sustained momentum for full support of the Windows NT operating system. This involved 2,500 negotiated NT License upgrades, as well as NT technical and end-user training.
• With collaboration throughout IS, the Office Computing Practice highlighted Year 2000 issues by raising awareness about hardware retention cycles and advocating software upgrades.

Theresa M. Regan

VOICE, DATA, AND IMAGE NETWORKING PRACTICE

The mission of the Voice, Data, and Image Networking Practice (VDI) is to ensure that the necessary information technology (I/T) systems and services are available to support academic, research, and administrative efforts at MIT. This includes working with IS Process owners and outside vendors to make sure 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 1997-98, the Voice, Data, and Image Networking Practice focused on four areas:

• During the year, the VDI Practice participated in strategic meetings with both academic and administrative departments to exchange ideas, to address issues, and to assess their I/T needs. Based on meetings with student groups representing the Independent Living Groups (FSILGs) and on-campus residents, the VDI Practice sponsored IS initiatives to improve student services. Specifically, based on student feedback, Service teams upgraded MITnet bandwidth to most FSILGs to support new applications and increased demand. Student long-distance rates were restructured to offer a nine-cent per minute domestic rate during peak calling periods, as well as reduced international rates.
• Discussions continued with other administrative departments such as Physical Plant on how to improve planning and coordination of projects. During the year, IS worked with the Planning Office on a master plan for underground utilities on campus. In the coming year, VDI will also begin addressing the improvements needed in intrabuilding facilities, including wiring closets and cabling distribution systems. Under the auspices of this Practice, efforts continued to evaluate IS's cost recovery models, including the rates charged to individuals, departments, laboratories, and centers.
• During the year, the VDI Practice maintained relationships with external groups such as the Boston Consortium and IVY+, and with vendor partners such as AT&T. Under the auspices of VDI, MIT's AT&T contract was renewed, substantially reducing the Institute's costs for long-distance telephone service. Future contract negotiations will focus on reducing local telephone costs and containing the rising costs of Internet service.
• The VDI Practice continued to focus inward throughout the year to evaluate IS products and services, such as IS's Tether service and "Stopit" program. The VDI Practice also initiated regular staff meetings to parallel those of the Academic and Office Computing Practices, which focus on I/T issues that affect IS's customers.

Dennis Baron

I/T DISCOVERY PROCESS

The I/T Discovery Process promotes a shared vision of information technology (I/T) across the Institute. Discovery focuses on business analysis, best practices, data model and conceptual design, and resource commitments to ensure that projects are properly aligned at their outset. Discovery sets the stage for firmly sponsored commitments and an accelerated path for work in the Delivery, Integration, Service, and Support processes. As an established method for linking I/T to business strategies and customer needs, Discovery seeks to reinforce the shared nature of I/T work across the Institute.

In its third year of work, Discovery has become more visible and familiar to the MIT community. Discovery services have been actively sought by academic, office, and research business units, and the concept and terminology of "discovery" has become understood across campus. During FY 1998, there were over twenty-five projects with a Discovery component:

• As an I/T service provided by IS, Discovery was used by a number of departments across campus, even when the Delivery work was accomplished through local I/T units. Discovery projects, such as the new Web search engine for MIT and a web-based conferencing system for Academic Computing and for Alumni, provided consistent, reliable I/T products and services to the MIT community.
• The essence of Discovery is collaborative partnerships with customers for solutions. During FY 1998, Discovery worked with the Technology Licensing Office to identify approaches for efficient document handling; the Libraries to design an electronic reserves system; the Hypermedia Teaching Facility to define sustainable, supportable web environments; Alumni Networked Services to design and implement an alumni on-line directory; Mail Services to design a publication and mail-list maintenance facility for end-user self-service; MIT Parking to select and implement a new parking application; the MIT Office of Corporate Relations to redesign their knowledge base; and the Communications Office to design an MIT on-line organizational ("Blue Pages") directory and to help envision the MIT Course Catalog of the future.
• To ensure that recommendations result in the effective use of I/T resources, Discovery projects helped improve work processes and align IS efforts with Institute priorities. Some of these projects included: the redesign of the IS software licensing process; planning and assessment for the Year 2000 at MIT; Project Pismere (which is an outgrowth of the Council on Educational Technology Report, in response to growing academic computing requirements to provide Athena services on Windows NT machines); and facilitation of a strategic planning initiative for MIT Physical Plant.
• Discovery work often means working in partnership with vendors for products and services. To complete the Discovery portion of the NECX/ECAT2 project, Discovery worked closely with MIT's preferred desktop-platform provider, NECX, and with MIT's technology partners, Dell, Apple, Sun, and SGI. Throughout the Calendaring/Scheduling project (which is viewed as a key initiative by external I/T organizations, and is an important part of MIT's I/T infrastructure), Discovery worked productively with On Technologies and with Crosswinds Technology. To scope "Project Pismere," Discovery teams partnered with Microsoft to provide secure, scaleable academic computing services in the Windows NT environment.

