Vision:
The IT Governance Transformation Program funds the discovery and development of solutions for high-impact transformation projects that enhance the experience and effectiveness of our faculty, staff, patients, and learners.
Investment Program Goals:
- Align transformations to UCSF’s strategic priorities and daily challenges of faculty, staff, and learners.
- Focus on identifying and solving underlying problems rather than starting with a technical solution.
- Priority on improving the holistic experience of faculty, staff, learners, and patients.
- Transformation Program metrics consider the scope of the transformation, usage, and engagement by stakeholders, availability and reliability, reduction of risk, and the holistic user experience rather than achieving project milestones.
- Maintain oversight of the transformation work through continued monitoring in IT Governance.
- Engage long-term commitment from business owners from the beginning.
- Build transformation skills and capabilities in the organization.
Definitions:
Business Owner: A leader who has long-term ownership of the transformation initiative and who has the knowledge and authority to make strategic decisions and clear the path of political and financial obstacles.
Journey Map: A journey map visualizes a person's actions to accomplish a goal. Interactions and touchpoints along the journey are documented, and the experience during these interactions is described. Journey maps will form the framework of our transformation program and identify the specific pain points we can address to improve the experiences of our faculty, staff, and students.1
Human-Centered Designer: A person responsible for managing and maintaining a journey map in service of the governance subcommittee owning that journey. The role collaborates with subcommittee stakeholders and Product Managers in planning, coordinating, and monitoring improvements across the journey so the owning governance subcommittee is appropriately informed of current state activities and future opportunities to pursue.
Product Manager: A person responsible for the day-to-day activities that deliver a transformation that meets its defined criteria for success. The role collaborates with stakeholders to identify effective ways of delivering compelling solutions and facilitating continuous improvement.
Proof-of-Concept (POC)/Experiments: A quickly implemented concept used to test or validate an underlying set of business hypotheses or assumptions about a possible solution.
Prototype: Demonstrates how a solution will function in a working model for the purpose of confirming design approach, functionality, user interface, interactions, and architecture.
Transformation: The creation and adoption of products and services that improve efficiency, value and a more joyful experience for the end user.
How the program works:
Identifying areas for transformation:
IT Governance subcommittees on Research, Education, and Business work with their relevant ACIO and senior campus official to identify compelling areas for transformation informed by the most difficult or painful experiences of their constituents. These experiences, or journeys, will be mapped out in detail during the discovery phase to create a “Journey Map” that “serves to illuminate the complete experience a person may have with a product or service.”2 These maps identify “pain points” in the experience which are then prioritized for improvement. Through this iterative improvement process, the overall experience is transformed into a delightful, person-centric journey.
A Discovery Team will guide the process for each of these committees. Stakeholders, including business owners, people impacted by the experience, and members of IT Governance capabilities committees (Technology and Architecture, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Information, and Communications), are also included.
Funding:
IT Governance funds all discovery work and development of the journey maps. Additional funding is made available for each transformation initiative to develop and evaluate experiments that test process improvements. Improvements that require only one-time funds to implement may be funded by IT Governance, but all improvements that require ongoing funding to maintain require financial support from the relevant business owner(s).
Metrics for selecting a compelling journey:
IT Governance and university leaders will select a journey for transformation based on factors such as alignment to UCSF strategy, holistic improvement of a persona’s experience, reduction of risk, feasibility and time to implement, and commitment to sustainable funding.
Governing transformations:
The IT Governance Steering Committee will review and advise on recommended journeys and areas for improvement, and work in collaboration with senior leadership and the business owner(s) of the transformation, to clarify alignment with UCSF strategy and our ability to sustain the transformation during its operational phase.
Transformations are governed by their home subcommittees. This includes the creation of a Transformation Working Group that oversees the progress of the transformation and reports to the subcommittee monthly. ITG subcommittees will report regularly to the Steering Committee on their portfolio of transformation projects.
Transformation Working Groups, under the direction of the relevant ACIO, are responsible for clarifying the pain points or opportunities and designing experiments and prototypes that improve the persona’s experience. The relevant IT Governance subcommittee chair appoints these working groups. They include roles such as business owner, user experience designer, product manager, and solutions engineer, working closely with stakeholders impacted by the transformation.
Program Detail
Gather Ideas, Narrow Focus, and Build Journey Map
-
The Research, Education, and Business committees will work with their ACIO and senior campus leader to identify strategic priorities or pain points we need to address at UCSF.
-
Subcommittees gather input from their community and are encouraged to partner with other subcommittees.
-
Clearly describe the experiences needed for improvement and the desired state using available evidence and addressing the transformation program metrics.
-
Verify the most compelling opportunities with senior leadership, leveraging supporting evidence if available (either qualitative or quantitative)
-
Verify that the impacted business unit(s) are committed to adopting the transformation and understand their responsibility to secure ongoing funding where needed.
-
Once an experience is identified for journey mapping, the discovery team runs a series of workshops to map the experience, identifying pain points along the way.
-
Prioritize the pain points for improvement and develop experiments and prototypes to improve the experience.
-
Based on the transformation metrics, IT Governance will continue to fund incremental improvements in the journey until an overall transformation of the experience is complete.
Improvements that require large financial investments and ongoing financial support must be provided by the business owner. IT Governance will work with the business owners and relevant senior leadership to determine this level of commitment.
Ongoing Evaluation and Oversight
- All phases of a funded transformation are assigned to a home subcommittee that will establish a Transformation Working Group to oversee the transformation and monitor ongoing progress
- The subcommittee makes go/no-go recommendations for each phase of the transformation to the IT Governance Steering Committee.
- All transformations must be reviewed at least quarterly and should include evidence of how the transformation is performing against the transformation program metrics.
Recommended Metrics:
(used at multiple steps along the development cycle)
- Availability and reliability.
- Endorsement by senior leadership.
- Engagement by the stakeholders.
- Feasibility and time to implement.
- Holistic improvement of a stakeholder’s experience.
- Risk reduction, including cybersecurity and compliance.
- Satisfaction among the employees and learners.
- Strategy alignment, including ITOM.
- Sustainable funding from the business owner(s).
Out of Scope:
Core technology implementation or replacement projects are not funded under this program. These include technologies or IT funding needs that are eligible for Chancellor Core Funding. UCSF Health System transformations, including patient experiences, are supported under a separate transformation program funded by the health system.