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Governance Minutes ArchiveJanuary 20, 1994
MINUTES Computing Committee Information Systems Building January 20, 1994 3:30 PM PRESENT: K.B. Rojiani, Erv Blythe, David Goodyear, Tom McAnge, Gerry McLaughlin, Harlan Miller, Ernest Stout, D. B. Stout, John Tombarge, Michael Williams ABSENT: Sean Arthur, Gregory Brown, John Burton, Scott Johnson, Katherine Johnston, George Libey, Bhaba Misra, Terry Rakes, Frank Schima, Peter Shires, Lawrence Skelly, Jay Stoeckel VISITOR(S): Barbara Robinson and Bill Sanders (Computing Center) Carol Eggleston (Information Systems) William Holbach (Internal Audit) Joe Tront (College of Engineering) A special meeting was called to inform committee members on an Information Systems proposal to address pressing administrative computing systems problems. Regular business was postponed until the February meeting. The University has struggled for some years with administrative computing applications based on old proprietary technology with deficient capabilities. Years of development, however, represent an enormous investment from which it is difficult to break loose. Administrative areas believe these old systems, described as obsolete, jury-rigged and incomplete, are preventing them from becoming more effective and efficient. There is concern that the current incremental plan to move to modern systems is random and will take too long. Information Systems agrees that 90's technology developed from a broad perspective holds promise for administrative systems. Systems development has been piecemeal in the past since allocated resources were only sufficient to handle one system at a time. A parallel implementation plan would involve 30-40 systems, affecting 10,000 administrative users. The University has over one million CMS files, one hundred thousand program modules, one hundred thousand MVS datasets and prints over one hundred million pages per year. All systems can be migrated on a fast-track schedule into open systems technology with improved integration. It would not be possible to mimic current processes, however, since the migration would require using largely unmodified, off-the-shelf software, at least initially. Real gains in efficiency come from examining business processes, however, and the migration could encourage that to happen. The knowledge of administrative systems and processes lies outside Information Systems, and it would be necessary to draw on that knowledge and experience for rapid migration to succeed. Most development/maintenance work must be suspended, restructuring the efforts of all computer staff for core administrative areas, 90% of whom work outside Information Systems. (University data processing staff has more than doubled since the 70's to over 200 employees. Since 1982, however, there has been virtually no growth in Computing Center/Systems Development staff and nearly all application development occurs outside Information Systems. FRS, for example, was implemented by the Controller's Office.) Since the project entails significant risk and extraordinary effort, it is important to utilize the University's most talented staff members, even at the expense of some normal operational activities. An Information Systems management group, including select individuals from affected administrative areas, would oversee the project which would be divided into three areas, database management systems/server services, administrative client infrastructure and training, and the administrative system migration teams. The project must be tightly coordinated and highly disciplined, building and enforcing a project management plan with deliverables. Updating the skill set of University application developers is difficult when traditional development and maintenance activities are so demanding and management is not uniformly focused on that goal. Restructuring would provide leadership committed to providing comprehensive training for all developers. An arbitrator with the authority to effect changes to processes and systems will also be required, a responsibility delegated to the Vice President for Information Systems. At the same time, the Vice President must be assured of access to the Executive Vice President and Provost to keep them informed of problems requiring arbitration. Proposed funding for the project, about $2 million per year, would be obtained via reallocations within Information Systems and administrative areas. Funding would be required for end user technology and literacy infrastructure, database servers and core systems hardware and software, and contract labor, and training of development staff. In three years, a baseline set of integrated core systems would be in place, eliminated the University's dependency on proprietary hardware. This proposal has been generally well-received. There is a good understanding in the University community of the inefficiencies of existing systems, as evidenced by the concerns expressed by the Computing Committee. A decision on implementation is expected by the end of January. A positive reaction on the part of the committee can be helpful in building momentum toward a decision to proceed. The next meeting will be held on February 2 at 3:30 p.m. in conference room D in the Information Systems Building. Meeting adjourned at 5:25pm.
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