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 IT community to unite on common goals that will serve the university, state, and 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. It is this shared responsibility that is reflected in the IT Governance framework, to facilitate a common, thoughtful consideration of the overall needs of the university community. IT Governance 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 drive IT’s overall effectiveness, and respect the uniqueness of the university’s organizational culture. As such, the five tenets that drive 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 IT Governance includes, at the broadest, an alignment of IT outcomes required by the university for successful fulfillment of its mission. IT Governance 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 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 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 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 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.

IT Governance Mechanisms

An IT Governance domain is a distinct collection of decisions spanning across strategy, tactics, management, and policy. Each domain contains several processes, realized via decision and input structures. The IT Governance framework includes the Executive, Strategic, and Technical-Policy domains.

Executive Domain

Accountable for the overall evaluation, direction, and monitoring of the IT Governance framework. The Executive Domain ensures that IT enables and supports the achievement of the university mission and business objectives. This occurs through the integration of IT strategic plan(s) with the university strategic plan, alignment of IT services with university operations for the purpose of optimizing services and processes, and the optimal utilization of IT investments. The Executive Domain contains processes and structures that have final authority over IT operations and the associated management tiers.

Strategic Domain

Accountable for planning, building, running, and improving all aspects of the IT organization(s). The Strategic Domain ensures that IT creates optimal value (bundle of benefits less the actual costs as viewed by the consumer of an IT service or resource) by delivering the services and resources necessary to enable the fulfillment of the university mission and business objectives. The Strategic Domain contains processes and structures that provide input and make recommendations that are ultimately approved by the Executive Domain, except for Operational and Managerial decisions.

Technical-Policy Domain

Accountable for the alignment and development of relevant standards and procedures necessary to identify, evaluate, analyze, mitigate, manage, monitor, and communicate IT-related risk, policy, and architecture as an integral part of the university-wide IT Governance framework. The Technical-Policy Domain ensures that IT builds, maintains, and/or replaces IT architectural plans, applications, infrastructure, policies, procedures, and risk management activities according to the Executive Domain’s risk appetite and tolerance thresholds. The Technical-Policy domain has an overlapping relationship with the Strategic Domain, as inputs and outputs between the two domains will be both common and expected. This domain is distinct from the Strategic Domain in that it is responsible for the specialized technical analysis of topics that lead to recommendations, plans, and policies that are not included in the scope of the Strategic Domain.

Component Model

Decision-making structures are organizational units and roles responsible for receiving input from university stakeholders and making decisions within a defined scope.

Revised IT Governance Framework

Decision-making structures

Decision-making structures are organizational units and roles responsible for receiving input from university stakeholders and making decisions within a defined scope. This section contains each decision-making structure in the IT Governance framework, recognize inputs and outputs between the structures, outline alignment processes to ensure that behaviors are consistent with IT policy, and draw unique boundaries between the structures and their associated sub-structures.

The decision-making structures recognized in the Component Model include only the council and committees. Formal IT Governance relationships exist through specific scope and interactions outlined in this document. Informal inputs/outputs that are not specifically addressed in this document are recognized to exist and impact the overall operation of the IT Governance structure. Structures outside of the component model diagram may be grafted or voiced into the IT Governance framework as part of the other campus entities domain. The CIO and Strategic Chairs Committee (CSCC) serves as the authoritative body for recognizing input groups and will maintain a process for request/acknowledgment into the framework.

Outside of formal input bodies, any student, faculty, or staff member (university stakeholders) may submit issues or topics for review by the IT Governance committees. University stakeholders should route these requests through their respective governance body (e.g., undergraduate students to student government association, faculty to faculty senate, staff to university staff council, IT professionals to IT strategic liaisons, etc.). 

It is important to highlight that IT decisions will occur outside of the governance model with respect to management. Management plans, builds, runs, and monitors activities in alignment with the direction set by the governance model to achieve university objectives. Whereas governance ensures that stakeholder needs, conditions, and options are evaluated to determine balanced, agreed-on university objectives to be achieved, setting direction through prioritization and strategic decision-making, and monitoring performance and compliance against agreed-on direction and objectives.