Archive for the ‘ IT Management ’ Category

Check Conference – Keynote – Connecting a Global Campus

Connecting a Global Campus – Duke University.

Dr. Louis Fox

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The Landscape at Duke

– How IT Supports Global Aspirations

– Context

– Duke Global

– Global IT Process : Discovery, Preparation, Implementation

– Global Wide Area Network and Local Network

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10 Schools, 3 Hospitals

13,000 Students- 50 50 Split Grad/UG

International Student Population has grown substantially.

60% of the student population have studied abroad.

Key strategic theme is internationalization of the University.

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Globalization – Global Start

International Programs

– Beginning – Sending students abroad

– Then moving to a reciprocal

– NOW – A Global Network with a focus on collaboration between partnered institutions. We want to be embedded and connected. Part of the cultural experience and connected to really enable a theme of cross cultural collaboration.

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Knowledge Developed through Engagement with the world.

– Vision – Truly international university.Presentation of strengths to enable complex community and human interactions across international borders.If we remain anchored at home, we would not be able to reap the benefits of aninternationalized education community. Can not expect the world to be like us. Must seek out to learn and utilize the cultures of others in the education community and exploit them to ensure a true multicultural educational experience.

Key Point – If Students do not have some form of international experience, the students are not adequately prepared to work and serve in a truly global work force.

Longstanding Internationalization Efforts

– Global MBA Program – Built in the 1990s

– International Law Program

– Duke Center for International Development- training internation civil servants.

Duke Global

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Partnerships have enabled improvement of on campus and international program development

– Currently building a 200 Acre Campus in China. Focus is on the delivery of workforce preparation programs

– Cross Continent MBA Program – Students are drawn from all over the world and work in different international locations to complete their course work and program requirements.  Emersion program. 14 Month program. Focus on Major Market Cities and Centers.

– IT Focus – IT provides the architecture for the dissemination of content to all areas and students.

– Duke Global Health Institute – Proliferation of centers of excellence. 7 specific institutes selected as areas for internal expansion.

– Duke Engage –

Major Questions for Central IT

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How can technology help to build community, but not impinge on the local experience>

Three Phase Approach

1.) Discovery – Late 2008

IT International Summit.. 10 University CIOs brought together to detail the role of information technology in advancing Dukes Intl Programs.

2.) Preparation – Early 2009

Consultant Engaged Dec 08

Meeting with Schools for scope and requirements definition

MOU development articulate roles and responsibilities – Established OIT

3.) Execution of Planned PReparation

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Focus on Infrastructure, Tools, Business Controls and how each can be leveraged to build community in a globalization effort.

Programs range from Ad Hoc to Formal  – Runs the spectrum of dispearsed to Concentrated.

There are things that can be done accross the spectrum

– International Calling Plans

– Video Journals and Blogs

– Campus in a Box Networking

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Major Efforts – Implementation

– Network, Systems and Facilityies – Consisten, Seamles, Secure Access to duke network and systems worldwide

Partner Opps

– CISCO and other Referenced

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International WAN Connectivity

– Hub based architecture – Sites for bridging telecom, telepresence, content/media caching,

– Looking into the possibility of cloudsourcing services to mitigate the censorship issues.

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Campus in a box

– Connection Types

– Broadband/DSL

– Ethernet

– Satalite

-Capabilities

– Wired

– Wireless

– Firewalls/VPN

– VOIP

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Duke Digital Media EcoSystem

– Collaborate

Audio Conference – Instant Conference – WAudio Video Chat – Web Collboration – Video Conferencing

– Telepresence – International Web Site with Collaboration Options specified and potential issues associated with respective options.

– Create

– Transcode

– Store/Retrieve

– Deliver

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Collaboration 2.0

– Telepresence – The largest telepresence room in Higher Education. Duke has moved beyond distance education to presence education.

– Keep It Simple – No gear beyond a phone in the room. Make usable, natural and easy.

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Commentary to come.

