Advantages:
- One point of accountability for many facets of IT
- budgets,
- plans,
- assessment,
- management.
- One person charged with thinking strategically and politically about IT.
- IT not under any of the other divisions, so no favoritism to one division.
- A voice for IT at PAC.
- A unified IT organization:
- A "decider" to resolve disputes between subunits.
- An enforcer of best-practice adoption.
- Many IT eggs in one CIO basket.
- Difficulty of finding somebody that we can afford with the requisite skills.
- Expense.
- Having a "techie" responsible for thinking strategically and politically about IT.
- Extra layer of management.
- Tendency to push decisions up to the CIO.
Interesting reading about the evolving role of the CIO:
- An analysis at the University of North Dakota summarized the research on effective CIOs. They found that "an effective CIO should be
- A visionary, understanding technology trends and their impact on higher education
- An adaptive leader who takes a proactive approach to ensure the university is using information technology to support its mission
- An active member of the university’s senior administration
- A relationship builder, ensuring that IT use and support is efficient and effective throughout the institution
- A strategic planner and thinker, aligning information technology direction with institutional vision, mission and goals
- An effective manager of people, projects and budgets"
- UND decided, by the way, to have a CIO who reports to the Provost and VPAA, not to the President, and to continue to have some distributed IT groups in large academic units.
- The article "What is the CIO's job, anyway" from CampusTechnology.com is also helpful in understanding our choices.
36 comments:
I think that it is critical that we realize that having a single person stationed over a single IT operation does not necessarily equate to having a CIO. The reference listed from UND points out the key qualities of CIO's; however, it is not necessary that a single head of IT has to perform all of these functions. If we are truly in the development of an organizational structure for IT, I must assume that we also have the flexibility to define the role and responsibility of a position that would be the head of IT.
I would argue that an individual who meets the adaptive leader, relationship builder and manager qualities of a CIO as defined by the analysis from the University of North Dakota (UND) would work quite nicely ASSUMING that the other remaining qualities can be accounted for via some other mechanism. For example, we have, by definition, a faculty senate committee (Technology Planning Committee - TPC) that is charged with determining the strategic planning and policies of IT for campus. This committee, if it does its job well, could and should provide appropriate strategic planning and leadership for IT. The argument could be made that this committee doesn't do a very good job or the people on the committee aren't qualified to do the job. If that is the case, then there is a stronger case for a true CIO and another pro to add to that cause. However, if the TPC model can be made to work (which I believe it can), it still supports the idea of a single head of IT who is not assigned this responsibility. In either case, if the currently proposed model is adopted with two directors, the TPC will HAVE to do this function and do it well.
It is easy to argue that the single head of IT (as a CIO) needs to be a part of the Senior Administration; however, I believe our current senior administration has demonstrated that they seek input from the appropriate experts when the information is necessary. Will has stated on this blog that he and/or Mike have been called into PAC when information is needed regarding issues that are related to IT. This same process, I must assume and would expect, would hold true if there is a single head of IT who does not sit on PAC.
The other missing component is that of being a "visionary". For me the whole "visionary" thing is blown way out of proportion. Truthfully there are very few "visionaries" in the world because being a visionary, in my opinion, usually means being separated from the "reality" of the operations. The late Ben Scott, former head football coach and athletic director at Carrollton High School, stated numerous times, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." Thus with this philosophy, he made a simple goal his target: a state championship. He then set into place a program that would achieve that goal. Nothing big, nothing "visionary", just a good plan and the drive to accomplish it. In 1998, he accomplished that goal, one year before he died. To this day the Carrollton football program still benefits by his singular committment to that one goal. Likewise, we can learn from this also. As a service provider(utility) for the institution, our combined focus on the five stated goals by Will and the drive to plan and work to accomplish them can do a whole lot more than having a "visionary" lead us. Sometimes it just takes hard work and perserverance to make things work and and I believe this can be accomplished with a single person who is not a CIO.
Finally, in my opinion, what is really needed is a system of controls that encapsulates the IT function of the University and provides a system of shared governance with associated checks and balances. This is regardless of any IT organizational change that may or may not be coming. Only with a shared governance model (different from organizational structure) will we be able to insure that the utility of IT will meet its established goals.
Regarding the list of disadvantages.
“Many IT eggs in one CIO basket.”
That is not necessarily a disadvantage since that enable most of the advantages cited above. Is it likewise a disadvantage to have all college eggs in one VPAA basket?
“Difficulty of finding somebody that we can afford with the requisite skills.”
The same can be said for finding any competent administrator.
“Expense.”
Depends how it is structured. Seems to me that a CIO would be necessary if independent IT units are going to persist on campus. If we are folding the independent units into a more centralized structure (I view Plan 0.5 as more centralized even if it is two separate units), it would make sense to fold the units into the current ITS structure and incorporate the current director into PAC. This would not necessitate any additional expense. If, in the future, it is deemed that an actual CIO is necessary, then savings from reducing redundancy in IT through centralization of some services and attrition may provide the necessary funds.
“Having a ‘techie’ responsible for thinking strategically and politically about IT.”
A CIO does not need to be a “techie” – just someone who is familiar enough with the technology to be able to make sound decisions about the technological issues. Actually, if I was a “techie”, I might take offense at that statement. Is such a person somehow incapable of also thinking strategically and politically?
“Extra layer of management.”
If that is what it takes to coordinate a smooth running organization, I don’t see that as a disadvantage.
“Tendency to push decisions up to the CIO.”
As opposed to stalemates where no decision is reached or decisions are made by individuals with no understanding of the technological issues based solely on politics or the quieting of the squeakiest wheel?
Also a comment on the following:
“UND decided, by the way, to have a CIO who reports to the Provost and VPAA, not to the President, and to continue to have some distributed IT groups in large academic units.”
I assume that statement is there to support your contention that IT should be part of academic affairs. So, in what context was that decision made? The report actually recommended that the CIO should report to the president. It would be nice to know the reasoning behind the decision. Like my mother used to say, “Just because someone else jumps off a bridge, does not mean that you should too”. I am not, by that way, equating a CIO reporting to the VPAA to jumping off a bridge. I am just saying that citing an example of a particular reporting structure out of context of why that structure was implemented and how that institution’s administration is different from this institution’s administration does not really a point make. I’m sure we can find examples of all types of reporting structures.
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