2011 Archive - Lane Community College - Process Redesign Project

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Process Redesign Project

This is an archive of the Process Redesign web pages - for historical and reference purposes only

Appendix A
Opportunities List

College Approach to Technology Selection and Accountability for Technology Decisions

There is an opportunity for the Executive decision-makers at LCC to define and coordinate an overall technology directive in support of Process Redesign. The executive leadership must actively support directives that delineate technology boundaries to balance the departments' ownership of technology decisions (freedoms) with technology support that can be provided by CS (standards). This environment would support technology standards, particularly network standards which are critical with the rollout of the network. This environment would also demand accountability for no-standard technology decisions.

Economics of College System

The college operated under budget constraints. Absence of salary incentives has negative impacts on the retention of experienced resources and, therefore, systems knowledge in the CS department.

Computer Services Department Mission

CS should take this opportunity to clearly define and communicate its strategy for delivery of services. By defining specifically what services will be provided, CS can better manage customer expectations and prioritize tasks without being distracted by non-core activities.

Relationship between CS and Customers

Service levels and responsibilities can be defined to assist CS in establishing and managing Campus expectations for services. This environment will formalize the communication of status and priority of system requests and issues.

Security Standards and Escalation Procedures

There is an opportunity to develop standards and gain campus acceptance for security and security escalation procedures in the context of the network rollout.

Application Change Request and Application Change Management Guidelines

There is an opportunity to develop basic guidelines for change management of 'in-house' developed/modified applications that will ensure integrity and security of the systems environment.

Application Documentation Standards

Basis applications documentation standards for applications development, enhancements and modification activities should be established and integrated into the Systems Development Approach. A systems librarian function should be assigned as a focal point for applications documentation.

Application Testing and User Sign-Off Requirements

Requirements for applications testing and user-sign-offs for development and enhancement efforts should be established and integrated into the Systems Development Approach.

Customer Documentation Guidelines

Basic guidelines for user documentation can be developed by capitalizing on user documentation standards developed by individual programmer/analysts.

User Training

Computer Services should define what user training activities fall within its responsibilities. Policies in this area should be widely communicated across campus.

Communications Within CS

Implementing a format for communicating current activities and plans between CS groups has potential to facilitate service delivery and to reduce miscommunications which negatively affect users.

Training and Development of CS Personnel

Overall commitment to training has not been defined, resulting in instances where CS resources are not sufficiently trained in many areas in which they are expected to perform. Training should be leveraged to keep resources up to speed on new technologies.

Systems Development Approach

There is an opportunity to implement a systems development approach structure for in-house development. The approach should encompass user-requirements, system design, coding, systems documentation, testing, user acceptance, user documentation, user training and systems hand-off from Programming to Operations (menu altering). The overall methodology will simplify maintenance of the systems in the future. Absence of this infrastructure is apparent through the large percentage of programmers' time allocated to 'systems problem solving'.

Customer Training Process for Enterprise Network and Mainframe Applications

Training of users should be performed in a timely fashion with the delivery of new or modified enterprise network and mainframe applications, and as a part of the overall systems development approach. CS has the opportunity to work with customer department in coordinating training activities.

Project Prioritization Ownership and Tracking

The entire management of user requests--including prioritization, ownership and tracking--should be modeled around the customer to capture appropriate information and provide feedback mechanisms to the customers. [This opportunity is closely tied to the effective use of project management tools.]

Delegation of Project Management Responsibilities

Opportunity to determine the proper division of responsibilities between Project Management and Programming and Analysis. Potential to capitalize on staff relationships and skills to give them more responsibility in initially project phases, project scoping and balancing of the Ir. worked while maintaining overall coordination of Projects centrally. [This opportunity is closely tied to the effective use of project management tools.]

Delineation in Management & Tracking between Customer Project Requests and Problem Resolution Requests

CS should develop standards which improve the delineation between 'new project requests' and 'requests to resolve existing system problems'. More precise definition of these activities will enable a more accurate identification of work processes for each category and will provide better scoping of total work efforts and workload assignment.

