Academic Agility: Navigating Higher Education Web Development
- 1. Academic Agility: Navigating Higher Education Web DevelopmentRyan DellolioAdjunct LecturerDepartment of Information SystemsSchool of BusinessThe George Washington UniversityWeb Program ManagerColumbian College of Arts and SciencesThe George Washington University&Given at eduWEB 2011, San Antonio, TXAugust 1, 2011
- 2. Tips, tricks, observations, and lessoned at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
- 4. Pose a question
- 5. Pose a revision to that question
- 6. Establish necessity of answering question
- 7. What makes academia different when it comes to web management
- 8. Why be agile?
- 9. Tale of two projects
- 10. StaffingThe George Washington University
- 11. Web Activity at GWColumbianCollege ofArts & Sciences500+ faculty and researchers3000 students100+ staffUniversity’s largest academic unit
- 12. Africana StudiesAmerican StudiesAnthropologyApplied Quantitative Risk AnalysisArt TherapyBiochemistryBiological SciencesBiomedical SciencesBiostatisticsChemistryClassical and Semitic Languages and LiteraturesClassical ActingCounselingEarly Modern European StudiesEast Asian Languages and LiteraturesEconomicsEnglishEnvironmental StudiesEnvironmental Resource PolicyEpidemiologyFilm StudiesFine Arts and Art HistoryForensic SciencesGeographyGeological SciencesGenomics and BioinformaticsGlobal CommunicationsHistoryHominid PaleobiologyInterior DesignJudaic StudiesLinguisticsMathematicsMedia and Public AffairsMedicine, Society and CultureMuseum StudiesMusicOrganizational Sciences and CommunicationPhilosophyPhysicsPolitical ScienceProfessional PsychologyPsychologyPublic Policy and Public AdministrationReligionRomance, German, Slavic Languages and LiteraturesSociologySpeech and Hearing SciencesStatisticsTheatre and DanceUniversity Writing ProgramWomen's Studies50+ Departments and Programs
- 13. Web Properties
- 14. Our organization“Dotted line” to IT group
- 16. New development
- 17. Redevelopment
- 19. Web marketing
- 20. Social media
- 21. Web strategy and consultingOur Pipeline
- 22. How can University staff navigate the delicate balance between their requirements and available resources?
- 27. The too oft-seen reality
- 28. How can University staff navigate the delicate balance between their requirements, available resources and the unique challenges of the higher education arena?
- 29. Why Academia is Different 1Web is traditionally seen as far from the core mission
- 30. Why Academia is Different 1Where is the web in relation to a university's core mission?
- 31. “The George Washington University, an independent academic institution chartered by the Congress of the United States in 1821, dedicates itself to furthering human well-being. The University values a dynamic, student-focused community stimulated by cultural and intellectual diversity and built upon a foundation of integrity, creativity, and openness to the exploration of new ideas. The George Washington University, centered in the national and international crossroads of Washington, D.C., commits itself to excellence in the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge.”
- 32. Competition in AcademiaEnrollment competition is only one piece of the puzzle
- 34. Student attention to university news and events
- 35. Alumni participation and development
- 36. Prestige, online and off line
- 37. Academic attention on the web
- 38. Use of in-house services vs. the wild westHow to respondEvaluation criteria must always be comprehensiveManagement costs
- 42. Budget
- 43. TCOImpact on “creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge”
- 44. Why Academia is Different 2Lack of quality control feedback loops
- 45. How to respondBake people, process and technology into existing bureaucratic structures, establishing web governance.“Strategy, not sparring”Educate upwards
- 46. Scenarios
- 47. Why Academia is Different 3Non hierarchical structures
- 48. How to respondWe must redesign our use cases and think outside the box. Consider:Current students browsing admissions sitesProspective students browsing information for current studentsProspective partner institutions browsing information for current studentsProspective students browsing internal department websites“Navigation-phobia” – the chronic GooglersEntrance paths that often defy logic
- 49. “Agility” summarizes how best to respond to this environment.
- 50. Break the waterfall, be agile!
