alohaaajoe
MIS
At the risk of prolonging this discussion, I will add a few
comments. This is the third major University I have worked for and I keep in touch with my CIO colleagues around the country. In many larger institutions, central IT tends to be seen as, more or less, a black box. This opaqueness can lead to a certain mistrust and lack of confidence. The truth is that central IT is virtually always populated by hardworking and knowledgeable people, constrained by money and time. There is generally not enough staff to meet rising expectations. They often struggle to get *representative* input from the community and often just don't have the time to publicize all the good work they do. At my former job I had two full time people dedicated to interfacing with the community, before that I had three, here we have none. Two jobs ago we published an IT news letter and had additional staff dedicated to that effort. Outreach makes you more transparent and builds confidence. You get !
what you pay for. I have no real hope of solving this at ------- anytime soon. However, without those resources, OIT has made significant progress over the last two years. Surveys show high satisfaction with most OIT services. We have the PTUG lists with their growing conversations and we have organized local support in the TSP group. The community can and does interact with OIT and visa versa. OIT listens as never before and works to unite three campuses. You, perhaps for the first time, bring an active voice for students to the ITPC. However, in neither of my former organizations, were the helpdesk queues made public. It's not that they wanted to be secretive, it's just that queue length alone generally does not tell enough of the story to be helpful. The numbers just raise more questions, invite micro-management by those without full information and divert staff time into dealing with explanations as opposed to working on problems. Clearly, OIT could periodically r!
elease queue numbers and other statistics. If I had some sense that t
hey wouldn't be picked at, used to bolster erroneous mental models, spawn requests for even more detail, or divert staff time to defend the numbers, I'd be more in favor of it. Right now, I'd rather see the limited resources of OIT used elsewhere, even at the expense of some criticism. However, I believe your having a private conversation with ----- to go over this complex matter would be in order. Perhaps there is a way that you can help her and/or the CSC. For example, the OIT website could probably benefit from additional resources. Care to volunteer?
(This was my response to this..what do you think??)
OIT is (right or wrong) perceived externally as being reluctant to open its operations to public scrutiny. If the CSC is confident that I will be pleased with its call statistics and call procedures, why is it reluctant to give me details in a public forum where others can have a look at the relevant figures? This smacks strongly of a culture of hiding and covering up information, rather than letting the sun shine in to OIT's operations.
Why not create a simple website that has reports of OIT's call ticket performance and update it periodically? From a governance perspective (which is a task to which I contribute via ITPC), it would be useful to know what sorts of problems affect the customers; i.e., faculty, staff, and students. It would also be helpful in terms of security, as it might give us a way of tabulating which sorts of virus/worm/etc. events occur most often.
I would like to see OIT try to change its negative external perception. It should not have to be seen as an organization that is afraid to subject itself to external commentary.
comments. This is the third major University I have worked for and I keep in touch with my CIO colleagues around the country. In many larger institutions, central IT tends to be seen as, more or less, a black box. This opaqueness can lead to a certain mistrust and lack of confidence. The truth is that central IT is virtually always populated by hardworking and knowledgeable people, constrained by money and time. There is generally not enough staff to meet rising expectations. They often struggle to get *representative* input from the community and often just don't have the time to publicize all the good work they do. At my former job I had two full time people dedicated to interfacing with the community, before that I had three, here we have none. Two jobs ago we published an IT news letter and had additional staff dedicated to that effort. Outreach makes you more transparent and builds confidence. You get !
what you pay for. I have no real hope of solving this at ------- anytime soon. However, without those resources, OIT has made significant progress over the last two years. Surveys show high satisfaction with most OIT services. We have the PTUG lists with their growing conversations and we have organized local support in the TSP group. The community can and does interact with OIT and visa versa. OIT listens as never before and works to unite three campuses. You, perhaps for the first time, bring an active voice for students to the ITPC. However, in neither of my former organizations, were the helpdesk queues made public. It's not that they wanted to be secretive, it's just that queue length alone generally does not tell enough of the story to be helpful. The numbers just raise more questions, invite micro-management by those without full information and divert staff time into dealing with explanations as opposed to working on problems. Clearly, OIT could periodically r!
elease queue numbers and other statistics. If I had some sense that t
hey wouldn't be picked at, used to bolster erroneous mental models, spawn requests for even more detail, or divert staff time to defend the numbers, I'd be more in favor of it. Right now, I'd rather see the limited resources of OIT used elsewhere, even at the expense of some criticism. However, I believe your having a private conversation with ----- to go over this complex matter would be in order. Perhaps there is a way that you can help her and/or the CSC. For example, the OIT website could probably benefit from additional resources. Care to volunteer?
(This was my response to this..what do you think??)
OIT is (right or wrong) perceived externally as being reluctant to open its operations to public scrutiny. If the CSC is confident that I will be pleased with its call statistics and call procedures, why is it reluctant to give me details in a public forum where others can have a look at the relevant figures? This smacks strongly of a culture of hiding and covering up information, rather than letting the sun shine in to OIT's operations.
Why not create a simple website that has reports of OIT's call ticket performance and update it periodically? From a governance perspective (which is a task to which I contribute via ITPC), it would be useful to know what sorts of problems affect the customers; i.e., faculty, staff, and students. It would also be helpful in terms of security, as it might give us a way of tabulating which sorts of virus/worm/etc. events occur most often.
I would like to see OIT try to change its negative external perception. It should not have to be seen as an organization that is afraid to subject itself to external commentary.