Below is the feedback received at the CSS All Hands on October 2, 2009. These comments and ideas are in bold and will be used to better flesh out CSS goals for FY2010 and beyond.
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- determine and analyze sourcing models for each function (Service Desk, Departmental Services, etc)
- establish core services for CSS
- sunset non core services
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It’s easy to define “need” and “don’t need”, but there is a very large grey area that spans “would really like o have because it makes my life easier” through “my friend at Harvard has it, so I want it”. Where are the clients in this picture? Saying we don’t support things doesn’t make people who want them want them less, it just makes them regard us as less of a resource. Preserve some ability to work on “non core” without being seen as a waste of money – it’s still good PR. |
CSS Integration Into and Enhancement of IS&T Service Delivery
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- AUX, DS, and SD early engagement in project life cycle
- reduce demand for support by making services easier to use
- ensure services are safe and secure
- pioneer IS&T wide change management v 1.0
- support IS&T wide communication management v 1.0
- establish new staff and faculty technology orientation with HR
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In addition to making people aware of our services WRT usability, accessibility, training etc., we need to shift their perception: these are MUSTS, not just resources. The success of the application depends on them. Teaching people how to help them selves can be challenging – some want a lot of hand holding, more than we can provide. We need to motivate them to find answers, and ways to find answers on their own. Look at what the clients ask for and what we tell them no for – php/MySQL, Drupal, WordPress, etc. Keep track of what services each department at MIT uses so there can be better communication between CSS groups. Perhaps some sort of wiki or database. Most MIT departments have no idea what groups do what or if we communicate with each other. Some IS&T departments do much the same work as well and AOs are uninformed on how the parts all mesh together. |
Facilitation of the Work of Real People
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The new reality is, "If you build it for me, with me, and it doesn't make me think, I may come." The tried approach of starting with a new piece of technology and developing a service from it is giving way to understanding a person, understaing understanding their need, and designing a solution for it, technology's best efforts to the contrary not withstanding.
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- enhance IT services delivered to faculty and students
- expand Departmental Services
- streamline software delivery process
- define and deliver software stack in support of GIRs
- improve email/calendaring options
- provide easy access to software tools
- ensure services worthy of MIT
- become home to the strategy for the public student computing experience at MIT
- deliver Information Security and Privacy Policy 1.0
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If something doesn’t actually help people get their work done, it isn’t useful, no matter how cool it is. Why would a project team want CSS members inserted into their team? Can we convince them that we add value? Let’s enumerate the values we can add. (CSS integration) Do we have individual staff members who can represent all aspects of CSS (training, usability, support) to a project team? (CSS integration) With less management turnover, we’d have a hope of finishing well-intentioned initiatives, instead of restarting them over and over, as we do now. What is the process to get these services from CSS? Do you have to ask each manager for staff? Each team? We should have an entry point. |
Development of the CSS Workforce of the Future
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DRAFT:
Technology has thoroughly reshaped the way we do business... Today's technology has given all of us unprecedented freedom and the power to access information whenever and wherever we need it. Never before have we seen the extent of making sure people have the knowledge, technology, tools, capital, time, and physical space to generate superior results. \ [W\]orkers \ [will\] seek more elasticity in where and when they work, collaborative, real-time technologies that boost knowledge sharing and encourage the free flow of ideas will become more essential. No matter what new technologies develop, the most important skills will remain the ability to learn and to think critically. Many skills treasured by previous generations were made obsolete by computer software, and so were the workers who lacked the flexibility to adapt. We cannot know which jobs will be superseded by technology in the future; we can only know, without a doubt, that some will be. And the reverberations will be felt in an ever more diverse workforce.
Excerpted from BusinessWeek of October 25, 2007. _http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2007/ca20071025_473242.htm_
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- develop individual role definitions
- create CSS Leaders group
- provide cross training between staff
- focus on succession planning
- prioritize staff retention
- increase staff professional development and related knowledge sharing
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One of the things learned as a MIT student was how to think about problems and do things, not how to use specific technology, e.g. learning to program in Scheme (who’s ever use that) vs learning C++. Programming languages change, but the fundamentals of programming are still valuable. We should keep our eyes on the broader tasks and not just on the current technology as we do staff development. |
CSS Process Integration
Resource planning and allocation are part of our daily work. Priorities shift and we need to have strong processes and communication across CSS and IS&T in order to accomodate accommodate changes in service needs. In addition, the tools we use to execute these processes need to be able to "talk to one and other", so to speak. If the processes are isolated, the result will be a lack of understanding and inability to work towards common goals.
- create cohesion between teams and functions
- revamp of metrics and business processes
- ticketing tool evaluation and integration
- look at other tools that will reduce manual or redundant work
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More informal social events like the cruise. A lot of our repetitive work at the Help Desk comes from clients not learning (or being aware of) the tools to help themselves. Many prefer to chat, humans being social animals. I thought RT had only been here three years – not six. RT is currently being used to track metrics and ownership of cases. These compete with each other. We’ll get better results for both ends if we separate the two. Align “build” project process from AUX and DCAD through DS support. How can we communicate the boring, redundant, and mind numbing work to a broader audience – to some one who might have a solution? How can the solution-makers be rewarded so that more people will chip in? Cohesion is easier if people can mingle more… Is there cohesion between [teams and functions] and [client needs and future growth and considerations]? RT should generate priority levels, i.e. if email is down, why can’t RT notify managers and support people through phone calls, etc? Also, tracking issues across teams is nearly non-existent. |
Understanding of CSS Costs
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- improved understanding of unit costs
- pilot new revenue models
- design business process improvements
- develop understanding of risk management and associated costs
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What are the products and services? Cost measurements need to span the entire life cycle of the product/project question. It’s easy to look at the transaction the client has with one group, and miss how that impacts other group. Only one: customer satisfaction. Understanding costs is hard in a culture that values cleverness and elegance more than simplicity and profit. It should be easier to get funding for a small scale project (say <1K) without jumping through a lot of hoops. |