“The ever-changing nature of technology, growing demand for reliable systems, and existing fiscal constraints present UWM technology professionals with considerable challenges. Rising to the challenge, the campus IT community has begun the process of reinventing itself and its approach to service delivery and support.”— Joe Douglas, UWM CIO in September 2003 Focus on Technology article titled “Core Services – Campus Collaborations.”
On December 10, David Stack of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) kicked off a presentation to communicate an approach recommended by the OIT as the campus improves its processes for IT planning and architecture.
Technology professionals from across the campus were at this well-attended presentation given by Paul Trebian and Bruce Maas, both of the OIT. Trebian, as Deputy CIO of Systems Integration, is responsible for IT architecture planning and design and change management services. Maas, as Deputy CIO of Major Projects, is responsible for project development, coordination and planning services.
Communication, Trust, Timely Response, Procedural Approach, Division of Responsibility, Accountability
During Trebian’s presentation, he explained that information technology planning at UWM has a renewed focus on customer needs. In his OIT role, Paul has been researching examples of current technology architecture processes within higher education and advocates that UWM focus on aligning its technology architecture with customer requirements and objectives versus providing technologies recommended by vendors to campus clients.
According to Trebian, the processes in IT architecture design currently addressed by the UWM Core Service Teams, involve four phases:
1. Completing assessment activities to determine what the core service requirements are versus determining what the existing campus systems provide.
2. Identifying the campus objectives for the applied use of the core service technology.
3. Generating requirements for both the desired IT architecture design and the necessary people/processflows.
4. Guiding core service implementation to ensure that it stays on track.
“Core Service Teams do not disband after the design of a new or improved IT-related service. Key to the success of the Core Service Team approach is collaboration in the ongoing management and quality assurance of the delivered Core Service. The OIT maintains oversight of service delivery but the teams have an ongoing role in the management and delivery of Core Services.” — Joe Douglas, UWM CIO in September 2003 Focus on Technology article titled Core Services - Campus Collaborations.
Trebian emphasized that IT architecture is sometimes constrained by ineffective problem and resource management. Resource management includes measurements and metrics and Trebian will be exploring and introducing measurement and metric details next semester as the OIT continues this IT architecture discussion.
“UWM can achieve a higher level of technology service on campus by sharing resources and collaborating within the technology community”
Bruce Maas plays an important part in integrating UW System IT initiatives with UWM IT initiatives and performs key coordination and planning roles in Core Service Team activities. Bruce collaborates closely with the UW System Office of Learning and Information Technology (OLIT), an office tasked with supporting the use of technology to enhance the teaching and learning mission of all of the UW System institutions.
OLIT staff have responsibility for systemwide collaboration and enhancement of six major areas of information technology:
1. Overall systemwide IT planning
2. Technology for teaching and learning
3. Development of major administrative systems
4. Wide-area networking issues
5. Library automation and collections enhancement
6. Research and development in emerging technologies
Maas reminded the group that many technology initiatives within the UW System impact UWM. While much of this impact has been largely “below the radar” of many campus users, UW System and UWM are regularly working together to create and improve technology services:
• WiscNet, the member-governed non-profit cooperative provides wide-area infrastructure and managed network services to Wisconsin’s educational and civic institutions.
• I&MT’s Network Services Department (NOC) provides and supports the vast majority of the UWM network data connections, network routing, computer system traffic management, and IP (Internet Protocol) addressing.
• On top of the networks are servers run by UW System and UWM.
As the Technology Infrastructure Paradigm illustrates, students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners reside at the top of the pyramid and drill down into the IT architecture layers via their browser. Changes at the UWM and UW System lower levels can impact these vital customers’ experiences, as represented in the pyramid diagram above.
Maas informed the group that a newly-formed UW System working group, named the Common Systems Interoperability Architecture Working Group (CSIAWG), is currently meeting on a regular basis to define an IT architecture, not specific products, for interoperability between the UWS ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, e.g., APBS (Appointment, Payroll and Benefits System, D2L (Desire2Learn), and SFS (Shared Financial System). Marge Waala, an I&MT Director and head of Administrative Applications Solutions, is UWM’s representative to this group.
Maas also talked about a separate UW System team, the D2L Integration Team that is investigating the integration of D2L with other systems. For example, PeopleSoft is an emerging standard within UWS, but not every campus uses it; therefore multiple student information systems need to pass information to/from D2L. Some of the current faculty priorities for system integration are listed below. Bob Kaleta of UWM’s Learning Technology Center (LTC) represents UWM on that group.
Faculty Priorities for D2L integration
1. Integrate with the Libraries Electronic Reserve so that students can go directly to the appropriate E-Reserve readings directly from their D2L course Web site.
2. Integrate with the Libraries electronic databases and full-text online journals so that students and faculty can go directly from D2L to these online resources.
3. Integrate the D2L grade book with PeopleSoft so that final grades can be directly transferred to PeopleSoft, eliminating the need for faculty to fill out additional forms and do more work.
4. Integrate the D2L calendars with campus calendars that list important dates, e.g., and dropped deadlines, holidays, withdrawal dates, etc.
5.Integrate with PeopleSoft so that faculty can directly access their classlist from D2L to gain access to the student information that they need, i.e., student telephone number, status, classification etc., eliminating the need to exit D2L and log on separately to PeopleSoft in order to obtain this information.
6. Integration with Testing Services so that the grades from scanned answer sheets can go directly into D2L.
Maas ended his presentation by informing the attendees that a UW System Collaterals Working Group meets monthly in Madison, typically on the last Friday of the month. At this day-long meeting, the participants share and discuss common IT-related issues among the campuses regarding student information systems, other enterprise systems such as APBS and SFS and interoperability among these systems. The meeting has a UWM videoconference hookup in END 264.
Acknowledgments:
David Stack of the OIT office contributed much of the content for this article.
Bob Kaleta of the LTC contributed the Faculty Priorities for D2L Integration points.
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