Proposal for Departmental Management Information System (DMIS)
Prepared by James Michael Kusack 27 May 07.
Vision:
Academic departments are collegial, self-management systems that depend on variety of external and internal governance documents, bylaws, tradition, and local lore in order to achieve departmental and university goals.
Because departments depend on volunteer service (committee chairs, for example) and elected officials that regularly change roles -- especially Department chairs -- the complex system of rules, policies and practices can be inefficient and ineffective without a good information system to guide departmental leaders and maintain the organizational memory.
This proposal will outline a method for constructing a Departmental Management Information System (DMIS), which is a mechanism to
- Provide direct access to governing and policy documents.
- Provide a calendar or scheduling tool what will extract schedules and dates from the relevant governing documents and synthesize that information into a single, functional scheduling tool.
- Provide a student charting-tool, which will track students from application to alumni status.
- Provide a Departmental Repository for easy and direct access to minutes of departmental and committee minutes, membership of committees, copies of departmental correspondence, and other relevant documents.
- Provide manuals for operation of the department for the Department Chair, the Department Secretary, and Committee Chairs.
- Provide an operation manual for the creation and maintenance of the DMIS.
See Appendix for details of what is contained in each of these DMIS
components.
It is expected that the DMIS will reside on an intranet website with appropriate security and access controls. The system will be available to department officers and staff, committee chairs and other faculty as necessary. It is expected that off-the-shelf or open source software will be used for the repository, scheduling, and other tools.
It is also expected that the DMIS will be completely online at completion of the project. During development some documents will stay in paper format. Ultimately, all current and previously existing records will be added to the DMIS so that the department office is essentially a paper-free environment.
Methodology:
Primary development work will be conducted by an IT specialist trained in web development and other relevant software applications. The designated Departmental Management System Coordinator will also have responsibility for continued maintenance of the system and the DMIS operations manual.
The DMIS Coordinator will work with department leaders, technical and clerical assistance provided by the department and other stakeholders to create a tool to achieve the goals listed above.
Steps in development to be conducted by the DMIS coordinator:
1. Literature search for information on existing systems that are similar to the proposed DMIS. Synthesis of this information and selection of pertinent aspects for application.
2. Survey of SCSU department s and department Chairs to determine current state of DMIS systems on campus. This survey will include solicitation of non-electronic and electronic manuals currently used by departments to guide department operations.
3. Survey of current and past ILS chairs to determine availability , use and relevance of manuals and guidance tools for operation of the ILS department. Current and past chairs will also play a central role in usability testing of the evolving DMIS.
4. Writing of a development plan of the underlying system architecture including an outline of components, relationship of each component to other components, and schedule for development. The development plan must include a schedule for coordination and approval by department stakeholders.
The information architecture for the DMIS should also include coordination and merging of tools with the ILS external website. For example, forms used by students -- such as the Planned Program form -- should be compatible with DMIS architecture.
5. Assembly of relevant documents with scanning/digitalization of documents where necessary.
6. Development, usability testing, and implementation of DMIS.
7. Assessment will include a developmental evaluation at half-way point in development and a summative evaluation 60 days after implementation
Staffing:
The DMIS Coordinator will have primary responsibility for the design and implementation of this tool. Development and testing will be done by the DMIS coordinator through a process that draws on the experience of the current and past Chairs of the ILS department.
The department Chair and former Chairs, secretary and former secretaries, committee chairs, and others will work collaboratively with the coordinator to create content, organize, and test for usability of the system. Stakeholders will be expected to contribute to systemic examination of their areas of interest at least twice a year and to deliver updated information to the Coordinator as that information becomes available.
This update and revision will be done with the active participation of the DMIS coordinator who will solicit the updates/revisions from the stakeholders on a regular schedule.
Future development:
A variety of database and directory systems could also be integrated into the DMIS, such as alumni and employer contact databases.
Links to and derivative tools using campus enterprise and enrollment software like Banner and MySCSU will also facilitate DMIS applications.
The system and specifications will be made available to other departments. Chairs and the DMIS coordinator will be made available on a limited basis to explain the application of the DMIS and assist in use in other departments.
It is also hoped that a campus-wide system of DMIS could ultimately be part of a university Institutional Repository similar to MIT's DSpace http://www.dspace.org/ initiative .
Appendix A.
Examples of components of the DMIS:
1. Governing and policy documents
A. Student Handbooks
1. University Handbooks
2. Departmental Handbooks
B. Graduate Catalog
C. Department Bylaws
D. Faculty Contract
E. Faculty Handbook and other Senate documents derived from the Contract
F. Certification documents
G. University policy documents not derived from the Contract (such as
Disaster Plan, storm cancellation, Long Range Plan, etc.)
H. Other
2. Scheduling or calendar tool what will extract schedules and dates from the relevant governing documents and synthesize that information into a single, functional scheduling tool.
This will certainly have to be manually maintained for some time. The underlying issue is that department officers, staff, and committee chairs are required to do things on a schedule. This DMIS tool will bring all dates together into a single calendar for easy access and referral. Ideally, a 'tickler' alert could be sent to the chairs and others warning of approaching due dates.
This includes dates specified by the Faculty Handbook, accreditation agencies and other stakeholders. The scheduling tool will be updated and maintained by the DMIS Coordinator as new or revised documents are entered into the system.
3. Student charting tool which will track students from application to alumni status, recording such things as where they are in the application process, directory and demographic information, and survey. Incorporating GRE, TOEFL, undergrad GPA, survey data etc., will facilitate the admission process and enhance assessment reports
4. Departmental Repository
A. Minutes of departmental faculty meetings
B. Minutes of departmental committee meetings
C. Committee information
1. Membership of committees
2. Dates of service, when appointed or elected, when term concludes etc.
D. Accreditation documentation
E. Copies of departmental correspondence
1. Students
2. Faculty
3. Admin
4. ALA COA
5. Others
F. Student Special Projects
G. Archives of the Student Chapter of the American Library Association
(SCALA) listserv.
H. Other relevant department documents.
5. Provide manuals for operation of the department for the Department Chair, the Department Secretary, and Committee Chairs, and UAs and student office workers.
The DMIS Coordinator will work with current and past chairs, secretaries and others to assemble and synthesize these manuals from existing manuals and/or notes or with the advice and recommendations of these parties.
It is expected that the Coordinator will interview the current and former Chairs of the department and committees and current and past secretaries to gather info about local policies, practices and lore not included in the other documents.
The manuals should include lists of key university personnel with special skills and knowledge each has which are relevant to solving departmental problems or questions. It may be useful to use an FAQ structure as one part of these manuals.
As part of regular maintenance, the DMIS Coordinator will meet with or communicate with the primary creators of these documents (chair, secretary, etc) at least once a month to update and enhance the manuals.
Manuals should be created for
- Departmental Chair
- Committee Chairs
- Departmental Secretary
- UA and student employees
6. Operation manual for the creation and maintenance of the DMIS.
This resource will explain the architecture and logic of the DMIS, how the coordinator does his/her work, schedules for maintenance of the DMIS, access control, and other information needed to maintain the effectiveness of the system.
Appendix B.
Specifications for the DMIS
- Minimal or no use of PDF
- There must be a site map
- The entire DMIS should be searchable from the home page