- 51. Building the Web at the pace of researchThe traditional systems development lifecycle is not well suited to most higher education web projects
- 52. A comparisonWe’ve seen improvement in nearly every metric by adopting development agility.
- 53. Agile software development is necessary but not sufficient
- 54. Agility is also…“the gracefulnessof a person or animal that is quick and nimble”“the powerof moving quickly and easily; nimbleness”Source: Princeton WordNetSource: Random House Dictionary
- 55. The group tasked with web management must also be organizationally agile
- 56. What’s moving? (or: why must we be nimble?)departments, programs, institutes
- 57. bureaucracy
- 59. faculty members
- 60. staff
- 61. research itself
- 62. prioritiesWhat must be nimble?our websites
- 66. our present and future requirements“Agile Abe”
- 67. Manifestation of Agility 1Recognize the web is morethan a marketing tool.Marketing is just one component of a successful web strategy
- 68. Manifestation of Agility 2Lose control.Full control is difficult in the academic community, and misguidedEmpowerment vs. limitationGovernance vs. governmentGuiding vs. requiringAdvising vs. insisting
- 69. Manifestation of Agility 3Let strategic tools foster positive outcomesConsider:Intuitive newsletter generatorA CMS that makes it easy to edit and understandWeb services model
- 70. Lagrangianpoints of multi-site management“One of five points in the plane of orbit of one body around another (e.g., the moon around the earth) at which a small third body can remain stationary with respect to both.”Source: OxfordSource: NASA JPL
- 71. This does not mean keep your web operations stationary. It means keep them stable.Stabilitythrough agilityis:Responding to changing requirements with repeatable processes
- 72. Allowing innovation to occur within the fold
- 73. Fostering intra-University relationships even if they do not yield desired end results
- 74. Fostering extra-University relationships of cooperation and collaborationA tale of two projectsStatistics Department Website OverhaulAbstract: Statistics Department has an old (4+ years) website and needs a fresh one with fresh content, that’s easily updated and conforms to University design templates.International Art Therapy Research DatabaseAbstract: Art Therapy Program needs an advanced collaboration platform for content management and delivery , spearheading international Art Therapy research.Commoninfrastructure
- 75. Common helpdesk
- 78. Stability through agility made both projects a success.How we’ve found our Lagrangian pointProject-based matrix organization of technical resourcesFormal issue and project trackingStandard intake processSingle front doorCommon methodology, design parameters and principlesAssets for those who can utilize them
- 79. How we’ve found our LagrangianpointOut-of-box repeatable solutions including:Content management systems (Drupal)Research collaboration tools (Wikis)Hosting infrastructure (LAMP)Information architecturesContent templatesStudent “army” with standard on-boarding proceduresCentral authentication management
- 80. Holistic approach to web managementWith 100+ websites, dozens of applications & countless organizations to support, there are few alternative approaches.
- 81. Finding your Lagrangian point (small/limited web management)Identify sources of technical expertise, and make contributions repeatableCodify processes, make them repeatableEmbrace ‘web as a platform’ for common tasksFactor people, process, technology into large projects (e.g. contractor-supported web overhaul)Ask: Does every request/new requirement have a path to completion?
- 82. Finding your Lagrangian point (larger web management group)What are our common pitfalls and how can we empower our constituents to avoid them?“____ Department always produces poor quality newsletter or webpages”“Our technology consultation costs have skyrocketed”“University leadership imposes strict visual guidelines”“Our in-house IT team can’t keep up with changing technologies”
- 83. Finding your Lagrangian point (larger web management group)How can we structure our processes?Single front doorIssue trackingKnowledge baseWhat does our organization look like?
- 84. How are new projects chosen?How are new technologies chosen?Which comes first, content or function?How agile will this group be on the web?
- 85. Compare to
- 86. How are new projects chosen?How are new technologies chosen?Which comes first, content or function?How agile will this group be on the web?
- 87. Compare to
- 88. How are new projects chosen?How are new technologies chosen?Which comes first, content or function?How agile will this group be on the web?
- 89. 52 informational sites, 1200+ pages at last audit
- 90. It is a privilege to work on the web.
