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.
Client Support Services Refresh
Understand how resources are being spent and make effective use of the resources we have.
- determine and analyze sourcing models for each function (Service Desk, Departmental Services, etc)
- establish core services for CSS
- sunset non core services
CSS Integration Into and Enhancement of IS&T Service Delivery
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).
- 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
Facilitation of the Work of Real People
"If you build it they will come" is no longer true. It hasn't been for a while. Our community's expectations are shaped by the world, and not by MIT's constraints.
The new reality is "If you build it for me, with me, and it doesn't make me think, I may use it." The old approach of starting with a new piece of technology and developing a service from it are giving way to starting with a specific persona with a specific need and designing a solution for it, technology's best efforts to the contrary not withstanding.
The core needs to be simple and solid enough to support unlimited complexity. IT needs to have the basics covered, and those need to be robust, self-service, and trivially easy to use. This includes consistent, well-implemented, and easy to understand policies and security guidelines. It means easy communications between people via email, calendars, chat, and networks (social and otherwise). Software MIT needs access to needs to be accessible, in the most inclusive sense. IT needs to support people's work and lives and should never get in the way.
Oh, and delivery should be cheap and quick.
- 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
Development of the CSS Workforce of the Future
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_
NEAR TERM GOALS:
- 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
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 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
Understanding of CSS Costs
- improved understanding of unit costs
- pilot new revenue models
- design business process improvements
- develop understanding of risk management and associated costs