The following is an in-progress work of the CSS management team. We have brainstormed large areas that thematically, or in terms of specific goals, need further work and definition. We think that an interesting model is UVA's model of foundational documents for specific areas of development or concern http://www.itc.virginia.edu/org/reports/
We expect to finish this planning and definitions exercise by mid October.
Understand how resources are being spent and make effective use of the resources we have.
DRAFT: Although numerous MIT DLCs utilize CSS' project support services (e.g., Usability, Accessibility, Training, Documentation, Service Desk, etc.), these services are routinely overlooked or engaged late in the lifecycle on internal initiatives. This late engagement leads to a perception (and, given the late engagement, sometimes a reality) of these services delaying project implementation. The vision is to engage with teams at the beginning of the project life cycle and be considered members of the project team. Nobody would say that the development delayed implementation, because it is part of the project. The same should be true for services that enhance the user experience (e.g., usability, accessibility, training, documentation, and the service desk).
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 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.