Archive for the ‘ Project 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.