Recent progress in the University of Oregon’s information technology restructuring process, known as Transform IT, was the focus of a campus town hall meeting held March 16 by Jessie Minton, vice provost for information services and chief information officer.
Minton also provided an update on the development of the university's IT governance model.
Transform IT shifted last summer to a service-based approach. The announcement of that shift described a forthcoming campuswide inventory of IT services that would serve as the foundation for the new approach.
Work on that IT service inventory started in February as part of Transform IT's campus engagement project. On hand for introductions at the meeting were members of the team carrying out that work: project managers Tony Saxman and Garron Hale and newly hired business analysts Heather Dean and Kelsey Lunsmann.
After an initial process development phase involving the School of Music and Dance, College of Design and School of Journalism and Communication, the project team started surveying Information Services itself and UO Libraries. The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and Sponsored Project Services are also participating in the information-gathering process.
Information Services staff members have also worked to glean data from past IT-related consulting engagements, such as the 2016 report by consultant Harvey Blustain.
Between now and September, other units on campus are also being asked to participate, following a schedule released in February by Information Services, until the campuswide inventory is complete.
The process of analyzing the data gathered by the current project and of proposing any possible IT service changes will constitute the next project in Transform IT.
Transform IT’s service analysis project will be guided by a new advisory group within the university’s evolving IT governance structure. Minton worked last fall with a group of students, faculty and staff, including IT staff and campus leaders, to develop an IT governance model in which service advisory boards will feed up to domain subcommittees, and decisions will then move on to the IT steering committee and ultimately to the provost.
More information about Transform IT, including Minton's slides from the March 16 town hall meeting, is available on the Transform IT website, where Information Services posts updates at least every two weeks. More information about IT governance is available on the Information Services website.
—By Nancy Novitski, University Communications