By Anna T. McFadden, Director of Academic Engagement and IT Governance
The IT division recently instituted a new governance and prioritization process designed to involve faculty and staff in decisions about the work of IT. In other words, since there is more IT work than can be done, how should it be prioritized?
Three technology advisory committees—academic, infrastructure, and administrative—review IT project requests in each area. Members look at several considerations:
- Alignment to the mission of the university
- Legal or compliance requirements
- Criticality
- Constraints and dependencies
- Scope
- Available resources
The advisory committees then rank and forward proposals to a central Information Technology Council (ITC) comprised of staff, administrators, faculty, and students. This group, looking at IT’s total project list, gives approval to a final ranking. When the project comes up in the queue to be worked on, a project manager is assigned, a project team is assembled, a project definition and work breakout structure is created, and then the work begins. The project owner can then communicate with the project manager about progress.
Since the process began in September, IT has completed 18 of the 132 projects on the work list. Projects range from large efforts such as the technology related to the new Health and Human Sciences Building to smaller projects such as setting up WeBWork, an online math software program, for the mathematics department. At the end of the academic year, IT will ask the governance and prioritization committees to evaluate the process to ensure continued improvement in IT’s service to the university.
For more information, visit the IT Governance and Prioritization website or contact Anna McFadden at amcfadden@wcu.edu or 227-2411.