TJ

Check Conference 2010 – FHSU

Check Conference

I made the trek to Hays this morning to attend the Check Conference (Conference on Higher Education Computing in Kansas). What a lovely drive… long but lovely. This year, Emporia State University is presenting or co-presenting sessions on Synchronous Learning Environment Experiences, The Evolution of a Technical Services Portal, Remote Assistance and the CIO roundtable. Brian Osbourn, Cory Falldine and Michael Erickson are the TCS representatives presenting.

I am definitely looking forward to a great conference. The following sessions are on my agenda.

1.) Synchronicity in an Asynchronous World – ESU

2.) State Security Policy and You – KSU

3.) Workforce Changes in a Maturing IT Industry – KANREN/USD450

4.) Using SoftChalk Lesson Builder for Instructional Design – KSU

5.) The Evolution of the PMO at KU -KU

6.) Organizing Web Developer Communication on a Decentralized Campus

7.) CIO Roundtable – BOR CIOs

Heres to a great CHECK 2010!

TJ

Would you like to SCRUM?

Would you like to Scrum? – 0632

 The benefits of this class

–       Why agile methodologies?

  • They were devised to address quicker response in the development of software
  • Dynamic and Flexible Methodologies for Gathering Requirements/Requests, Development Cycles to improve Product to Market delivery.
  • Principles (Agile Manifesto)
    • Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools
    • Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
    • Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiations
    • Responding to Change over Following a plan.
  • Examples of Agile Methodologies – Share Common Agile Traits
    • SCRUM
    • XP
    • Adaptive Software Development
    • DSDM
    • Crystal Clear
    • Feature Driven Development
    • Lean Development (LD)
  • Commonalities among Agile Methodologies
    • Self Organizing Teams
    • Iterative, with a Functional deliverable at the end of the iteration
    • Regular and planned communication and team interaction
    • Short protected periods of time to create work product (sprint, time boxes, etc…)
    • Scalable (Functions well when size/volume changes)
  • Roles in Scrum
    • Three primary roles
      • Product Owner
      • Scrum Team
      • Scrum Master (Project Manager)
      • Others…Users, Stakeholders, Consulting Experts.
  • Work in the Backlog is a collection of User Stories
    • Contains the following elements
      • Informal statement of requirements
        • As a (End User Role)
        • I want to (Achieve a goal/the desire)
        • So that I can (the rationale/value)
        • What what why, not how.
        • Clarification of requirements in a realistic content
  • Product Backlog
    • Interest of the product owner
  • Sprint Backlog
    • Interest of the Scrum Team
  • How do we monitor?
    • Daily Scrum – Standup 15 Minute Meeting (3 Questions)
      • What did you do in the last 24 hours
      • What are you going to do in the next 24 hours
      • Is anything getting in the way of you completing your work? What obstacles need to be removed. Scrum Master is responsible for getting the obstacles out of the way.
    • Burndown Chart.
      • During the sprint the scrum master maintains the sprint burndown chart to show estimated work remaining, updating it after the daily scrum. Work can increase if estimates are off or if rework is required for specific tasks.
    • How is a Scrum organized?
      • Scrum is organized based upon the needs of the organization.
    • Other skills/knowledge/decisions
      • How do we help product owners prioritize their backlog
      • How to develop good estimates?
        • Planning poker.
        • Writing good user stories
          • The basic skill is facilitation… being able to effectively coordinate the efforts of others.
          • Is your organization ‘ready’ for scrum?
            • Simple method that is new and different… seems a bit loose but change can be a challenge.
    • Daily Scrum/Standup Meeting  Can be Used Now.
    • During the spring… no changes are allowed in the iteration.
    • No problem solving during the Daily Scrum…. Only after the meeting.
  • Sprint Retrospective (ie. Lessons learned)
    • A more frequent review of what worked well and should be repeated and what didn’t work an should be changed or abandoned.
  • How is SCRUM being used by Sungard HE?
    • Product development, including eLearning integration and FlexReg
    • SGHE project implementations: Digital Campus approach for the SGHE Team is SCRUM based.

