ENTERPRISE Improving IT Governance in Higher Education Jack McCredie UC Berkeley, Emeritus & ECAR

ENTERPRISE EDUCAUSE 2006 Current IT Issues Survey (overall results) Security & identity management (5) Funding (1) Administrative/ERP/ systems (2) Disaster recovery/Business continuity Faculty development, support, training Infrastructure management Strategic planning (3) Governance, organization & leadership (4) E-learning/distributed teaching & learning Web systems & services

ENTERPRISE Security & Identity Mgmt Year Relative Importance 2005 Funding IT Security& Identity Mgmt Admin/ERP Systems Strategic Planning Infrastructure Mgmt 2003 Funding IT Admin/ERP Systems Infrastructure Mgmt Faculty Dev, Support & Training Security & Identity Mgmt; 2002 Admin/ERP Systems Funding IT Faculty Dev, Support & Training Strategic Planning 2001 Admin/ERP Systems Funding IT Faculty Dev, Support & Training IT Staffing/HR Mgmt Distance Education 2000 Funding IT Faculty Dev, Support & Training Distance Education E-Learning Environments Admin/ERP Systems 2004 Funding IT Admin/ERP Systems Security & Identity Mgmt Strategic Planning Faculty Dev, Support & Training EDUCAUSE Critical IT Issues Surveys 2000–2005

ENTERPRISE Jack’s Top IT Opportunities, Issues & Challenges  Security & privacy  Re-invent central IT organizations  Transform teaching & learning environments  Governance & Structure

ENTERPRISE Defining Governance “The structure and process of authoritative decision making across issues that are significant for external as well as internal stakeholders within a university.” ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, Governance in the Twenty-First-Century University, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2003

ENTERPRISE Defining Governance (cont)  Who makes which decisions, who provides inputs and analyzes the issues, who implements the results of the decisions, and who settles disputes when there is no clear consensus.  Producing timely decisions, responsible actions, and reasonable results.

ENTERPRISE Focus on Research Intensive Universities EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey – 2005 (121)  Central IT staff as % of total campus  Title of VP or CIO  Where IT reports  Sits on cabinet  Campus plan – IT  Stand alone IT plan  Input from trustees  Input from cabinet 49% (m=429 total) 76% 59% Pres/provost 54% Yes 74% Yes 76% Yes 26% Yes 54% Yes

ENTERPRISE Baccalaureate Degree Granting EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey – 2005 (176)  Central IT staff as % of total campus  Title of VP or CIO  Where IT reports  Sits on cabinet  Campus plan – IT  Stand alone IT plan  Input from trustees  Input from cabinet 88% (m=22 total) 38% 64% Pres/provost 41% Yes 80% Yes 57% Yes 27% Yes 65% Yes

ENTERPRISE Question  How do most colleges and universities govern the large and rapidly evolving set of information technology (IT) activities and initiatives that take place on their campuses?

ENTERPRISE Characteristics of IT Structures in Many Research Universities  Independent research projects  Departmental computing organizations  Colleges and professional schools  Campuswide organizations  Systemwide coordination  National and regional networking organizations  Complex committee structures  Distributed budgetary process

ENTERPRISE Questions for you  If IT governance is an issue on your campus, what are some of the most prevalent symptoms of this problem?

ENTERPRISE Questions for you  What percentage of your campus community understands the IT governance structure on your campus?  Do the campus leaders understand it?