In FY 1998, Discovery efforts continued to normalize and follow a consistent flow through the IS work processes, ensuring that quality I/T products and services were delivered to MIT.

Greg Anderson

I/T DELIVERY PROCESS

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 (I/T) 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 sixteen active Delivery projects; eleven others were successfully completed in FY 1998, and one more was terminated due to a reorganization. Highlights of the past year include:

• This past year saw a continuation of the trend toward Web-based applications. The SAPweb effort, which allows web access to SAP purchasing data, was enhanced by the inclusion of accounting data for purchasing transactions. Its use grew past 1,000 accesses per week, while the Purchasing Office saw time-consuming telephone inquiries almost disappear. By fiscal year-end, the secure web-conferencing package "Web Crossing," was being tested for use by the Alumni Office and selected academic departments. A third Electronic Catalog (ECAT) vendor, BOC Gases, was added to MIT's initial web-based electronic commerce system, and Delivery work began on ECAT2, a more sophisticated, standards-based successor to the original ECAT. Working with NECX, the third largest computer retailer in the country, the ECAT2 Delivery team employed industry-standard X.509 Digital Certificates for user identification, the new OBI (Open Buying Interface) specification for "shopping basket" information, and industry-standard EDI transactions for exchange of ordering and invoice data with vendors.
• Much Delivery effort was devoted in FY 1998 to support the rollout of SAP and related activities. IS is deeply involved in sixteen of the "Rollout98" initiatives. Besides the web projects mentioned above, IS contributed to the successful pilot of the MIT credit card and to the initial implementation of the iXOS imaging system, both of which are important to SAP purchasing and processing. The Physical Plant conversion to SAP is now fully underway, with separate conversions planned for each major business area. IS's largest single Rollout98 project involves expanding the MIT Data Warehouse, which currently stores data from SAP, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), Personnel, and several other MIT areas.
• Delivery teams were involved in several other system deployments during FY 1998. Delivery completed almost all development work on OSP's COEUS system, which will be deployed later in calendar 1998 to research desktops throughout MIT and kindred institutions. IS was also involved in the deployment of the new Adonis system for Alumni, Resource Development, and the Treasurer's Offices.
• Based on a Discovery team's recent assessment of MIT's Year 2000 exposure, a Delivery Team was formed to inform and work with the community to solve the "millennium bug." A significant subset of 143 recently-surveyed legacy computer applications, plus many other MIT forms and procedures, will require modification.
• The Athena infrastructure was significantly improved during FY 1998. Besides the new 8.1 Athena release for all users, the Athena-wide file system was also upgraded, allowing the deployment of a new backup system. Athena code maintenance was standardized and simplified, which will facilitate upcoming Delivery work on Project Pismere. Delivery teams began an on-line pilot thesis submission and access project, drawing on the experience of the almost-concluded Computer Science Technical Report project, which is a collaboration of the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), IS, and the MIT Libraries.
• Several new tools and training opportunities were offered to MIT's Delivery developers during FY 1998. Training courses for SAP and Windows NT developers were held on campus. The IS-developed Project Database was introduced to record most I/T project work. Also, MIT is now enrolled as a Corporate Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), which provides a variety of project resources for interested MIT employees. Despite a very competitive employment market, staffing in Delivery has increased to almost full strength, ensuring that Delivery is certainly "open for business."

Robert V. Ferrara

I/T SERVICE PROCESS

The core mission of the I/T Service Process is to manage MIT's information technology infrastructure reliably and efficiently. This infrastructure includes the data center in W91, MITnet, telephone and related services, the Athena Computing Environment, database services, and desktop maintenance (PC repair) services. During the past year, I/T Service teams in each of these areas reached significant milestones.

