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Sailing the Seven C’s with a Campus IT Project: A Voyage of Epic Proportions. The Players: Monisha Shukla Simone Knapp Rick Bunt. The Challenge of Central IT. Local units. Central IT. A fable about engaging a campus community in technology projects. Our Saga Begins. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Sailing the Seven C’s with a Campus IT Project:
A Voyage of Epic Proportions
The Players:Monisha ShuklaSimone Knapp
Rick Bunt
The Challenge of Central IT
Local units
Central IT
A fable about engaging a campus
community in technology projects
Our Saga BeginsAn epic journey in which a hearty band of IT adventurers sail the troubled waters of campus culture, battling challenges of mythical proportions—storms, monsters, temptation—to introduce a campus portal.
For a portal named PAWS to set sail
It needed to blaze a new trailIt travelled the seaNow listen with me
As we recount this wonderful tale!
The good ship PAWS sets out on its noble
quest.
… and the adventures
begin!
The sea god Poseidon lashes the sea into a storm with his trident …
• Storms of mistrust … team’s credibility threatened by campus experiences with unsuccessful technologies.
• Scylla: the 6-headed monster that’s hard to kill.
Need to build trust through effective partner engagement.
Sweet singing sirens lure sailors to their doom …
• Sound like vendor promises?
Odysseus plugs the ears of his crew with wax so they can pass …
Charybdis swallows the sea in a whirlpool …
• Scope explosion will suck you into the abyss.
Need to maintain focus.
Aeolus (the keeper of the winds) releases a hurricane that blows the ship back to where it started …
And just when you think you’re almost there …
Three days before our launch date …
In September 2003 we went live with a campus-wide portal (PAWS).
What have we learned from our
journey?
Our Seven C’sCo-development
Communication
Consolidation
Coordination
Customization
Credibility
Community
Co-development
• Local unit develops the application, central team integrates
• Co-development requires transparent processes and clear guidelines
Some of our Co-developers
• Student & Enrolment Services• Arts & Science• IT Services• Library• Financial Services• Human Resources• Alumni• Medicine
Why does co-development work?
• Idea generation from the broad university community
• Deeper sense of ownership and engagement
• Improved standardization and campus-wide acceptance.
• Frees up central resources • A mutual win-win
Communication• Monthly meetings with co-developers (service providers)
• Regular feedback from users and developers
• Matured from “pushing out” communications
• Seize opportunities to “make a connection”
Why is Communication Important in an IT Project?
•No news is good news – NOT!•May discover better ways of doing things
•A key part of effective communication is listening
Consolidation
• Consolidation is not about empire building
• An opportunity to eliminate redundancies and reduce confusion
• Needs effective central leadership
Customization
• Customization provides the opportunity for targeted, value-added applications and content.
• Tabs for targeted audiences• Time-sensitive tabs • Even the PAWS banner changes often to
reflect the current campus mood…
Credibility
• People mistrust technology and those who provide it
• Build trust
• Incremental change
• Nothing beats proven effectiveness – Reliable election results
– Robustness during a blizzard
– Analytics and statistics build credibility
Coordination• People working together to achieve a
common goal– Competing agendas among collaborators can
make for a formidable challenge.
• Essential to have a champion in senior administration.
Portal Services Manager
PAWSTechnical Lead
PAWSContent Lead
Portal Policy Management Committee
Portal Steering Committee
PAWS Stakeholders(Academic and Administrative Unit Co-developers)
Personnel from Help Desk, Training,
Systems and Database, Instructional Services Plus Content Back-upPAWS Developer
The PAWS Team TargetedAnnouncers
Community
• To serve a community, we need to become a community
• Campus-wide IT projects are community projects.– Implementing technology is as much a social
exercise as a technical one.
• Over 500 community groups
• 260 bulletins posted on bulletin board in its first year
• 57,560 classified ads in our classified ads channel– 1,686 active today
• 16,000 unique users daily– 2,100 concurrent sessions
• 1.2 million page hits daily
Communities share common interests, common goals,
a common purpose.
Engaging the campus community in our IT projects…
• Encourage co-development• Communicate effectively (two-way)• Consolidate through “persuasive
standardization” • Balance the needs of service providers
and end users• Embrace customization• Build trust and credibility• Strive for mutual success
…the gift that keeps on giving!
Community building pays dividends:
“They came first for the food, now they come because they’re engaged…”
Building engagement may seem obscureWhen many monsters you have to
endure. So, learn from our fableAnd soon you'll be able
To sail through your C’s for sure.
Questions?Monisha Shukla:
Portal Services Manager, Information Technology [email protected]
Simone Knapp:Communications Officer, Information Technology Services
Rick Bunt:AVP Information and Communications Technology
PAWS - Activity Growth
PAWS - Growth in Channels
