Presenters
- Jerrold Grochow, CIO-in-Residence, Internet2
- Sara Jeanes, Program Manager, Internet2
Underlying Ideas for this Seminar
- Data: facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.
- If you can’t define it, you don’t know what your data says
- If you don’t analyze it, you don’t know what your data means
- If you don’t organize and present your analysis, you can’t convince anyone of what it means
- Data is most valuable when it can be turned into information that can be used for action
Goals
- Understand what data is important to different constituencies
- Learn practical approaches to collecting, organizing and presenting that data
- Start to apply this framework to your own strategic planning projects
What is Strategic Planning all About?
- Determining where we are now (org assessment)
- Determining what drives us to the future (drivers & trends)
- Determining where we want to be in the future (ID strategic issues)
- Determining how we’re going to to get to that future (develop strategic business plan)
- “If you don’t know where you want go go, any road will get you there.”
- “If you don’t know where you are, it’s tough to figure out how to get to where you want to be.”
- Being aware of external drivers that influence our organization
- In short: where/what/how, now and in the future
What Makes Data Important?
- Things that get measured get managed
- Can be used to look for trends
- Helps democratize the process by removing emotions
- Value to the institution
- Allows for effective SWOT exercise
- Sets the stage
- Raises a strategic issus
- Highlights a trend
- Distinguishes a constituency
- Presents a resource concern
Different Types of Strategic Planning Projects
- Initial plan
- Revisited plan: why? what changed?
- Plan update
- Organizational focus: resources, culture
- Service focus
- Technology focus
Strategic Planning Data Planning Framework
- Determine type of project and focus
- Determine key questions/issues
- Assess & define data
- Collect data
- Perform analysis
- Organize & present
Types of Data Needed
- Skills assessment: what do we need?
- Who is using our resources, and how?
- Retention and recruitment: who is leaving and why? What’s their demographic? What are the demographics of the various departments?
- What’s the data we’ve already got? Staff counts, project portfolio, budgets, etc.
Two Principal Types of Data
- Primary: data you collect specifically to serve the needs of the strategic planning activity
- Secondary: data you have (or can get) that was collected for other purposes but that will be useful
- You are going to have to use data you already have
- Internal secondary data: operational data, i.e. logs, usage data, help desk ticketing system, admissions data, anything in IR, IPEDS, infrastructure, monitoring, etc.
Operational Data: Service Utilization
- Definition: how much of a particular service is used by different groups of users
- Measure: what best shows usage
- Analysis: trends/patterns
- Organization/presentation: table, chart, interactive graphic
External Secondary Data
- What data can you readily get that would be useful?
- EDUCAUSE Core Data Service, NSSE, IPEDS, census, industry surveys (Gartner, Forrester, McKinsey)
Internal/External can be both primary and secondary
- Internal: about the organization
- External: about the environment
How do you collect data?
- Instrument your systems, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups
- Sensors
What Kind of Data?
- Text, numbers, pictures
- Qualitative
- Quantitative
- USE BOTH, to show impact and value
Timing: When Do You Collect Data?
- Before: to help ID and frame issues, and to ensure the planning process can proceed smoothly.
- During: as discussion uncovers additional data that would be useful
- After: to better manage your organization and monitor progress against plan
- Always: for the reasons mentioned above
How Can We Best Present Data?
In ways that best resonate with the audience, in ways that show importance. For example: “That’s the equivalent of a the cost of a full-time grad assistant” or “IT capital plan == building capital plan” or “system maintenance == building maintenance”
- Text: quotations, narrative, video
- Numbers: tables, charts, graphs
- Pictures: infographics, photos
Institutional Strategic Priorities
- Understand research and learning/teaching focus areas! This will tell you where senior leadership of the institution wants to go.
- Understand the financial areas! This will interact with research and learning/teaching focus areas.
- Understand the technology focus! You’ll be able to explain how this will interact with all the other areas.
