More on interim CIO

Answers from Dr. Sethna to two questions about the interim CIO position:

• The person appointed as interim will be eligible to apply for the permanent position.
  

• In relation to the proposed reorganization plan, the interim CIO's task will be to:
• refine and flesh out the plan,
  
• be SPA for measures and metrics.

My reactions to comments:

• "You have stated many times that we don't have the funding for a CIO."
• My 60/40 preference was for not having a CIO. The expense was one of my reasons.
• I presented both sides of the argument as fairly as I could to Dr. Sethna and to PAC, and they decided to go with the CIO model.
  
• That decision is made, so I'm trying to do what I can to make it work well.
  

• "It makes no sense to me to appoint an interim..."
• Again, that decision is made. No point in whacking a deceased equine: let's make it work.
  

CIO, open meeting, etc.

Open meeting

• Wednesday, Nov. 14, 10:30, Campus Center Ballroom 108.1

CIO

I don't know the answers to some of the questions asked in comments on my last posting, but here are some answers:

• "Will the interim CIO scrap everything done so far in favor of their own ideas and concepts or will they work in conjunction with the UTO to refine and solidify the proposed model?"
  
• The position announcement wasn't clear, but I think it's the latter.
  
  
• "What is our timetable for hiring or naming an interim CIO?"
  
• The search closes on the 27th. They say they plan to move quickly.
  
  
• "Why hire an interim CIO when we're just going to turn around and create a national search later on?"
  
  
• Whatever we may think of this, that's what PAC decided. I was at the meeting where this was discussed. Dr. Sethna and Jim Sutherland both argued that we should get the reorganization done before bringing in someone from outside, and PAC accepted that argument.
  
• "We have two who could be considered CIO's right now, interim or otherwise."
  
• I disagree, though I like the "let's all get along" plea that followed this. A CIO is a different kind of beast from a CTO or a UTO.
  
  
• "The requirements do not specify a computer science degree or even a technical degree for the 'interim' CIO?"
  
• That didn't surprise me. Since the role of a CIO is to lead, align IT strategies with organizational strategies, and manage, CIOs now come from a wide range of backgrounds. The University of Illinois, for example, has a newish CIO who was CIO at the University of Arizona. She has three degrees in Speech Communication, none in a technical field.
  
• "Is the interim CIO disallowed from being a candidate for the permanent position?"
  
• From what I understand, no. I'll check to make sure.
  
  
• "Sounds like the scenario that was put forth by another poster earlier, where the interim is appointed and then just stays in the job after a period of time seems likely."
  
• That's not what they're saying, and I haven't read that between the lines.
  
• "Should all current employees who will be in the umbrella of this new organization be excluded as applicants? It just seems to me that this would reduce competition and possible hard feelings between people who need to work together."
  
• Any UWG employee who meets the qualifications is eligible. That makes sense to me.
  
• "Will your final IT reorganization plan submitted to the president include IT staff and their new jobs?"
  
• I believe so.
  
• "How/who will determine where current IT staff will fit in this plan?"
  
• I expect that the interim CIO will work with the IT staff to determine who best fits where.
  

Interim CIO search announcement

The announcement is out. I posted it below so we'd have it to look at.

The list of desired credentials looked pretty good. I'm glad to see that PAC didn't construe CIO to mean techie-in-chief, but rather saw the post in terms of leadership, planning, collaboration, and user service.

Let's have an open meeting next week to discuss two issues:

• The interim CIO position: Do we have any input to give the VPs to help them screen applicants?
• Localized faculty/staff tech support: What structure(s) would best provide the advantages of centralization and decentralization?

I'll try to find a place to meet Wednesday at 10:30, if anything is open then. Would a second time be useful, too?

---

Interim Chief Information Officer

The University of West Georgia invites applications for the position of Interim Chief Information Officer (CIO). The University seeks a leader who has significant experience in IT and the skills to achieve goals as outlined by the President and senior administration. The successful CIO will support the existing IT operation, and develop managers and staff to meet goals and continue a history of strong customer service.

Responsibilities:

The CIO will report directly to the President and have access to the President’s Advisory Committee. The overall leadership and general administrative responsibilities for the University of West Georgia’s IT organization including academic and administrative computing, telecommunications (telephone, distance learning, and cable technologies), data administration, network infrastructure, web development, software and instructional technology support, and system support services. The CIO provides leadership in the development and monitoring of an IT plan and fosters a culture that is collaborative and user oriented.

Qualifications:

An earned Bachelors Degree from an accredited institution is required, a Masters Degree or higher is preferred. Other preferred credentials include:
§ Abilities in the planning, development and implementation of IT goals for administrative functions of a complex organization.
§ Ability to identify and communicate a vision and mission for IT aligned with university priorities.
§ Experience in program evaluation, curriculum development, and assessment of educational outcomes and knowledge of alternative approaches in advancing academic excellence.
§ Ability to build teams among IT staff.
§ Ability to work with and provide support and leadership for multiple constituencies including faculty, students, staff and users external to the University as needed.
§ Commitment to diversity and an understanding of the links between campus diversity and academic excellence.
§ Experience with strategic and tactical planning, problem solving and crisis management.
§ Budget development and management abilities.
§ Familiarity with security issues, IT policy development, legal issues regarding technology, and business continuity.
§ Ability and willingness to communicate openly.
§ Capacity to maintain currency regarding IT policies, issues and trends; ability to comprehend, interpret and effectively communicate complex technical information.