• In FY 1998, the number of administrative servers grew by approximately 25% to a total of 60 servers in the data center. The average availability of these servers for the year was 99.76%. Substantial efforts were made to integrate SAP production processing with the legacy production environment, and to provide enhancements to the SAP environment in areas such as web access and electronic data interchange. MIT's data center infrastructure was significantly enhanced this year with the installation of an emergency backup power system.
• This past year saw the rollout of higher-speed access to MITnet from individual buildings and desktops. New building construction facilitated the installation of Fast Ethernet (100Mb/sec) connections to desktops. IS significantly improved Internet access for off-campus living groups. As part of the Internet2 project, Service teams worked with other New England academic institutions to plan a regional high-speed Internet "gigaPoP," and Service teams participated in the "Abilene" high-speed network project. It is expected that MIT will be connected to NSF's "vBNS" high-speed national backbone network early in FY 1999 and to the Abilene network early in calendar 1999.
• The 5ESS Service Team continued to improve the reliability and efficiency of the 5ESS, voice mail, and automatic call distribution (ACD) switches by performing major software upgrades. Resources on the 5ESS were expanded by adding 2,560 ISDN and 384 analog lines. The trunks carrying MIT's local traffic were replaced with a more robust digital service, which also provides Caller ID to the campus. During the past year, Service teams provided MITnet and 5ESS telephone service to newly-constructed or renovated buildings around MIT, including Buildings E60 and N42, 351-355 Massachusetts Avenue, and 864 Main Street.
• The Athena Software Service team continued to transition the Athena software suite and approach to new operating systems and hardware. Supporting new Athena systems has become increasingly difficult as the market has changed so that new hardware may arrive with incompatible operating systems.
• Athena Server Operations (ASO) continued to upgrade older servers and significantly increase AFS disk space to support a growing number of user files, in addition to the space required for MIT's World Wide Web presence. ASO also continues to support SAP by providing the infrastructure for over 450 SAP printers.
• Athena Cluster and PC Services deployed over 340 systems in support of the "Technology for Education 2000" grant from Intel, in addition to deploying SAP-related desktops. Individuals from both Athena Cluster and PC Services were trained and certified to work with Dell platforms. Also, these teams participated in the pilot of dormitory Athena Clusters.
• The Database Services Team worked with the Institute's major administrative departments to maintain over 90 databases supporting SAP, Admissions, Alumni, Payroll, Pension, Personnel, and IS-Telecommunications, among others.

Roger A. Roach

I/T SUPPORT PROCESS

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; the MIT Computer Connection (MCC); Training and Publications; Desktop Products; Adaptive Technology Support (ATIC Lab); Departmental Computing Support (DCS); Campuswide Information Systems Support (CWIS); Athena Help/Residential Computing Consulting; Academic Computing Support; 5ESS Support; and Support Team Headquarters. 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 1997-98:

• The MIT Computer Connection (MCC) successfully launched a joint venture with NECX to enable customers to purchase computing and networking hardware and software electronically. This resulted in a significant reduction of MCC staff and marked an important new phase of an ongoing effort to streamline this process. In its first year of operation, this joint venture realized over $8 million in sales, and sales volume continues to increase steadily.
• The Business Liaison Team, composed of staff with both technical and business skills, was formed to focus on providing rapid response and consulting services to administrative customers. In addition to high-priority support for SAP rollout, the Business Liaison Team supports other major systems, such as the Data Warehouse.
• Casetracker, a new suite of network-based help tools, was deployed to provide a more integrated approach to tracking customer logs, and to aid in the timely resolution of customer problems.
• Several customer assistance teams relocated to Building N42. A unified location for user accounts, walk-in help for both academic and administrative users, Quickstart training classes, the Athena test cluster, New Media Centers, and CWIS consulting assistance now provides "one-stop shopping" for many customer needs.

William F. Hogue

I/T INTEGRATION PROCESS

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. During the past year, teams working in the Integration Process made progress on several fronts:

• The Integration Team worked to educate software designers about MIT's current and new I/T infrastructure and new directions. The lunch seminar series begun in FY 1996, which draws 30-80 MIT developers per session, continued with topics including: Java and Java Script; electronic data interchange (EDI); database web access; MIT ID server; "Roles" database; server security; MIT Data Warehouse design; and SAPweb interface.
• Integration standing teams also acted as consultants for designers and developers. Over the past year, Data Administrators helped with data modeling for new systems, and Integration team members reviewed and advised on designs for new systems. This year, significant progress was made in increasing usage of current infrastructure applications such as Kerberos V5 and MIT certificates for authentication, the MIT Data Warehouse to share and access data, the MIT ID server to check for people who already have MIT ID numbers, and additional uses of Oracle databases. Strategies like shared training, web pages aimed at MIT's software developer community, seminars on I/T infrastructure and security issues, consulting with MIT developers and outside contractors, and project reviews exemplify Integration's ongoing education efforts.
• Integration project teams worked both to update current I/T infrastructure components and to build new ones. This year the Brio Query tool, selected primarily to view data in the MIT Data Warehouse, was deployed to the MIT community. Software and user support to allow a registered MITnet user to access MITnet easily from a portable desktop in different locations (called "dynamic IP addressing" or DHCP) was provided to the community. Last fall, a team composed of staff from IS and Student Services altered the registration process for new students to protect sensitive student data available on-line during registration. The "Roles" database, a new infrastructure service, was built and deployed to allow distributed access and maintenance of authorizations for multiple applications to appropriate staff in DLCs. Working with two Delivery teams, Roles was deployed for both graduate awards and SAP during FY 1998.
• One goal of the Integration process is to propagate MIT technology strategically to vendors of commercial products and to other users outside MIT. By exerting influence in strategic areas, such as network security in open-network environments, MIT has the opportunity in the future to buy (rather than build) its preferred I/T infrastructure components and applications. To encourage a standard for network security, the Integration Process continued to make Kerberos Version 5 freely available beyond MIT in FY 1998, worked with commercial vendors to ensure that products incorporating Kerberos would interoperate, and helped organizations outside MIT learn about and use Kerberos. MIT developers continue to attempt to influence Microsoft into incorporating a version of Kerberos into their next operating system, Windows NT 5. Similarly, Integration team members are working to influence Apple to incorporate MIT's requirements in their next operating system, Oracle to continue to support secure access to databases from the Macintosh desktop, and SAP AG to support the use of strong authentication and encryption using X.509 certificates in the design of their Internet Transaction Server (ITS).
• The "I/T watch" subprocess is designed to track technology directions. During FY 1998, Integration team members tracked changes in web development tools, object-oriented technology, and Corba developments. Integration staff also examined Java as a possible new piece of MIT's I/T infrastructure, as well as Apple's new Rhapsody operating system.

