What to keep an eye on:
Project Management
Effective project management is essential for successfully implementing large, complex technology projects in higher education institutions. Doctums' project management services are designed to meet the specific needs of these projects and the industry. Although agile methodologies are widely used, higher education projects often start with a waterfall approach to establish resource allocations, timelines, and milestones. The dynamic nature of higher education—characterized by limited client resources, concurrent project changes, and evolving regulatory requirements—necessitates the flexibility provided by integrating agile practices throughout the project lifecycle. This hybrid approach allows for incorporating changes into the plan, ensuring that all stakeholders remain informed and aligned towards successful project delivery.
Managing large, complex projects in higher education poses unique challenges. Coordinating resources across departments with different business and academic schedules requires meticulous planning. Balancing technical and business efforts is particularly challenging due to the complexity of modern projects and the reliance on a single IT unit within the client organization. Additionally, while all departments ultimately aim to serve students, their immediate goals and concerns can differ, creating friction during the design and testing phases. The project manager's role is to facilitate communication, ensuring all perspectives are considered, and the best possible design is delivered to meet project goals while accommodating necessary compromises.
Experienced project managers address these challenges by focusing on building strong relationships with project teams and stakeholders. They engage in disciplined project management practices, including planning, execution, monitoring, controlling, and closure, to ensure the successful implementation of complex technology projects in higher education. This structured approach is critical to navigating the intricacies of large-scale projects and achieving desired outcomes for all stakeholders.
Change Management
Today's technology projects in higher education often involve numerous stakeholder groups, and their success depends on their active participation and adoption. Effective change management strategies are crucial to achieve this.
Similar to governance and project management, change management follows a structured approach. The change lead's role must be understood, communicated, and reinforced by the sponsor of the change. This lead works with the project team and stakeholders to ensure consistent communication of the change message throughout all levels and to all stakeholders. It is a disciplined and highly personalized engagement system designed to lead everyone along a unified path, regardless of their starting point or perspectives.
Effective change management strategies involve identifying change advocates to build support and recognizing change-averse individuals who require additional support to engage with the change. While some individuals are generally resistant to change, others resist based on the proposed change. Focusing on understanding and reshaping perceptions is vital to driving meaningful change adoption. Journey Mapping is a service used to facilitate this understanding, walking stakeholder groups through the steps of a process from their perspective to identify friction points and optimal future states. This approach reveals current challenges and provides insights into reshaping the narrative to guide stakeholders through the change initiative.
Throughout large, complex projects, the change management consultant collaborates with client project leads to identify potential sources of resistance. With this understanding, the consultant communicates the change message, measures support and identifies both advocates and resisters. The change message is delivered through various means to cater to different learning styles. While a cost-benefit analysis or case study may suffice for some stakeholders, many resisters, especially those inherently fearful of change or deeply invested in the current state, need more. Engaging these individuals often requires a compelling story that vividly illustrates the future state, appealing to their emotions.
Even with a well-crafted narrative, some people may remain resistant. To address this, change management consultants develop communication campaigns based on sources of resistance and engage in one-on-one conversations to build trust. By guiding individuals step-by-step towards embracing the new direction, they ensure a smoother transition and a higher likelihood of project success.
Technology Governance
Effective technology governance is essential for successfully implementing large, complex technology projects in higher education institutions. Technology governance planning helps institutional leaders establish a solid foundation for decision-making and technology management that is aligned with strategic priorities and goals. The governance planning process assesses the current structure, identifies governance needs, and develops a governance framework and committee guidelines. This process fosters collaboration across the institution, enhancing the effectiveness and value of technology.
Well-developed technology governance supports the management of technology in line with strategic priorities, prioritizes resource allocation for technology initiatives, and promotes transparency, information sharing, consensus building, and buy-in from stakeholders. It clarifies decision rights and the accountability framework for technology strategy. Decision rights define who has input, who makes decisions, and who sets priorities. The accountability framework addresses who is responsible for decisions and how they are made and communicated. Additionally, technology governance focuses on the types of decisions that must be made and the methods for making them.
Institutions often face challenges such as a lack of stakeholder engagement in technology decisions, absence of guiding principles informed by the broader organization, poorly defined decision-making processes, non-compliance with established processes and policies, difficulties balancing centralized and decentralized technology decisions, and a lack of executive support. These issues indicate that technology resources are not delivering their full potential value. Effective governance addresses these challenges by creating operational outcomes that improve functions and services for constituents and fostering partnerships among institutional leaders to promote effective technology use.
Developing a robust governance framework involves understanding specific challenges through interviews and one-on-one conversations with stakeholders. This iterative process ensures that recommendations are well-understood, supported, and achievable, thereby enhancing the likelihood of successful implementation and ongoing management of technology projects.
Ready to manage complex technology projects seamlessly? Reach out to Doctums now and discover our proven approach.
Doctums consultants build strong relationships with teams and stakeholders, employing disciplined project management practices to ensure success from planning to closure.
Our change management consultants also develop tailored communication campaigns and engage in trust-building conversations, guiding individuals step-by-step toward embracing new directions.
A robust governance framework is crafted by understanding your institution’s specific challenges and ensuring well-supported and achievable solutions.
Discover how Doctums can transform your institution's technology projects. Get in touch with us today to learn more!
About Connie
Connie has been in the higher education IT sector for over 23 years, advancing from programmer to IT leader and manager. Now a strategic consultant and project manager, she focuses on business analysis and process reengineering. Her goal is to optimize team performance and build strong business relationships, promoting open communication and collaboration between IT and university departments.
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