Boston University Technology Plan
FY 2015-2020
Executive Summary
Goal
To enable the realization of the goals articulated in the BU strategic plan, Choosing to be Great, and the mitigation of Boston University enterprise risks, through the development, sustainment and optimization of information services and technology.
INNOVATIVE
USABLE
GLOBAL
OPEN
SECURE
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SERVICE CULTURE
SHARED SERVICES
GOVERNANCE
Principles
These principles were identified as key concepts that should remain constant for the life of the plan, serving as touchstones to be referenced in the development and execution of technology projects and operations.
Click on the infographic to learn more about each principle.
CLOUD FIRST
New for 2016.
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Principle: Innovative
Foster innovation by supporting experimentation and providing flexible frameworks and tools.
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Principle: Usable
Prioritize accessibility and ease of use in the selection, implementation and promotion of new systems and services, to ensure the broadest impact and benefit to the BU community.
- Ensure access to services for people with disabilities.
- Support major platforms, devices, and browsers in use by most BU community members, including personally owned, often mobile devices.
- Adopt open standards whenever possible.
- Focus on usability in interface design.
- Communicate about service availability and capability in non-technical language, via multiple methods.
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Principle: Global
Consider BU's global reach in design of infrastructure, information and support services.
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Principle: Open
Encourage open sharing of data, other content and expertise by making it easy and safe to do so.
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Principle: Secure
Enable compliance with security requirements by making it easy to do so. Apply appropriate controls to administrative and academic work, respectively.
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Principle: Professional Development
Invest in professional development.
- For technology staff in technical, managerial and specific academic and administrative subject areas.
- For faculty, administrators and staff in the development of pedagogical, computational, analytical and process optimization skills.
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Principle: Service Culture
Continue to foster and sustain a service oriented culture, in which technology is a means, rather than an end, and value is placed on benefits realized by the BU community. Ensure that service sustainability and continuous improvement are prioritized equally with project activity.
- Listen to needs.
- Learn from the experiences and feedback of the community.
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Principle: Shared Services
Enable resources to be allocated to innovation by providing common services in the most efficient manner possible.
- Reduce complexity and cost through reasonable standardization.
- Encourage use of and contribution to shared computing facilities for services that benefit from economies of scale.
- Provide central licensing (if applicable), vendor/supplier management and support for widely used technologies.
- Adopt the most cost effective infrastructure, platforms and services that meet BU requirements, regardless of service provider (open source community, BU-hosted, cloud provider, other).
- Minimize investment in legacy platforms; ensure that new systems provide emerging capabilities expected by end users.
- Reduce the number of shadow information systems. Where shadow information systems are identified, work with the owner(s) to identify and address the unmet need.
Support the development of infrastructure through a balance of institutional funding, sponsored research grants and industrial support.
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Principle: Governance
Govern technology services and projects efficiently and effectively, including representation that enables shared services across campuses, while balancing stakeholder engagement with the ability to make timely decisions.
Learning Quality & Innovation
Research Leadership
Operational Efficiency & Effectiveness
Collaboration Across Boundaries
Data Management & Analytics
Sustainability & Risk Management
Capabilities
These capabilities were identified as core competency areas for information services and technology, within which several strategic initiatives should be carried out over the coming 5 years.
Click on the infographic to learn more about each capability.
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Capability: Learning Quality & Innovation
We will enable BU to be a leader in the development of new learning models, while enhancing the BU community's ability to engage students across disciplines in active, deep learning, using both proven and emerging pedagogical methods.
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Capability: Research Leadership
We will renew our commitment to leading research computing infrastructure and support services, especially in fields identified as strategic areas for the University moving forward.
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Capability: Operational Efficiency & Effectiveness
We will enable BU to meet or exceed applicable peer and industry benchmarks for operational efficiency and effectiveness in support services, especially in the areas of academic and research administration.
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Capability: Collaboration Across Boundaries
We will improve the BU community's ability to discover, connect and interact with each other across historical, organizational, disciplinary, geographic and institutional boundaries.
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Capability: Data Management & Analytics
We will extend our ability to collect, store, analyze, and disseminate data, including big data, in support of student success, research productivity and administrative effectiveness.
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Capability: Sustainability & Risk Management
We will plan for the renewal of critical technology infrastructure and ensure that security and compliance are consistently addressed.
Initiatives
The following initiatives are listed in the order they appear in the plan. Colors map to related capability areas.
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Additional Details
- Provide appropriate access to instructional design and digital media/content production capabilities for faculty and students.
- Enable faculty experimentation in educational technology innovation.
- Disseminate successful educational technology experiments as best practices, including creation of templates and reusable learning objects.
- Facilitate interdisciplinary/interprofessional collaboration in teaching and learning.
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Additional Details
- Forge and support shared infrastructure and research between BU’s Charles River and
Medical campuses.
- Ensure that the research computing infrastructure enables researchers to be
competitive for grant funding, and to scale applications to national facilities.
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Additional Details:
- Enhance support for disciplines and researchers newly engaged in computationally
intensive research and data visualization.
- Provide opportunities for undergraduate engagement in computational research.
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Additional Details:
- Support high quality research administration services to faculty through the provision of effective research administration systems.
- Consolidate and integrate faculty information systems to enhance ease of data
management by faculty and accuracy of reporting.
- Evolve student information systems (admission, registration, financial aid, etc.) to
enhance the student experience across BU, support strategic academic initiatives and emerging learning and credentialing models, and enable quality relationship management with students and parents.
- Enable quality and efficiency in University financial and human resource administration through enhancement of BUworks and related information systems
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Additional details:
Focus on areas of greatest impact:
- Travel and expense processing
- Research proposal development
- Research grant effort reporting
- Visa and permanent residency processing
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Additional Details
- A shared service catalog
- Uniform incident, change, problem, and configuration management processes across
central and local technology organizations
- A common IT service management platform
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Additional details:
- Make significant progress toward replacement of legacy central and local student
information systems with core, shared services that enable convenient, personalized student interactions with administration, including Admissions, Financial Aid, Registration, Student Accounts, Student employment, and Housing.
- Create a roadmap to transition other legacy applications at risk for obsolescence.
