Central IT in Higher Ed: Can We Ever Become Agile?

COMMON SOLUTIONS GROUP MAY 15, 2008

Central IT in Higher Ed: Can We Ever Become

Agile?

Origin of this CSG Topic

Virginia Tech’s exceptional presentation at the winter CSG meeting The extraordinary work accomplished by the web

team Clearly not sustainable…

… but what lessons can we learn? Can we apply some pieces to “normal working

conditions”? e.g.: spread out information and the authority to make

decisions to the edges? What pieces of the bureaucracy can we lose? Lessons to be learned from local IT shops?

May 15, 2008Common Solutions Group - University of Michigan

PART I

What does agile mean? Why does it matter?


What We’re Not Talking About

This presentation is not about agile software development Which is - in and of itself - a VERY interesting topic…

for another day

It’s about agile organizations i.e.: “Agile Product/Service Delivery Strategies”

OK… I will say a word or two about agile software development To help me segue into another inspiration for this

topic: PM as CYA methodology


Agile Enterprise

Most research on agile organizations (“the agile enterprise”) focuses on the corporate world (surprise!) “Marketplace Agility” “Agility the key to survival in the 21st century…” Etc.

A fascinating, full-semester course at Cornell (35 hours) covers it

But this presentation won’t focus much on this research, because higher ed is different


Higher Ed is Different

Central IT’s organizational agility probably won’t be the key to our respective institutions’ “survival”…

…but agility is a critical component towards building trust in the university community


But Some of that Marketplace Stuff Applies

Does this sound familiar?

I’m agile.I’m bureaucratic.


BureaucraticBureaucratic AgileAgile

StableHierarchicalBureaucratic (duh!)PredictableRely on stable

customers/clients

Adaptive/creativeFlat organizational

structureFewer “rules”Innovative

Characteristics of Agile vs. Bureaucratic Organizations


BureaucraticBureaucratic AgileAgile

Strict divisions between departments

Power concentrated at the top (those at the top are most knowledgeable and the only ones who can make decisions)

No strict divisions between functions

Power, information, knowledge spread out

A sense of urgency

Characteristics of Agile vs. Bureaucratic Organizations (2)


More Ingredients

InformalityComing together for a mutual purposeCommon personal values; believing in the

work

Importance of under-the-radar activities


This Rest of This Morning’s Agenda

OverviewSurvey ResultsWhy Aren’t We Nimble?Sometimes We Do Get it RightCase Study: IT, Innovation, and the State

SystemDiscussion/Wrap Up


PART II

Survey results


PART III

Why aren’t we nimble?


It’s Hard to be Big and Agile

Ooyala's 28 employees are building a system that runs videos for independent Web sites, and eventually they plan to sell video ads in the same way Google hawks text ads for other web publishers. The startup has raised $10 million in venture capital, which doesn't even come close to matching Google's resources. But the Ooyala founders say what they lack in institutional backing they make up for in speed and the ability to communicate with one another by turning around in their chairs and talking. Google was like that too, about eight years and 18,000 employees ago

My emphasis. http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/technology/where_does_google_go.fortune/


Local IT And Agility

By virtue of its size, local IT can be more flexible, agile, innovative, and responsive than central IT. And it almost always is

Central IT can respond in one of two ways*

*Sometimes we respond in both ways!


Two Ways to Respond

• The local IT folks are nice people, but they’re not real IT professionals.– They don’t have to support mission-critical applications– They deliver products and services to a limited

audience, so things don’t have to work all the time- OR -

• How can we take advantage of local IT agility?– E.g.: WebFinancials, Faculty Reporting, etc. at Cornell– Still a long way to go

• Can local IT write applications to make it easier to support them centrally?


Customer Service and Agility

Brad Bird: Our goal is different because if you say you’re making a movie for “them,” that automatically puts you on an unsteady footing. The implication is, you’re making it for a group that you are not a member of—and there is something very insincere in that...So my goal is to make a movie I want to see. If I do it sincerely enough and well enough—if I’m hard on myself and not completely off base, not completely different from the rest of humanity—other people will also get engaged and find the film entertaining.


Steve Jobs: It sounds logical to ask customers what they want and then give it to them. But they rarely wind up getting what they really want that way...


Satoru Iwata: If you are simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them.simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them.


One of Google’s strengths is the speed at which they can roll out products. Every time you look something new is cooking — that’s what makes Google such an interesting company to watch. In order for them to operate at these speeds, basic functionality in their products is included — but they don’t try and guess what bells and whistles people want. Each product or service they launch has an associated discussion group the community actively participates in. The suggestions made there are in large part what ultimately decides what additional features get included in the product.

Governance and Agility

We need to manage our resources but…Control over “skunkworks” can impede

agilityDo we need a parallel group that does

innovation?...again?


Project Management and Agility


Project Management and Agility

“Our PM methodology saved us millions of dollars and helped us get the project done

ahead of schedule”- vs. -

“We expected more of our projects to get done.”

“The process sometimes took longer than the work itself.”

“It seemed like a heavyweight methodology for small projects.”


Billing models, etc. and impact on agility


InternalInternal ExternalExternal

BoardsLawyersRisk managementFinancial controlsProcurement

process

Government regulation

Sources of funding & budget processes

Procurement oversight

Project controlsPublic relations

Other Obstacles

May 15, 2008Common Solutions Group @ University of Michigan

PART IV

Sometimes we do get it right


When Things Go Right

Cornell’s PS 8.9 Upgrade

Lisa StenslandManager, CIT Project Management Office


Stanford Communications Convergence

A STUDY IN ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY

Communications Org Context

Culture of networking and voiceSeries of managers, always separate entitiesClassic voice technologyCampus and hospitals requirements

Looking for an opportunity

Two cases – one reactive, the other plannedAvaya - decision to replace an EACD solution

that simply wouldn’t workCisco Call Manager – richer feature set to the

hospitals in order not to lose business

In both cases, an incumbent technology had to be challenged and deployed in 90 calendar days.

How to get them to drink…

a vision that makes sense to all internal service owners and that they can see themselves in

Use prototype demonstrations to show possibilities

Getting on the boat, because it’s leaving?

Differentiators in Agility

Not surprisingly, it takes a leadership with a clue about technology trends

Taking stock of the staffAggressive timelines and “emergencies” can

be your friendSmall victoriesPrototype to demonstrate and motivateGet (or take) a mandate for action, then act!

Organization Agility

Moderate consensus with autocracyMake technology choices that foster agilityDon’t use FY as a timescaleSmall successes: fail fast and recover

PART V

Case study: IT, Innovation and the state system


PART VI

Discussion / wrap up


Documents

Central IT in Higher Ed: Can We Ever Become Agile?