Strategic ICT Toolkit (SICT)
The University of Nottingham is commissioned to develop a self-analysis toolkit to help HEIs to analyse, assess and develop their strategic use of information technologies. The use of ICT is considered important to the support and delivery of core businesses, however, a recent report by Duke and Jordan has shown that HEIs differ widely in the maturity of strategic ICT use.
JISC and LFHE have commissioned this project toolkit to support CIOs, IS Directors and senior leaders in HE, in developing towards more strategically directed ICT deployment. This project will draw on the experience, insights and existing practices of a representative sample of HEI’s to develop a self-analysis toolkit to stimulate this understanding and support institutional development.
Aims and Objectives
The project will produce a self-analysis toolkit that will support CIOs, IS Directors and senior leaders within HEIs to understand their current level of maturity in terms of ICT strategy and, crucially, how to develop from one level of maturity to the next.
Objectives:
- Understand the ways in which institutions are peripheral, tactical or strategic in terms of the way that they govern and manage their ICT provision.
- Identify ‘gaps’ where further tools are required and produce practical open source tools which can help HEIs understand their current position and provide opportunities for development.
- Work closely with the LFHE to integrate project outputs into the LFHE’s leadership development programmes. Test the tools in pilot 5 HEIs.
Project Methodology
The University of Nottingham team will categorised the sample HEIs into peripheral, tactical or strategic groups. A team of PG researchers will conduct interviews to obtain understanding and insights as to why institutions are at the current maturity level. PGR reports will be submitted to the Project Manager for review and will inform the development of the tools. The Project Director and advisory group will provide additional quality assurance.
The existing University of Nottingham CRM toolkit will be used/adapted/re-engineered for the ICT toolkit. During the sampling activities it is anticipated that issues will be identified for which new tools will need to be developed.
The LFHE are part of the Advisory Group and LFHE members will be consulted through a LFHE leadership event. The event will be convened by the LFHE and jointly facilitated by the University of Nottingham. The toolkit will be piloted and tested prior to release.
Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes
The main deliverable will be the ‘Strategic ICT’ toolkit. The self-analysis toolkit will encompass topics such as: What is ICT strategy? (to include definitions and practical examples); Where are you now (a maturity check)?; Are you ready for change (a change readiness diagnostic around whether the organisation ready to move to the next level of maturity)?; and, how do I move to the next stage (practical case studies and good practice insights)?
Other outputs to include:
- Evaluation report on the implementation of the toolkit at 5 ‘work package 1’ pilot sites
- Toolkit integration into LFHE leadership modules