- 91. ContactRyan DellolioThe George Washington UniversityWashington, DCryan@gwu.edu(202) 994-5497
Editor's Notes
- #3: When we talk about higher education web management, what are we referring to.One off or standardEasy, or hardNew or oldCOTS or customWe’re tasked with all of itWeb output and goals alignNot intuitive, need goal oriented STRATEGIC approachWe’ve seen it all
- #4: “necessity of answering question” in typical academic fashionIf you;’re perfect, youre not working on the webExpand the agility definition
- #5: “This is us”Mid-to-large sized university
- #6: Web activity occurs at all levels at GW, and is largely decentralized. We represent a decent chunk of GW web activity, 60-70%What that means is lots of web output
- #7: From Chinese to Chemistry, from Sociology to StatisticsIn your time at GW every student will take a Columbian course
- #8: Give examples of each
- #9: Matrix Organization
- #10: I’m not crazy about pageview counts
- #11: What do we do on a daily basis?
- #12: This is the bread and butter of what we do
- #13: Immediate impact, realizable reward, big picture academic things. Inherently when you do these things, there's more risk
- #14: There’s a flipside to higher education
- #15: How normal industry or common sense might approach this problem
- #16: How academia sees theseissues. What questions might be asked. We don’t handle things in academia like we do outside.
- #17: How these requirements may (and have!) played out
- #18: Revision of earlier question
- #19: You might say higher education is a microcosm of real world web mgt, and that’s not untrue, but we must recognize the differences.
- #20: Now let’s first establish the importance of the web to higher education. This is where I prove the importance of the previous revised question. How does your average faculty member view the importance of the web?
- #21: If the web is not central to realizing that mission in the 21st century, I don’t know what is!
- #22: We have an email marketing system that allows tracking, saves money, conforms to standard ---- we, in a sense, compete with external services which, in our opinion, lower the standards for our departments
- #23: Or “How those tasked with web development for higher education should respond” Mission translation for GWU, eye opening, you can do the same
- #24: Such as revenue and profit. These loops are far expanded, but still exist. Compare to Amazon.
- #25: People, process, AND technology. Do not leave out any one of these three, stress the holistic approach. Explain combinations and how you might forget one or another.
- #26: Web governance is the intersection of people, process, technology. At GW we have all scenarios. These are recommendations
- #27: Including staffing structures, authority structures, control structures, user behaviors and patterns
- #28: Takeaway here is things are unpredictable in academia. Keep these and more in mind. Tools to track these things. If you think you know who’s browsing where, reexamine.
- #30: One of the largest pieces of advice I can give. We’ll see why traditional agility is a good thing, and then expand on agility.
- #31: Research/science not done in waterfall, therefore web to support it should not be either.
- #32: Our waterfall projects are usually over budget, past deadlines, miss requirements
- #33: We’re going to expand here on agility
- #34: Power in the second definition implies we can gain MORE from being agile
- #36: Agile AbeLEGS --- these are the things that must move quickly
- #37: These are take-aways. The web is more than a marketing tool, use it as such. Examples of additional metrics may include: how well are we responding, internal costs, efficiencies, etc. Recognizing the web is a more than a marketing tool allows us to break this cycle.
- #38: These are take-aways. So I pose to you.
- #39: These are take-aways
- #40: Culmination of navigating higher education web development.
- #41: Aforementioned tips, techniques, etc are ways of doing that“Fostering intra-University relationships…” physics dept example“Fostering extra-University relationships…” GWU site visits with Library of CongressKeep in mind when new requests, needs, priorities file in.
- #42: Imagine these requirements hitting your desk. As much of a mindset as it is a toolbox.
- #44: Federal work study
- #45: This MUST occur for management office of 200+ websites
- #48: “What does our organization look like?” continued in next slides.
- #49: Just some ideas on org structure. No silver bullet here. Exact titles will differ. Questions to ask yourself when deciding org structures.
- #51: CIO now at top
- #53: Now just a ‘slew of techies’.
- #54: We’re not perfect, we have a large job to do, we’re always improving! Inventory takes up the width of a classroom. 8pt font. Informational “brochure-ware” sites only.