Susan S. Minai-Azary

I/T COMPETENCY GROUPS

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.

Due to personnel departures in late FY 1997, IS did not have a Competency Group Director for most of FY 1998. Greg Anderson, interim CG director, led the Competency Group Planning Team, which was chartered to develop a direction for the competency concept and to provide staffing recommendations for the CG Team leadership. Based on the planning team's recommendations, IS posted the position of Director, I/T Staff Development and Resource Management, in November 1997. Over 100 resumes were received in response to general advertising and a targeted mailing to the participants of an "HR for IS" Conference. Three candidates were screened via telephone interviews, and two candidates were invited to interview on campus. Based on a competency-based interview process, each candidate met with the I/T Leadership Team as a group, the two current members of the CG Team, several IS team leaders, and IS staff, as well as an Human Resources Practice Development (HRPD) team representative. The selected candidate had a strong I/T background, as well as the requisite behavioral competencies. The new Director, Allison F. Dolan, arrived in IS on April 6, 1998.

Although they lacked a full-time director for much of the year, CG maintained a number of processes and programs focused on recruiting, retention, training and development, and performance management. In addition, CG continued to be an interface to Personnel and an internal focal point for IS employee relations.

• During FY 1998, IS experienced a 9% attrition rate, with the loss of several key personnel. The most common reason for leaving was pay inequity; the I/T industry has experienced significant average pay increases (5-8% average; upwards of 10% for scarce skills). To retain staff, IS employed a number of tactics, including several off-cycle pay increases, and hired new staff at higher salary levels. In addition, IS participated in a "Hot Technologies Survey." Combined with other data, the results of this survey will be used to review IS compensation more systematically. Since recruiting and retention is not limited to pay, CG also conducted current-staff interviews and staff-exit interviews to understand why people stay in IS and why they leave.
• Late in FY 1998, CG designed and implemented a "Team Staffing" process - a highly collaborative process involving I/T Process directors (who provide technical details) and CG (who provide input and process facilitation). First used in staffing the MIT-wide Year 2000 (Y2K) team, this documented process has been received positively because it encourages wide involvement, a diverse candidate pool, and a relatively short cycle-time.
• CG sponsored or participated in a number of activities designed to inform and/or develop skills in IS. These included: an MIT-wide SAPWeb Knowledge Transfer Seminar; an Intel-sponsored, MIT-wide, three-day Windows NT training course; a series of one-hour Coaching Brown Bag Luncheons; a follow-up Coaching workshop for IS staff; seminars for sharing conference learnings and understanding networking; an MIT-wide, three-day course on Usability Testing of Computer User Interfaces and Documentation; and Oracle training for IS staff. With IS's Personnel Officer, CG continued to promote competency-based interviewing by presenting two workshops to non-IS departments, as well as designing and piloting the process and instrument to support individual behavioral and technical competency self-assessment. CG also contributed 20% of an EFT to the HRPD Performance Management and Coaching sub-team.
• Also, a modified Performance Appraisal process was introduced in FY 1998, in which the 5-point rating scale was simplified to three levels: "exceeds expectations," "meets expectations," and "below expectations." Staff who rated "below expectations" were expected to document a development plan. Focus groups were used at the end of the performance review process to solicit input for modifications to the FY 1999 process.

Allison F. Dolan

MIT Reports to the President 1997-98