Practical Information Technology Management Group Three Status Report 3

MIT PORTAL PROJECT STATUS REPORT Practical IT Management Provide a dashboard light of the overall prospects for achieving the project as laid out in the original project plan: green, yellow, or red Green Yellow Red Task completed or able to be completed on deadline Task has missed the deadline by two weeks or less Task has missed the deadline by more than two weeks Objectives Status 1. Determine necessary costs and resources – Green 2. Identify portal implementation issues – Green 3. Identify portal operational issues – Green 4. Document best practices – Green 5. Create reliable documentation – Green I. Accomplishments 1. Contacts: SloanSpace Julie Bergfeld Assoc Director, Academic Comp & Web Development Susie Lee – Made initial contact on the week of April 4, 2005. North Carolina State University Gwen Hazlehurst Director of Enterprise Information Systems Armando Valdes – Initial contact rescheduled for Wednesday, April 13, 2005. Duke University (UPortal Open-Source) Deborah Johnson Assistant Vice Provost and Director of Student Administrative Services Tiffany Kosolcharoen – Made initial contact on Friday, April 8, 2005. Tiffany received information that will be compiled this weekend (April 16) and will conduct follow-up interviews afterwards. University of Cincinnati (SAP External Contact) Jim Lewis, Associate Director UCit Systems & Operations Adam Powell will make initial contact on Wednesday, April 13, 2005. Baylor University – No contact Bill Bevil, CSE, Sr. Project Manager Baylor College of Medicine Bill Bevil wrote, “I will get back to soon as possible - we are in the process of going live this weekend with SAP Supplier Relationship Management, SAP XI and Enterprise Portal and a new Identity Management system.” Out of respect for his schedule, we will not include Baylor University as part of our studies. Central Michigan – Renae Eckland, Director of Information Technology – no response 2. Interview Template: On Friday, April 1, Wayne Turner met with Tiffany Kosolcharoen to receive official approval for the document. Please scroll below to view the attached external interview questions. 3. MIT Case Study: The MIT case study is pending approval. Wayne Turner provided initial suggestions to Adam Powell to create an updated version of the case study. Wayne and Adam will meet again to revise the MIT case study. 4. Meeting with Professor Gibson and Evan Mamas On Tuesday, April 5, Susie, Adam and Tiffany met with Professor Gibson and Evan Mamas. We learned to apply our case studies and class findings to our report. Specifically: 1. Include the Baxter University case study in our findings – The Harvard Business School created a three-part case study of the Baxter University IT change management process. Through multiple class discussions, the insights generated from the ADP case will provide a solid example of the importance of human organizations in IT systems implementation. 2. Matrix – Drawing from the many frameworks we learned in class, Professor Gibson and Evan Mamas recommended we used matrices (like the Gibson matrix) to represent our findings. We will take this advice in creating our final report. II. Issues 1. SAP Portal Universities As of April 14, 2005 (upon due date of this status report), we are in contact with one SAP Portal university – the University of Cincinnati. The other university contacts have failed to reply. Therefore, our team will continue to research our successful external contacts and create a strong University of Cincinnati SAP Portal report. 2. Time With the final report due in less than twenty days, the ability to establish new contact is very limited. Scheduling the initial interviews already created a two-week challenge to coordinate with others’ schedules and time zones. Therefore, our team will leverage in-class resources (readings, websites, databases, frameworks) to strengthen our recommendations. Please see the actions to be taken below. 3. Team coordination Although it is only a minor issue, Susie, Adam and Tiffany have taken the majority of the initiative in writing reports, emailing contacts, editing our teammates’ feedback, etc. Armando’s inconsistent attendance makes it challenging to share ideas and apply lessons learned to our recommendations. On a positive note, Armando is quick to respond by email. However, it is difficult to correspond and assign deliverables to a teammate solely via email. III. Actions to be taken 1. Conduct external interviews (please see above ‘Accomplishments’) 2. Write up case studies On April 20, after Patriot’s Day weekend, our full team will have conducted the interviews and written initial case studies. We will re-contact the schools to clarify, edit, and add information to the external case studies. 3. Incorporate lessons learned from class With guest lecturer Professor Malone’s Project Handbook as an excellent resource for prior case studies, our team will incorporate research from the online database to be included as part of our studies. In addition, our prior matrix readings and frameworks will be used in creating our final recommendation report. IV. Reflections and Learning In conducting our external interviews, we have had to deal with unresponsive external contacts. People are busy, and it takes effort on both sides to establish contact. We are pleased with the enthusiasm of our successful external contacts. We have had the privilege of meeting some of the most enthusiastic IT directors and executives of external universities’ portals, and their passion for the portal clearly is a reason for their teams’ success. Finally, our group has created unofficial “roles” for each person. We never assigned duties for everyone, but each person has found his / her part in the team. Through the small group setting of our class, we each understand our teammates’ strengths and draw upon them in assigning deliverables. VI. Project Timeline Research university contact and their IT role Research portal technology (SAP, uPortal, etc.) of the university ________________________________________________________________________ During the Interview We will schedule a half-hour to an hour of time depending on the availability of the interviewee. Introduction Thank him/her for their time for a ____ minute interview. Explain MIT's definition of a portal: From the September 10, 2004 Migration Requirements Document: To provide customized one-stop-shopping for all administrative and self service applications and services. The primary audience for the Administrative Portal is MIT employees, but some applications, such as Student Group Reports, are specifically for students, and others, such as Training, are used by both employees and students. Transactions include: Benefits, Directory Information, Training resources; transactions for administrators of a DLC who work with their organization’s data - includes Financial, Master Data, and many other transactions. Definition of a Portal: A hub or gateway to locate commonly used content. A portal gives approved users access to web-based information, tools, and services from one location, with single sign-on1 and user-specific views. Roles-based profiles allow for dynamic, customized, personalized data. Use of portals allows for broadcast of messages or notifications, or narrower, targeted messages. Value of portals: single branding; link integrity; and due to customization of content, efficiency (time saving), reduced frustration, easier access to commonly used tools and information, and a more pleasurable experience. Motivating Factors > What were your driving factors to this portal implementation? > Who were the key people who helped drive the portal creation? > What is your definition of the portal? Resources > Budgeting - Exact costs (if possible) > Human Organization / Resources - Training - Access to Organization Chart 1 Because MIT uses certificates, it is more appropriate to think in terms of single session rather than single sign-on. Technology Selection > What made you decide upon (uPortal, SAP, etc.) technology? > Time / human efforts made in technology selection Portal Strategy > What features did you include / will include in your portal? - Functionality - Customization - Employee / Student needs > Student and/or administrative portal? > Was cost a factor in creating your portal? What were the limitations, if any? Portal Implementation > Gantt chart / Timeline of people and resources involved (if possible) > Steps taken in all aspects of change management - Budgeting - Organization - People - Training Response > What has the reaction been to the portal? - Students - IT Administrators - Faculty > How did you measure the “success” of your portal? > What were your learned successes and failures? Portal Maintenance / Future Activities > What are the actions needed to maintain your portal today? > Any new projects / additional features that you are adding to the portal? Follow-Up Contacts > Advice on whom to follow-up with > Advice on websites to read other resources _________________________________________________________________ After the Interview Thank you email to the interviewee Follow-Up with next people to contact and interviewee to keep him / her informed