ENTERPRISE Symptoms of Governance Problems  Lack of understanding of how governance works  Significant gaps and overlaps  IT security breakdowns  Low measures of IT effectiveness  Ineffective involvement of faculty  Decisions take forever  Lack of alignment

ENTERPRISE Fall 2004 Academic Senate Committee on Computing - View of IT Decision Making at UC Berkeley

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ENTERPRISE Some Illustrative Measures from the Common Solutions Group – (25 R1s)  IT governance process well understood  Faculty members are actively involved  IT governance process is effective  Department IT priorities are aligned with institutional priorities 3.5 (out of 7)

ENTERPRISE Weill & Ross Governance Model Key Issues for each IT Decision Area  IT Principles  IT Architecture  IT Infrastructure Strategies  Customer Application Needs  IT Investment and Prioritization Source: MIT Sloan Management Review – Winter 2005

ENTERPRISE Weill & Ross Governance Model Six IT Governance Archetypes  Business Monarchy  IT Monarchy  Federal System  IT Duopoly  Feudal System  Anarchy Source: MIT Sloan Management Review – Winter 2005

ENTERPRISE Question Could your college or university save significant money if leaders could enforce important IT standards throughout the campus?

ENTERPRISE Question Could you improve services by coordinating IT personnel throughout the campus? What about the quality of your IT personnel?

ENTERPRISE Case Study – University of California, Berkeley  Strategic planning process  Focus today on governance 

ENTERPRISE “We do not have enough budget to do the job correctly, but somehow we scrounge the resources to do it multiple times in half- baked ways.” Anonymous Berkeley observer UC Berkeley Background circa 2003

ENTERPRISE IT guiding principles for UC Berkeley Competing information technology needs must be carefully evaluated and information technology decision makers must balance: Innovation vs. Stability/reliability Standardization vs. Autonomy/experimentation Accessibility vs. Security/privacy Consensus vs. Efficiency in decision making Centralized services vs. Distributed services Proprietary vs. Open source

ENTERPRISE Guiding Principles (cont)  Support for teaching and research  Integration and inclusion  Security and reliability  Ubiquity  Ease of use  Alignment  Information technology excellence

ENTERPRISE We worked with each area to answer these questions:  What are the trends in this area?  What are the implications of each trend for UC Berkeley?  What are the specific implications for IT? And to  Develop specific goals & IT plan 1. Teaching & learning Six Critical Campuswide IT Issues 3. Student experience 2. Research IT support of these 3 areas:

ENTERPRISE Structure: Relationships among the parts Governance: Decision-making process Funding: The flow of, and path to, money Six Critical Campuswide IT Issues IT support of these areas… 4. Security, reliability, access, privacy 5. IT structure, governance, funding 6. Optimization of IT expertise … and across-the-board improvements in: 1. Teaching & learning 3. Student experience 2. Research

ENTERPRISE IT Structure, Governance, and Funding  Step 1: Self Study  Step 2: IT External/Internal Review Committee  Step 3: Recommendations

ENTERPRISE Step 1: Self Study – five key findings 1.The IT investment process is disconnected from the campus funding and budgeting process. 2.A "silo-specific" and incremental budgeting approach is applied to central administrative systems. 3.The CIO does not manage (or necessarily know about) two-thirds or more of the IT activity on campus.

ENTERPRISE Step 1: Five key findings (cont) 4.Central administrative roles are unclear with respect to instructional computing, research computing, and campus IT services. 5.There is no mechanism to encourage IT managers to migrate toward "best practices" or to provide basic levels of service.

ENTERPRISE Step 2: Best practices Structure (As identified by review committee) 1.Achieve better partnership and coordination between central and local IT units 2.Clarify and enable the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO)

ENTERPRISE Step 2: Best practices Governance (As identified by review committee) 3.Clarify IT decision making roles and responsibilities of campus leaders 4.Distinguish central issues from local issues 5.Simplify committee structure and give clear and needed roles

ENTERPRISE Step 2: Best practices Funding (As identified by review committee) 6.Connect analysis and decisions to the budgeting process 7.Rationalize funding and enabling of both instructional and research computing

ENTERPRISE Question Should the campus CIO also manage the central IT operations unit? What conflicts are inherent in such a structure?

ENTERPRISE Step 3: Final Recommendations 1.The CIO function needs to be strengthened, defined more clearly and differentiated from the function of running IS&T. 2.The CIO should be involved in formulating all campus-level IT budget requests. 3.Etc., etc.

ENTERPRISE Question Why do IT governance practices in higher education differ so much from best practices in successful corporations?