Help Desk Problem Resolution, Escalation and Tracking

Opportunities for moving forward with a well-supported Help Desk, Problem Resolution, Escalation, Prioritization and Tracking infrastructure should be aggressively pursued. CS should explore possibilities for a central campus-wide point of contact that dispatches calls to all groups who provide technology assistance to users. Assignment of primary, secondary and tertiary support should receive careful consideration. Baseline maintenance activities/projects should be separated from problem resolution activities.

Work Order Management

Overall planning and management of the work order dispatch and performance process can effectively target resources to perform value added tasks in a more timely manner. Work orders are defined as requests for information technology work, including, but not limited to programming requests, h/w &s/w requests and problem resolution requests.

Technology Products Planning, Evaluation and Rollout

There is an opportunity to design processes to provide strategic planning for technology, product evaluation, and overall architecture and to promote these proactively as campus-wide technology initiatives. Overall strategic planning should also include plans for long term migration of systems from older technology to newer technology when appropriate.

Building and Marketing of Technology Center

As CS identifies technology standards, there is an opportunity to educate users and to get buy-in to campus standards through the development of as hands-on Technology Lab or Information Center where users can interact with standard campus systems.

Use of Metrics/ Measurements (Benchmarks)

Formal methods of measurement to determine performance level, workload level and trends are not leveraged to provide valuable information for long-term, evaluation and planning. Metrics should be used to identify time attributed to lack of standards, to manage project priorities and to perform trend analysis for planning purposes.

Time Reporting and Workload Management Approach

Back-end analysis of employee time reporting should be analyzed consistently across the entire CS department to manage workload effectively and to scope and perform against customer requests in an efficient manner.

Customer Focus and Relationship Management

CS has the opportunity to develop processes that identify the approach to the customer relationship and to align resources to best accommodate customer needs.

Customer Communications Approach

There is a need for communication (i.e. newsletters, seminars, project expectation/management/feedback) back to the Customer groups regarding activities within CS

Computer/Desktop Acquisition Process

In connection with the identification of standards, CS has an opportunity to affect the desktop acquisition process and to define the responsibilities of the parties involved.

Desktop Provisioning Process

There is an opportunity to delineate roles and responsibilities of the parties involved in the overall approach to providing, burning-in and conducting user training for new desk-top systems across campus.

Capacity Planning for Systems & Network

Capacity for planning should be performed pro-actively by a constant level of monitoring and systems analysis and based on projections of campus demand. Vendor input should be balanced with in-house capacity planning in making capacity decisions.

Realignment of CS Resources Induced by Technological Change

The alignment of resources within CS should be reevaluated based on new capabilities and demands of implemented technology. Over time, metrics and time reporting will provide the information necessary to continuously adapt the organization to changing work-load demands driven by technological changes.

Vendor Management

CS should be integrally aware of vendor contract provisions. CS should actively manage vendors to the contract and ensure vendor commitment to service levels.

Enhancing Use of Project Planning Management Tools

Efficiencies and streamlining of development/maintenance projects through project management tools should be explored. Policies surrounding the use of the tools will aid in their effectiveness.

Ad Hoc Reporting Tools

Appropriate ad hoc reporting tools should be evaluated, selected and distributed with user training to meet user needs for custom reporting. Ad Hoc reporting will enable users to transform 'mainframe data' into 'usable information'. CS should take the opportunity to pro-actively select a standard ad hoc tool and train users before proliferation of unique tools.

Proximity of Programmer/Analysts to Users

There are opportunities to bring the programmers closer to actual users in the process of designing applications. Users, who may be withholding requests due to prior interaction, may feel more direct responsiveness from CS. A division of responsibilities between programmers and system programmers should be more clearly established.

Division of Baseline Support Versus User-Focused Support

Identification of requirements to provide baseline activities will enable management of user-focused support (i.e. projects, problems, etc.) and overall resource management.

Alignment of Technology Resources Between Computer Services and Campus Departments

Opportunities exist to balance user freedom for supporting individualized technologies with economies of scale and control management from centralized technology support in CS.

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