SCRUM U – SCRUMU.org

  • Collaborative group of universities using the SCRUM method. 

Can you use SCRUM in an ERP implementation? 

– Consider agile values that can be applied to ERP project implementations. 

  • Work incrementally
  • Open Communication
  • Feedback to help guide the next steps
  • Daily standups
  • YAGNI – You are Not Going to Need It. 

 

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Commentary: 
Scrum is an excellent, simple agile process for application development project management. The presentation displayed scrum in a realistic context through the use of examples by SunGard and clients. Emporia State University will be piloting the use of the Scrum process for the design, development and implementation of the new Assessment Management System. 

SunGard HE Application Hosting

Banner Application Hosting – 0383

Application Hosting

–       Core Components for the Service Offering

  • Data Ceneter
  • Server Hardware
  • OS Licensing and Security
  • OS Database and Appolication Administration
  • Monitoring

–       Purpose Built Data Center

  • Built to be a multi-customer data center

–       Data Center Utility Platform

  • High Performance Data Center Utility
  • Sungard managed
  • High Availability, Scalability and Flexibility
  • High Performance ISP Connectivity
  • Multiple ISP Connectivity

–       Server Hardware

  • X86
  • Dell Primary Servers

–       Storage

–       Backups

  • Use VRanger and ArcServe
  • Level 1 Disk 2 Disk Backups
  • Level 2 Robotic Tape Library

–       Comprehensive Information Security Model

  • SGHE Staff – AD using two factor authentication
  • Encrypted access protocols

 

What is included in the Application Hosting Solution

–       Client Responsibilities – User Liaisons, Application Support, Programmer Analysts, Application Licenses, Management/ Director

–       SunGard Responsibilities – Information Security, Data Center, Server and Network Hardware, Server and Network Administration, Operating System Administration, DBA, Application Administration, Systems, Monitoring, 24X7 Contact Support, OS Licenses.

Application Management – Subset of Application Hosting

–       OS Administration, DBA, Application Admin, App Monitoring, 24×7 Support

–       Will support third party application hosting also.

–       Will coordinate scheduled upgrades with client liason… Development, Test and Production Instances.

Sungard HE has been in the hosting business for about 7 years.

–       Clients would benefit from the many skills and experiences.

–       Team members are application specialists

–       Well over 500+ person years of experience.

–       No single human point of failure.

Customer Benefits

–       Predictable Costs – Hardware Layer, Software Layer and Administration Resources

–       Peace of Mind – Secure in the skillset of the resources assigned to your team

–       Skill Gap – Availability of staff talent.

  • Resource Loss.

–       Excess Demand – Reduction of stretched staff responsibilities. During the peak periods when we need additional support, the agreement can be leveraged to get additional staff in place to support the priorities of the institution

–       Enhanced Reliability – Removal of single points of technical failure.

–       Enable customer centric activities. 

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Commentary: 

It seems that this service offering is a natural fit for institutions who are looking to outsource hardware, os, application and database administration support to a more predictive approach to service management and provisioning. It would be an interesting exercise to conduct an apples to apples comparison of the fiscal impact of institutional hosted solution versus SunGard hosted solutions. The primary areas of savings potential is human resource, hardware and remote data center disaster recovery sites. 

One good point made during the presentation was the fact that IT talent, specifically in the areas of database administration and banner applications administration, is hard to come by in rural areas. When working with an outsourced vendor to provide application management and administration support, this issue becomes less of a critical issue as SunGard provides top-notch talent for all administrative areas. 

Overall, the session provided a good breakdown of the Application Hosting Service offering. However, more information concerning the cost of the ‘typical’ hosted environment would have been beneficial. Justification of cost savings from institutional hosting to SunGard hosting would have helped in making a case for a shift in model. 

