We had some great sessions last week! Throughout the 10+ meetings, we had excellent turnout and participation from the many different schools and departments around the University. A ton of good process information was collected, and now Identropy has the (unenviable) task of analyzing it all and presenting a distilled version back to the team.
One common theme that sort of emerged for me after mentally digesting last week is the sense that any identity management project is really a series of balancing acts. On many different fronts, decisions need to be made that will impact large numbers of users, while still accomplishing the overriding goal of the project. For example,
Business Processes:
Current processes are most likely deficient in some way (inefficient, or insecure) but introducing new processes or procedures requires the buy-in of many different departments. It's important to balance their needs when implementing changes -- not to cause too much disruption to their daily routines and deliverables, while still making meaningful improvements to the processes as required by the project.
Technology:
Specifically, keeping current technology versus introducing new products. There may be times when existing products may be sufficient to achieve the goals laid out by the IdM project, but more often than not, you're going to have gaps in the stack of software installed today. The bigger question is whether to replace current systems with different vendors. It's a tough call -- on the one hand, you have already invested time and energy into learning your current product, and have some institutional knowledge around it. On the other hand, it may not be the right solution for the ultimate end-state, and the project would be better served with a new or different product, which of course introduces some learning curve issues for admins, on top of all the other process changes going on simultaneously.
Project Timeline/Deliverables:
As I discussed in a previous post, determining the scope of the initial phase of your IdM project is key to the overall success of it. Doing too much at once will likely cause burnout, and potential failure, but making too little concrete progress will cause problems with project sponsors and the leadership team who want to see that the (increasingly tight) IT budget is being well-spent.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
A long week ahead
Today we kicked off the week-long information gathering sessions with Identropy. We spent the day filling in Ash and Byron about the various meetings that have been scheduled, and a little overview of the technical architecture, as well as I could do, at least...
We should have a very informative week ahead of us -- the meetings have been scheduled with many of the key people around the University, including business and technical people from many of the colleges and departments, as they pertain to identity management. The response to the meeting invitations has been good so far -- hopefully the sub-zero temperatures later in the week don't discourage people from attending!
These first sessions will help to provide a general overview of many of the processes and systems for the vast majority of user populations at the UofR. Once this first round of meetings is complete, we'll have some more "deep-dive" sessions to really drill down into the details of whatever subset of users/processes is decided to be phase 1 of the project.
I'll post again at the end of the week, with some more thoughts about the interview sessions with the data and system owners.
We should have a very informative week ahead of us -- the meetings have been scheduled with many of the key people around the University, including business and technical people from many of the colleges and departments, as they pertain to identity management. The response to the meeting invitations has been good so far -- hopefully the sub-zero temperatures later in the week don't discourage people from attending!
These first sessions will help to provide a general overview of many of the processes and systems for the vast majority of user populations at the UofR. Once this first round of meetings is complete, we'll have some more "deep-dive" sessions to really drill down into the details of whatever subset of users/processes is decided to be phase 1 of the project.
I'll post again at the end of the week, with some more thoughts about the interview sessions with the data and system owners.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Contacts at other Universities
As things start to pick up speed here after the holidays, it would be nice to talk with people out there in Academia who have undertaken similar efforts at their own institutions. This wouldn't have to be anything terribly formal, but it might involve an hour-long phone call with some of the members of our project team, or, depending on your proximity to upstate New York, we might even be able to arrange a trip out to your school for a face-to-face meeting.
Basically, we'd be looking for any of the roadblocks you overcame in your Identity Management project, understand the choices you made in your implementation, and any words of wisdom you might have for our team as we begin to delve deeper and deeper into our project.
If you and your project team would be interested in talking to us, you can contact me via the LinkedIn button on the right hand menu. I look forward to hearing from you!
Basically, we'd be looking for any of the roadblocks you overcame in your Identity Management project, understand the choices you made in your implementation, and any words of wisdom you might have for our team as we begin to delve deeper and deeper into our project.
If you and your project team would be interested in talking to us, you can contact me via the LinkedIn button on the right hand menu. I look forward to hearing from you!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Put one foot in front of the other
So as I was watching "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with my son the other night, I realized how many different things the song "Put One Foot in Front of The Other" could apply to, including Identity Management projects!
Many times, people involved with large-scale IdM rollouts become overwhelmed with where to even begin. But taking things one step at a time not only makes the work more manageable, it also gives you some tangible benefits along the way. The first thing to do is understand what you've already got -- meaning, map out current processes, understand the various systems involved, and figure out who the key players are in each process.
Once all of your processes have been identified and documented, start with one or two of them. With your new understanding of these processes, it will be easier to decide on a vendor or product that will suit your needs. And if the product has already been decided/implemented, you can begin work on incorporating those business processes into the software.
If those first two steps seem too difficult, break them down into smaller steps. At a university, maybe instead of tackling all the various user populations, start with only students. Or even only undergraduates. Whatever seems manageable in your environment. The key is to tackle tasks in a way that allows you to complete them in a reasonable amount of time and effort -- this provides not only concrete results, but gives team members a sense of accomplishment along the way. A 2 year project without any sort of tangible results will certainly cause some burnout on your project team. So...
You never will get where you're goin', if you never get up on your feet! Come on! There's a good tail wind blowin' A fast walkin' man is hard to beat!
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walkin' 'cross the flo-o-or
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walkin' out the door.
Many times, people involved with large-scale IdM rollouts become overwhelmed with where to even begin. But taking things one step at a time not only makes the work more manageable, it also gives you some tangible benefits along the way. The first thing to do is understand what you've already got -- meaning, map out current processes, understand the various systems involved, and figure out who the key players are in each process.
Once all of your processes have been identified and documented, start with one or two of them. With your new understanding of these processes, it will be easier to decide on a vendor or product that will suit your needs. And if the product has already been decided/implemented, you can begin work on incorporating those business processes into the software.
If those first two steps seem too difficult, break them down into smaller steps. At a university, maybe instead of tackling all the various user populations, start with only students. Or even only undergraduates. Whatever seems manageable in your environment. The key is to tackle tasks in a way that allows you to complete them in a reasonable amount of time and effort -- this provides not only concrete results, but gives team members a sense of accomplishment along the way. A 2 year project without any sort of tangible results will certainly cause some burnout on your project team. So...
You never will get where you're goin', if you never get up on your feet! Come on! There's a good tail wind blowin' A fast walkin' man is hard to beat!
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