Application Deadline: November 27, 2007

Waiting for Godot

I understand that the SPAIT job description is in final edit mode, and should be released "soon."

Quote from "Waiting for Godot":

• Vladimir: Well? Shall we go?
• Estragon: Yes, let's go.
  
• [They do not move.]
  

Putting IT in context, and 2 questions

Putting IT in context:

Dale Driver has created an interesting graphic depicting how the IT organization could be guided by other University entities:

Two related questions:

Thinking about the interactions among IT and its stakeholders raises two questions:

1. How can IT assure users that they will get good service?

• SLAs are part of the answer, but not a complete one.
• With local control of "their own" user support techies, units believe that they can guarantee good service.
  
• The flip side is that this same local control can be an obstacle to following best practices, being efficient, and even being as effective as we'd like.
  

All this gives rise to my second question:

2. How can we get the virtues of both local and centralized accountability?

• When I met with RCOB this week, people suggested matrix and federated management models.
  
• Those seem promising, but we'd need to think through the devilish details, like these:
• How would primary and secondary reporting lines work together?
• What kinds of articulation agreements would work in these situation?
• What structures would support management interaction?
• How would conflicts be resolved?
• Exactly what responsibilities would be assigned to each group?

Thoughts?

In the meantime...

While we wait for resolution on the SPAIT (Single Point of Accountability for IT, known elsewhere as CIO) issue, there are things we can do.

One of the most pressing is to start working on service management issues:

• Service catalogs
  
• Service level agreements
• Operational level agreements
  

We'll need these whatever plays out with a CIO. I mean, a SPAIT.

Some good resources:

• Service catalogs
• IT Service Catalogs in 5 Steps, by Hank Marquis of itSM Solutions.
• The Open Source Service Catalog Community has a number of interesting articles.
  

• SLAs
  • Guidelines, templates
    • Establishing Service Level Agreements, by Naomi Karten.
      
    • Guidelines for Public Sector Organisations from New South Wales, Australia [PDF]
    • SLA toolkit
  • Examples
    • USG OIIT Service Level Guidelines (PDF)
    • Earlham College
    • GeoNOVA Service Level Agreement Template (PDF)
    
    
• OLAs
  • Solving the IT Silo Problem
  • Operational-level agreement: An IT game plan for CIOs
  • Duke University

The guidelines from New South Wales provide a good summary of the benefits of SLAs. An SLA:

1. Sets clear performance expectations of the customer and service provider .
2. Clarifies the roles and responsibilities of both parties.
3. Focuses attention on customer's priority needs.
4. Encourages a service quality culture, and continuous improvement.
5. Provides a mechanism for both parties to plan for the future.
6. Puts purchasing power into the hands of the customer.
7. Provides a useful tool for the customer to monitor performance.
8. Puts service providers in a better position to plan their delivery functions.
9. Can provide greater certainty of income for service providers.

Karten's article gives a good overview of how to create successful SLAs. I especially like these sections:

• How Not to Establish an SLA
• Key Steps in Establishing a Service Level Agreement
  

CIO update

PAC has decided to go with the single-IT-head model. I'm glad to see this step being taken, and hope it is done quickly so we can all get a better sense of where this all is going.

My understanding is that:

• They intend to hire an interim person internally, and later do a national search for a permanent person.
• The job announcement and description will be posted soon, perhaps as early as next Monday, with applications accepted for two weeks.
  
• Jim Sutherland, the VPB&F, is drawing up the job description.
• The VPs will be the search committee.

The TCC met yesterday and talked about the position. Here's what I sent to Dr. Sethna and the VPs about our discussion:

• Title:
• Those present unanimously backed the title CIO. CIO has an accepted meaning: it's the person who ensures that the organization’s IT investments are aligned with its strategic objectives by mapping IT initiatives to those objectives. A CIO is not the programming manager or chief systems administrator; those duties are delegated to technical managers.
  
• On the other hand, a CTO, which is what we have now, is the techie-in-chief, responsible for designing and recommending appropriate technology solutions to support the policies and directives developed by the CIO.
  
• The TCC didn't want the CIO to be a VP for IT, because that sounds like we'd be adding another silo, rather than establishing a position that supports all the divisions. The CIO has "horizontal" responsibilities that cut across the "vertical" structure of the divisions.
• I mentioned the concern that at some institutions the CIO is in charge of IRP, but they pointed out that there are a number of USG schools that have the two separate, including Georgia Southern, Valdosta, and UGA.
  

• Reporting line
• The TCC also recommends that the position report directly to the President. USG schools mostly have it report to either the President or the Provost, so for UWG reporting to the President makes the most sense. This reaffirms that the job's responsibilities are to the University as a whole, not to any one division.
  

• Job description:
• The TCC strongly recommends that the job description for this position clearly state what its responsibilities will be for the IT reorganization: will this person be charged with refining and implementing the proposed version 0.6, or with starting from scratch?
• Also, the job description should stress the importance of introducing best practices in IT service management.
  

I'll let you know when I hear anything else.