Regards, 

TJ

IT Budgets and Services Under the Knife

Under the KnifeI recently came across Bridget McCrea’s “Campus IT Under the Knife Article”  article published on the Campus Technology website http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/03/04/campus-it-under-the-knife.aspx .

The article focuses on a subject that is a dire reality for many, if not all higher education information technology departments… budget cuts and the associated impact on services and support.

Many state funded higher education institutions are continuing to face significant budget cuts due to state revenue shortages. Being that information technology is often viewed as a cost center, it is quite often one of the first areas dissected for potential budget cuts. However, in my experience in higher education IT, there is not much to cut without adversly affecting existing services offered to the student, faculty and staff user community.  

One benefit described in the article, is that the University of Illinois has engaged a cross-functional committee to evaluate IT spending with an aim towards defining potential areas for cost and budget reduction. This level of community engagement often occurs during times of crisis or highly visible project planning and execution. Hopefully the University of Illinois will be able to keep this level of engagement up and incorporate cross-functional active engagement into it’s IT governance structure.

Regards,

TJ

MOKABUG 2009 – Information Security by Committee

Implementation of information security practices as committee based work at Missouri State University. At MSU, a Information Security Executive Committee was formed with Each VP and C-Level position represented.

The committee is structured around the following assumptions.

  • The individuals represented are considered decision makers for campus governance.
  • Each Member should report to their sponsor.
  • Give IS staff access to all areas of the University.

 

ISEC Goals

  • Develop a request for proposal to solicit external security assessment consulting services
  • Review and enhance existing policies and develop new policies
  • Develop effective marketing and education plans to inform and raise awareness
  • Develop a response plan for security breach
  • Develop desired security characteristics (Shared Vision)

**Side Bar ** Title III Grant Used to Assess Security Management Practices – Interested to see the grant proposal

At MSU, ISEC reports to the CIO. There is an active Information Security Office. Within the unit there are three employees… (1) ISO (2) Compliance Specialist and (3) Graduate Assistant.

Committee Membership

  • Legal – Keep this relationship good
  • Internal Audit – They know everything that is going on; Actually represent the University president; Dual reporting – President and Board.
  • Finance – PCI and ERP
  • Faculty – Need to know what they are doing and why. Academic and Faculty Senate Representation (Not Decision Makers  Exception to the rule)
  • Campus Security
  • Staff
  • Student – One from the Student Government Association
  • Medical – Due to HIPAA
  • All Campuses
  • Need Non-Technical Members (Average Users)
  • ****WHAT ABOUT STUDENT REGISTRATION**

Subcommittees

  • Play an important role
  • Subcommittees give products to main committee
  • Policy Subcommittee
  • Awareness and Training SubCommittee
  • Ad Hoc Sub Committees too!

Liaisons

  • Another type of committee
  • Internal rather than external
  • Can be a tremendous help! Keep them interested!
  • Communicate with them – Get Feedback and Act on It!

ADVICE

  • Maintain a strong agenda
  • Meet regulatory
  • Keep at a high level
  • Let them help! – MAKE SURE THEY DO!!!
  • Be Visible – The institution community should know you; Make sure committee is listed in a directory

Realities

  • Members are busy
  • Difficult to get high ranking meeting
  • Meetings must be run in a concise manner
  • A product should come from each meeting
  • Each member is directly affected
  • Most members are not technical (Sharepoint) – Members hate it.
  • They will speak their mind!! Let them!!

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Good presentation. Provided valuable insights into the management of an information security committee.

Regards,

TJ

MOKA BUG 2009 – SunGard’s Future Direction

This morning, Paul Setze, SunGard VP of Services,  delivered the keynote address for the MOKA BUG 2009 Conference. The focus of the session was to review changes in service and support delivery. The following represents key points reviewed in the session.

