Mission, Purpose, & Responsibilities
Mission Statement
Ensure holistic alignment of IT resources and services university-wide to support the mission of the university, while becoming more efficient and effective in the focus of attention and time on activities that achieve shared priorities in a decentralized organizational structure.
Purpose Statement
IT Governance at Texas A&M is the essential foundation for a shared IT vision that is agile and responsive. Allowing the entire university Information Technology community to unite on common goals that will serve the university, state, and the citizens of Texas.
Responsibilities
The responsibility of a shared IT vision belongs to all clients, decision-makers, and stewards of IT services across Texas A&M University. It is this shared responsibility that is reflected in the IT Governance (ITG) framework, to facilitate a common, thoughtful consideration of the overall needs of the university community. ITG stewards the shared responsibility of the overall governance of IT initiatives across the academic, administrative, research and technical domains.
Values
We value the ability to be open to multiple perspectives, recognizing that the executive leaders of Texas A&M University drive IT’s overall effectiveness, and respect the uniqueness of the University’s organizational culture. As such, the five tenets that drive the confidence in IT Governance are: Transparency, Accountability, Collaboration, Stewardship, and Agility.
Transparency
We value Transparency by providing information about IT decisions to all stakeholders with clear information on the process for funding, decision-making and strategic dialogues with the appropriate stakeholders, at various levels of the university.
Accountability
We value Accountability by acknowledging that IT is accountable to the governing groups for IT decisions with the subsequent implementation and execution of decisions in a timely manner. Accountability is further exemplified by providing feedback, updates, and reports to all appropriate stakeholders regarding IT Governance outcomes.
Stewardship
We value Stewardship through the assurance that IT leadership is efficiently and responsibly using IT resources in the best interest of the University, its stakeholders, and members of the extended Texas A&M community.
Collaboration
We value Collaboration in dialogues and decision-making by ensuring that decisions are informed from multiple perspectives and increase teamwork via the implementation of projects across divisions for greater impact and utilization.
Agility
We value Agility by facilitating the continual service improvement of the IT Governance framework through adaptation and adjustment to succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, and dynamic environment of higher education.
Objectives and Scope
The scope of ITG includes, at the broadest, an alignment of IT outcomes required by the University for successful fulfillment of its mission. ITG encompasses appropriate university-wide IT decision-making activities, IT policy and standards development, IT risk optimization, assurance of IT benefit and value realization, optimization of IT investment and resource management, and the alignment of IT strategy to the overall university mission and strategy.
IT Vision
Establish, maintain, communicate, and continuously improve a campus-wide IT vision that supports the Texas A&M University mission, goals, and outcomes.
IT Investment
Establish, maintain, adjust, report, and continuously re-align an IT investment management program through an IT budget structure for total IT expenditures university-wide, with the primary focus on the CIO's IT organization(s).
IT Policies
Establish, maintain, communicate, and continuously improve IT policies, technical architectures, and technical standards that support strategic, University-wide IT priorities.
IT Portfolio
Set the direction, exercise decision-making, and prioritize an IT portfolio of university-wide services, programs, and projects for the purpose of aligning IT investment to the university mission and requirements of stakeholder groups.
Optimize the Mission
Enable the utilization and optimization of IT services, programs, and projects for the teaching, research, and learning technology-related initiatives at the university-wide level.
Increase Stakeholder Input
Facilitate a formal input structure from a diverse body of stakeholders university-wide on the performance and utilization of existing IT services, as well as the identification of new IT services.
Component Model
Decision-making structures are organizational units and roles responsible for receiving input from university stakeholders and making decisions within a defined scope.
Background
Texas A&M University currently utilizes a decentralized model for some IT spending and some decision-making. A university-wide IT Governance framework seeks to address IT issues that impact the entire University through a formalized mechanism for input and decision-making in a centralized fashion, while leveraging the autonomous benefits of a decentralized university IT environment.
IT Governance research was conducted as a formal project from November 15, 2016, to completion on June 26, 2017. The current framework capitalizes on the most important elements of the previous research offered among the Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC), elements of good practices found in the Deloitte-based Texas A&M System IT Governance and Collaboration Framework, and the Texas A&M University System Internal Audit recommendations on IT Governance.
External research elements included the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) version 3, Control Objectives for Information Technology (COBIT) version 5, the framework for the Governance of Enterprise IT (GEIT), IT Governance by Weill and Ross, the Educause IT Governance aggregation of research, and a comparison against numerous Vision 2020 peer institutions to include the University of Texas - Austin, University of California - Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and North Carolina State University.