sailing the seven c’s with a campus it project: a voyage of epic proportions

Sailing the Seven C’s with a Campus IT Project:

A Voyage of Epic Proportions

The Players:Monisha ShuklaSimone Knapp

Rick Bunt

The Challenge of Central IT

Local units

Central IT

A fable about engaging a campus

community in technology projects

Our Saga BeginsAn epic journey in which a hearty band of IT adventurers sail the troubled waters of campus culture, battling challenges of mythical proportions—storms, monsters, temptation—to introduce a campus portal.

For a portal named PAWS to set sail

It needed to blaze a new trailIt travelled the seaNow listen with me

As we recount this wonderful tale!

The good ship PAWS sets out on its noble

quest.

… and the adventures

begin!

The sea god Poseidon lashes the sea into a storm with his trident …

• Storms of mistrust … team’s credibility threatened by campus experiences with unsuccessful technologies.

• Scylla: the 6-headed monster that’s hard to kill.

Need to build trust through effective partner engagement.

Sweet singing sirens lure sailors to their doom …

• Sound like vendor promises?

Odysseus plugs the ears of his crew with wax so they can pass …

Charybdis swallows the sea in a whirlpool …

• Scope explosion will suck you into the abyss.

Need to maintain focus.

Aeolus (the keeper of the winds) releases a hurricane that blows the ship back to where it started …

And just when you think you’re almost there …

Three days before our launch date …

In September 2003 we went live with a campus-wide portal (PAWS).

What have we learned from our

journey?

Our Seven C’sCo-development

Communication

Consolidation

Coordination

Customization

Credibility

Community

Co-development

• Local unit develops the application, central team integrates

• Co-development requires transparent processes and clear guidelines

Some of our Co-developers

• Student & Enrolment Services• Arts & Science• IT Services• Library• Financial Services• Human Resources• Alumni• Medicine

Why does co-development work?

• Idea generation from the broad university community

• Deeper sense of ownership and engagement

• Improved standardization and campus-wide acceptance.

• Frees up central resources • A mutual win-win

Communication• Monthly meetings with co-developers (service providers)

• Regular feedback from users and developers

• Matured from “pushing out” communications

• Seize opportunities to “make a connection”

Why is Communication Important in an IT Project?

•No news is good news – NOT!•May discover better ways of doing things

•A key part of effective communication is listening

Consolidation

• Consolidation is not about empire building

• An opportunity to eliminate redundancies and reduce confusion

• Needs effective central leadership

Customization

• Customization provides the opportunity for targeted, value-added applications and content.

• Tabs for targeted audiences• Time-sensitive tabs • Even the PAWS banner changes often to

reflect the current campus mood…

Credibility

• People mistrust technology and those who provide it

• Build trust

• Incremental change

• Nothing beats proven effectiveness – Reliable election results

– Robustness during a blizzard

– Analytics and statistics build credibility

Coordination• People working together to achieve a

common goal– Competing agendas among collaborators can

make for a formidable challenge.

• Essential to have a champion in senior administration.

Portal Services Manager

PAWSTechnical Lead

PAWSContent Lead

Portal Policy Management Committee

Portal Steering Committee

PAWS Stakeholders(Academic and Administrative Unit Co-developers)

Personnel from Help Desk, Training,

Systems and Database, Instructional Services Plus Content Back-upPAWS Developer

The PAWS Team TargetedAnnouncers

Community

• To serve a community, we need to become a community

• Campus-wide IT projects are community projects.– Implementing technology is as much a social

exercise as a technical one.

• Over 500 community groups

• 260 bulletins posted on bulletin board in its first year

• 57,560 classified ads in our classified ads channel– 1,686 active today

• 16,000 unique users daily– 2,100 concurrent sessions

• 1.2 million page hits daily

Communities share common interests, common goals,

a common purpose.

Engaging the campus community in our IT projects…

• Encourage co-development• Communicate effectively (two-way)• Consolidate through “persuasive

standardization” • Balance the needs of service providers

and end users• Embrace customization• Build trust and credibility• Strive for mutual success

…the gift that keeps on giving!

Community building pays dividends:

“They came first for the food, now they come because they’re engaged…”

Building engagement may seem obscureWhen many monsters you have to

endure. So, learn from our fableAnd soon you'll be able

To sail through your C’s for sure.

Questions?Monisha Shukla:

Portal Services Manager, Information Technology Servicesmonisha.shukla@usask.ca

Simone Knapp:Communications Officer, Information Technology Services

simone.knapp@usask.ca

Rick Bunt:AVP Information and Communications Technology

rick.bunt@usask.ca

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