Open Digital Campus: Vision for the Future

  • Past: Built business on core ERP systems built upon robust technology framework (Oracle).
  • Current Expectations: New products, services and suppor

Future: Provide Solution that better map to pain points and satisfy specific needs

  • Lighter modular functions
  • Flexible delivery models (SaaS)
  • Modern Tech Tools – SOA, RIA, Cloud Computing, Business Process Platforms
  • By keeping things modular, Sungard is able to scale solutions up or down depending on institutional needs

Shortest Distance to meeting customers needs

  1. Focus on Customers First
  2. Cultivate Community Involvement
  3. Extending Campus Environments
  4. Flexible, Iterative and incremental in delivery
  5. Innovating with new products and services

Issues:

  • Inconsistent UI
  • Usability Features
  • Not Enough Flexibility
  • Too Few Options
  • Current Solutions insufficient to meet all customer needs
  • Meaningful exchange between between customers and vendor
  • ability to share innovations (Community Driven)

UI Modernization Goals

  • User centric design approach
  • Improve usability through consistent, effective design
  • Deliver an appropriate
  • Move away from Oracle Forms…. Moving to Flex and HTML 5 for all product

Consolidation of user interfaces

  • Consistent streamlined and personalized user experience
  • Rich interactions.

Common Platform Planned for Q4 2009 (SSB)

  • Common UI Planform = Consistent User Experiences
  • Common header, footer, look/feel, nav and help
  • Transformed UI will run inside the platform
  • End of 2010 – Common UI delivered across all products

Sungard Strategies

  • Hosted Applications – Q4-2009/ Q1-2010 (SaaS)
  • Evaluation of the Banner Enrollment Management Suite – Q3-2009 (Modular Development)
  • Community-Source Unified Digital Campus – Q4-2009/Ongoing

New Products – SALES PITCH!!

  • Flexible Registration – Simple on Demand web based system; alows learners to register and pay for credit and non-credit classes; supports traditional and non-traditional learners; is an extension of banner; does not break existing processes; minimal administrative oversight; See Sungard Site for further information on the features!
  • Signals – Helps instructors identify at risk students early in the semester ; Early intervention leads to improved performance, increasing the number of Bs and Cs; Benefits – Early notification and behavior changes; integration to courseware.
  • Relationship Management – Change in strategy, open the environment for relationship management across the institution (Prospects, Students and Alumni), Bolt on Applications are coming
  • UDC Academy – Online interactive training program – Banner Finance, Student, Financial Aid and Human Resources – Instructional videos, tutorials, exercises, review questions

Technology Management Services

  • Tech Services Advisory Board – Made up of current customers to guide the development of professional services towards IT Management Professional Services. Areas of Focus – Security Management

Regards,
TJ

Web 2.0 @ Work… Benefits and Security Implications

Within the current web landscape, many different Web 2.0 tools are available for both personal and business related purposes. These tools are often freely available and can provide significant benefits in enabling virtual team collaboration, enhanced communications and collaborative document management. While the potential benefits are great, the potential for data and information security related issues, such as data breaches or system compromises, are equally as great and must be managed accordingly.

The use of Web 2.0 tools @ work was surveyed in a recent Dynamic Markets research study. The focus of the study was to determine IT Management perceptions and understanding of Web 2.0 tools while assessing organizational security preparedness in a post Web 2.0 world. The following key findings provide an IT oriented perspective on current perceptions and security awareness in the use of Web 2.0 tools in the workplace.

– 95 percent of respondents currently allow employee access to some Web 2.0 sites and applications – most commonly webmail, mashups and wikis.

– 62 percent of IT managers believe that Web 2.0 is necessary to their business.

– 86 percent of IT managers reported feeling pressured to allow more access to more types of Web 2.0 sites and technologies.

– 30 percent of respondents reported pressure coming from C-level executives and director level staff.

– 34 percent reported pressure coming from marketing departments.

– 32 percent reported pressure coming from sales departments.

These survey results provide insight into the use and future use of Web 2.0 tools in the work place. In essence, Web 2.0 tools are here to stay and organizations must be well prepared in the areas of security policy, use guidelines and enforcement methods to ensure the appropriate use of such tools in a business environment.

 

 

Cheers,

TJ