Team,
As the University continues its Operational Excellence efforts, I wanted to provide an update on the work underway and highlight several areas where collaboration across our organizations will be important.
As this work develops, there are three related efforts that are important to distinguish:
- Technology governance. The University’s emerging Strategic Framework governance model includes a technology council. We are working to align this with Information & Technology Governance (I&TG) so that technology governance is integrated through our existing structure rather than duplicated through parallel bodies.
- Technology operational excellence. Recognizing technology’s growing role in operational excellence, we established the IT Operational Excellence Working Group last year through I&TG. This work is well underway and remains focused on practical opportunities to simplify administrative work and reduce complexity, including through the responsible use of AI, while improving customer experience, service delivery, governance, resource stewardship, and the technology workforce.
- University operational excellence. Within Pillar 4 of the Strategic Framework, the University has established a working group focused on stewarding and growing the people and resources that support our mission, including how technology can enable this work. The group is developing recommendations to advance operational excellence across the University, informed by community engagement, feedback, and the new framework.
As the University’s broader strategic and operational excellence efforts take shape, we expect the recommendations from the IT Operational Excellence Working Group to inform and feed into the broader Pillar 4 operational excellence work. This will help avoid duplication and ensure the efforts are coordinated.
We have also reviewed our UWIT strategic anchors in light of this work and found that they remain relevant and well aligned with the University’s direction. The working group will continue developing recommendations this fall, and I will keep you informed as the work progresses.
Thank you for everything you do for UWIT and the University.
Andreas
ANDREAS BOHMAN (he, him)
Vice President, CIO and Interim CISO
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
abohman@uw.edu| it.uw.edu