Rules, Responsibilities and Critical Success Factors for Committees
General Information
- Committee membership is determined by IT and Executive Leadership as well as approval of recommended appointments
- Committees are established in an effort to assure that University-wide services and activities will be carried out in the best interests of education and society. The membership of IT Governance Committees is generally composed of faculty, staff members, and students in varying proportions according to the committee's primary interest.
- Each committee acts only in an advisory or decision-making capacity within the area assigned to it. Committee recommendations are not binding on the administration. On the other hand, it is expected that the views of the committees will have an important influence on policies, procedures, and projects in their areas of concern.
- Committees are intended to be a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship which includes a commitment to mutual relationships and goals for success and a sharing of resources and rewards.
- Wilder Foundation lists several factors influencing the success of collaboration:
- Purpose of concrete and attainable goals and objectives with a shared vision and unique purpose
- The environment of the committees should be collaborative with favorable political and social climate
- Membership should have mutual respect, understanding and trust, with appropriate cross-section of members with ability to compromise, and collaboration seen in everyone’s best interest.
- Members share a stake in the process and outcomes, with flexibility, clear roles and guidelines
- Open and frequent communication and informal relationships
- Sufficient funds, staff, materials and time
- Skilled leadership
Responsibilities
- Members must understand the IT Governance Model and their role in the process. They must be interested in the topic and dedicated to ensuring that the use of IT within UT Arlington is consistent with campus policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures as they relate to campus-wide solutions.
- Members are expected to attend scheduled meetings. Substitutions are allowed only if exceptional circumstances exist. Due to the importance of continuous committee participation, if a member misses more than two meetings a year, it will be necessary to locate a replacement member. The committee Chair will request suggestions for replacement members. IT and Executive Leadership will approve the replacement.
- Each advisory committee will be required to hold a minimum of one annual meeting with interested campus constituents with an interest in their respective area of IT governance.
As part of preparation for meetings, members are expected to consult with the following groups to best represent campus wants and needs:
- Organizations and/or interest groups they represent
- Appropriate Communities of Practice
- Other advisory committees who may have important input or be impacted by a decision or recommendation
- University Leadership representatives
- Each member will be responsible for reading materials and coming to meetings prepared to discuss topics.
- For each meeting, there will be a clear agenda, sent at least one week in advance. Any issues or proposals to be discussed will be well documented and distributed in advance of the meeting.
- Each member will participate fully to satisfy the goals of the committee.
- Members are expected to complete follow-Up work to facilitate smooth operational goals of the committee.
Procedures
- A permanently assigned OIT staff member will be assigned to take minutes of every committee meeting except sub-committee meetings. This will provide consistent templates for minutes and simplify external and internal utilization.
- Advisory committees may create ad-hoc task-oriented sub-committees as needed to address special interest topics. The sub-committees will be expected to respond to the advisory committee with a pre-agreed deliverable within a pre-agreed timeframe.
- Minutes will be posted on the IT Governance web site.
- Once recommendations are made by the advisory committees, members are expected to present a unified front when requested input from the decision-making committee.
- Once decisions are made by the decision-making committee, advisory and decision-making members are expected to represent the decisions within the university and their organizations and/or interest groups to gain understanding and buy-in
- For all requests for services:
- Ensure that all requests have complete mandatory specifications
- Determine level of service to the university based on UT Arlington’s project management criteria
- Decline those project requests that do not satisfy university strategic goals (with an understanding that the project will not be addressed by external resources unless ITGC approves such an action)
- If a project is not approved due to lack of IT resources and need is approved, additional university IT resources should be attained over individual project owner management.
- Prioritize remaining projects based on:
- Mandate (university, state, federal) versus desired
- Level of satisfaction of university strategic goals
- Number of persons positively impacted by the request
- Estimated size of resources needed for the project
- Submit prioritized requests to the IT governance committee members at least two weeks before their meeting
Overall Time Commitment
Once a member gains initial knowledge of the IT Governance Model, the estimated time requirement per meeting will be:
• Preparation: 1 – 2 hours, dependent on topics
• Meeting: 1 - 2 hours
• Post-meeting: 1 hour to review and clarify minutes, etc. Follow-up work, if requested.
• Interacting with representative groups between meetings: 1 – 5 hours, as deemed appropriate