GENERAL UNIVERSITY

Marian Ford

EDHE 6710

Dr. Baier

Institutional Facts

Collegial Institution Founded in 1890 by Methodist Episcopal Church Established downtown campus in 1997 for School of Law Fall 2008/Spring 2009 enrollment = 3202/2886 Programs include: dual enrollment high school program, eight

graduate programs, law school IT system used = Colleague or Datatel

Collegial Institution

The enrollment is relatively small . Consensus and shared power are emphasized with a common

commitment, and leadership emphasizes consultation and collective responsibilities between the administrators and faculty.

There is informal communication and interaction. The system is very democratic in design and all administrators and faculty are considered equal.

The institution emphasizes thoroughness and deliberation. Persons in the leadership positions are expected to influence

without coercion and must establish trust and create customs that the institution can embrace.

Dilemma

Overall lack of organization and decision-making regarding IT centered projects and issues Only 3 programmers existed with no departmental or modular

specialization. There was no established training or documentation regarding

procedures and upgrades in system. No core group and no chain of command regarding workflow

and project priority were established.

Why is it Top Priority?

Bottleneck created in IT department slows down efficiency and completion of current projects.

Consultants and training are needed because additional unnecessary costs and time were created.

Data integrity is not being upheld; processes are not being documented or followed.

There is a lack of strategic decision-making process for IT projects; this process is essential to the improvement of the University.

There is an overall lack of communication between departments ; this communication is vital to University success.

Changes Already Made

Organizational chart complete with hierarchy created

New Chief Information Officer hired to oversee entire IT department

Additional Datatel programmer and other essential IT staff hired

Business Process Management Team created

Strategic Business Plans required for all IT projects

Datatel consultants brought on campus to provide training instruction and suggestions

IT Organization Chart

Current Existing Problems

PROBLEM 1 ADMINISTRATIVE CHALLENGE

Deciding on the specific programmer to be assigned to each department, based on knowledge base, specialty and pre-existing relationship

Cross-training at some level with programmers in case of turnover; monitoring of documentation

Still need chain of command and chart to illustrate the specific programmer that each department reports to

Need to eliminate bottleneck and accumulation of work assigned to each programmer

Current Existing Problems

PROBLEM 2ADMINISTRATIVE

CHALLENGE More training required

because of high rate of turnover

Documentation responsibility needs to be instituted

In-house training vs. outside training, cost/benefit analysis and consultant needed to evaluate which departments require high level of training

Is IT primarily responsible for monitoring how current documentation is?

Current Existing Problems

PROBLEM 3 PROBLEM 3 CONTD.

Communication problems exist about decision-making; there is a lack of understanding of IT needs by BPMT.

Core Team should be created.

Membership needs to be expanded in Business Process Management Team (BPMT) because not all departments are represented.

Quick resolution with IT issues are non existent.

Current Existing Problems

ADMINISTRATIVE CHALLENGE

Who should be included in BPMT? Too large a team will make for inefficient and fast decision-making body.

Duplication of members on new team and BPMT

There is a need to identify power users in system in order to create the new team.

Who does the new CORE team report to?

Resolution Problem 1

CHANGES PROPOSED RATIONALE

There should be four Datatel programmers responsible for workload and inquiries should be assigned by departments.

Only designated person from each department should submit request and inquiries.

Projects that require more than 10 hours of IT work must submit project plan to Administrators Systems Director.

Bottleneck is occurring if all requests go through same programmer; programmer becomes specialized and more efficient in area.

Programmers should not be deciding priority of IT projects; projects need to go through BPMT.

Partnership and opportunity for training is created between programmer and manager of department.

Resolution Problem 2

CHANGES PROPOSED RATIONALE

Central server or drive needed for documentation of Datatel procedures, training materials, updated manuals, etc.

Manager of each department should be responsible for ensuring updates and included in evaluation of job duties.

Time and costs will be saved when departments are cross-trained and documentation exists for work-flow.

Repeated mistakes and questions will be eliminated.

Resource will be available for resolutions and research.

Resolution Problem 3

CHANGES PROPOSED RATIONALE

Need to evaluate membership of BPMT to ensure that all relevant departments are represented.

Create Core Team with members who have intimate working knowledge of system.

BPMT does not meet regularly enough to ensure quick resolution to IT problems.

BPMT does not have valid department members who are involved daily with issues in system.

CORE Team Defined

Core data is the information that the institution relies on to complete business processes.

Team should provide direction for institution regarding how to handle data in the system.

Data is shared between departments with those who work daily in system and understand ramification of projects and procedural changes.

CORE TEAM

CORE Team Requirements and Challenges

Mission needs to be created. Ensure data integrity Establish, document, and provide standard procedures Create a forum for all academic and administrative departments

to form consensus on data standards, communication and projects

Recommend and develop documentation for training of employees

CORE Challenges (contd.)

All members should be representatives of respective departments on BPMT but also should be power users with working knowledge of system.

Core team needs to meet weekly and upon demand to make decisions about issues.

All unresolved issues should be referred to BPMT for resolution. Core team should be smaller than BPMT for efficiency; team can

call on experts for specific help.

Resolution to Dilemma

Creation of Team with intimate working knowledge of system Smaller, more efficient decision-making team Power users of system that meets to identify and solve issues

quickly Helps Resolutions to Problems 1 and 2 work more effectively

References

Birnbaum, Robert (1988). How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass.