...
| Measuring Progress | ||
| How will we assess progress towards our change? |
| |
What are we going to measure?:
|
| |
| Who is responsible for assessing progress? | DP&A; Dan? | |
| When does it make sense to start? | ASAP | |
| How often will we check-in on progress? | Monthly? | |
| How long should we continue to measure our change? | quarterly then annual? | |
| How will we share what we find back with the organization? | Presentations; announcements | |
| How will we celebrate? | Party | |
Meetings
May 18, 2021
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Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
...
April 1, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Action Items Review:
- Dan to send email asking for project list, types of projects, prioritization factors
- Sub-group members to respond to email
- Discussion of Unit Priorities and how they factor organizationally
- Discussion of what a project is and why define it.
March 25, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Demo/discuss the new "Additional Considerations" section
- Does it make a difference about how we've made decision in the past, instead of how we should be doing it???
- Personal Prioritization Factors
- Unit Prioritization Factors
- Lists of Projects:
- What defines a project?
- Are we just talking digital?
- Another way to discuss it is as a workstream.
- Can we pilot/experiment with something with a smaller group (key stakeholder) and a small group of projects?
- Do we need a decision-making body, or is it a matter of communication?
- When does something transition from a project to ongoing work, or does it?
- How does Copyright fit within this process?
- Action Items:
- Dan to send email asking for project list, types of projects, prioritization factors
- Sub-group members to respond to email
...
Maybe re-state Reconciling dependencies and obstacles - Dependencies/obstacles can be reconciled through digitization project.
Prioritizing list: I don’t think so. It’s so different depending on the unit. And who is requesting the work can either put it at the very top or can make it lower
- Can't have wild west
- Can't have draconian process
- Discussed w/Search Committee analogy
Rubric/Tool:
We do need a tool to guide these decisions, and a weighted rubric seems like a possibility. The responsibility for assigning scores should rest where the work would – for example, I have seen several digitization proposals where the proposer declares the metadata is good but the units responsible for that work would not have made the same assessment.
- I don’t think so. It’s so different depending on the unit. And who is requesting the work can either put it at the very top or can make it lower
- Visibility: I believe we do need a formalized process, which is not to automatically equate formalized with complex or onerous. However, most projects will require input from multiple units and make some resources unavailable to other uses, so the decision has to be collective.
- Formalized process: Probably if we want it to be equitable, but we can’t make this crazy complicated. Honestly, what will happen is everyone will avoid doing it if it’s too complicated.
April 1, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Continuing review of "Process" section
- Some prioritization considerations:
- Patron Needs
- 1st come - 1st serve
- Authority of the request (OtP, Legal, Donor, etc)
- Deadlines
- Ownership/Copyright
- Physical condition
- Staffing levels (both understaffed and over resourced)
- changes in workflow and expectations
- skills and availability of student staff
- Where materials are located
- Technical limitations
- Collection assessments
- Strategic initiatives aligned with the greater organization
- Need agreement on "what's most important"
- transparency on the decision(s)
- what happens when one priority trumps another and affects deadlines?
- Need to be flexible in re-assigning priorities
- How do we react to unanticipated needs/issues
- Incomplete projects
- Management of lifecycle
- Active stakeholder participation/engagement when necessary
- Opportunities for one div/dept/unit impacts other div/dept/unit (both positively & negatively)
- Project management (& skills) utilized consistently throughout Libraries
- Framework to allow us to say "No" and/or manage expectations more effectively; or to understand when we have no option but to say "Yes" how do we deal with the impact.
- Patron Needs
- Types of priorities/resource allocation:
- Strategic
- day-to-day:
- can get too caught up in higher strategic priorities
- Sometimes left out of "strategic plan" because "we just do them" and could be potentially be de-prioritized
- Without a clear picture of d-2-d we can be significantly under-resourced
- Lack of transparency in other div/dept/unit's priorities
- Balancing external requests vs. What we'd like to do
- Organizational impact vs. divisional/departmental/unit impact
- Possibly look at DPLA's "Radical Prioritization" process?
- Some prioritization considerations:
- Begin to create a synthesized prioritization/decision-making strategy
February 25, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Continuing review of "Process" section
- Analysis of individual area prioritization/decision-making strategy. Discussion prompts:
- What are the steps you take?
- Project pre-review is important in potentially preempting factors that negatively impact the organization after the accessioning of born digital materials or a digitization project
- What are routine tasks vs. specialized vs unique?
- Much of the work is routine
- Routine work can/does include constant re-prioritization
- "Routine" might not be the appropriate word; routine might not be daily, but is routine; possibly "regular"
- Some units regular activity does not impact other units; conversely time sensitive/urgent requests may disrupt multiple cross-unit workflows
- An overarching goals is to try to make all of our work routine/regular with the ability to pivot back-and-forth to handle time-sensitive requests
- Various units will have factors that are unique to them; how do we accommodate those factors in an equitable manner?
- What are the factors you consider?
- Time sensitive
- requests for materials for classes, loans, exhibits, patrons and/or donor expectations
- Need to be transparent with our constituents as to our abilities to handle time sensitive requests
- Impact
- Time sensitive
- How do embarking upon projects impact day-to-day workflows?
- How do you prioritize and re-allocate work when necessary?
- Need for open/transparent communications channels, including when a priority drops.
- How do we de-prioritize work vs. the need for completed projects?
- Potential future solution: a regular (e.g. monthly) meeting similar to the compliment of this sub-group that discusses/decides priorities
- Other concerns:
- Discussion devolves to digitization at the expense of handling born digital
- Need for systems-thinking vs. silos thinking, not only across units, but within units
Did not get to this Agenda Item: Action Items Review: - What are the steps you take?
- Dan to send email asking for project list, types of projects, prioritization factors
- Sub-group members to respond to email
- Discussion of Unit Priorities and how they factor organizationally
- Discussion of what a project is and why define it.
March 25, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Demo/discuss the new "Additional Considerations" section
- Does it make a difference about how we've made decision in the past, instead of how we should be doing it???
- Personal Prioritization Factors
- Unit Prioritization Factors
- Lists of Projects:
- What defines a project?
- Are we just talking digital?
- Another way to discuss it is as a workstream.
- Can we pilot/experiment with something with a smaller group (key stakeholder) and a small group of projects?
- Do we need a decision-making body, or is it a matter of communication?
- When does something transition from a project to ongoing work, or does it?
- How does Copyright fit within this process?
- Action Items:
- Dan to send email asking for project list, types of projects, prioritization factors
- Sub-group members to respond to email
March 12, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Continuing review of "Process" section
- Some prioritization considerations:
- Patron Needs
- 1st come - 1st serve
- Authority of the request (OtP, Legal, Donor, etc)
- Deadlines
- Ownership/Copyright
- Physical condition
- Staffing levels (both understaffed and over resourced)
- changes in workflow and expectations
- skills and availability of student staff
- Where materials are located
- Technical limitations
- Collection assessments
- Strategic initiatives aligned with the greater organization
- Need agreement on "what's most important"
- transparency on the decision(s)
- what happens when one priority trumps another and affects deadlines?
- Need to be flexible in re-assigning priorities
- How do we react to unanticipated needs/issues
- Incomplete projects
- Management of lifecycle
- Active stakeholder participation/engagement when necessary
- Opportunities for one div/dept/unit impacts other div/dept/unit (both positively & negatively)
- Project management (& skills) utilized consistently throughout Libraries
- Framework to allow us to say "No" and/or manage expectations more effectively; or to understand when we have no option but to say "Yes" how do we deal with the impact.
- Patron Needs
- Types of priorities/resource allocation:
- Strategic
- day-to-day:
- can get too caught up in higher strategic priorities
- Sometimes left out of "strategic plan" because "we just do them" and could be potentially be de-prioritized
- Without a clear picture of d-2-d we can be significantly under-resourced
- Lack of transparency in other div/dept/unit's priorities
- Balancing external requests vs. What we'd like to do
- Organizational impact vs. divisional/departmental/unit impact
- Possibly look at DPLA's "Radical Prioritization" process?
- Some prioritization considerations:
- Begin to create a synthesized prioritization/decision-making strategy
...
February 25, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Review Continuing review of "BenefitsProcess" section
- tweaked some of the language to include not only research, but instruction and its associated stakeholders
Maybe re-state Reconciling dependencies and obstacles - Dependencies/obstacles can be reconciled through digitization project.
Prioritizing list: I don’t think so. It’s so different depending on the unit. And who is requesting the work can either put it at the very top or can make it lower
- Can't have wild west
- Can't have draconian process
- Discussed w/Search Committee analogy
Rubric/Tool:
We do need a tool to guide these decisions, and a weighted rubric seems like a possibility. The responsibility for assigning scores should rest where the work would – for example, I have seen several digitization proposals where the proposer declares the metadata is good but the units responsible for that work would not have made the same assessment.
- I don’t think so. It’s so different depending on the unit. And who is requesting the work can either put it at the very top or can make it lower
- Visibility: I believe we do need a formalized process, which is not to automatically equate formalized with complex or onerous. However, most projects will require input from multiple units and make some resources unavailable to other uses, so the decision has to be collective.
- Formalized process: Probably if we want it to be equitable, but we can’t make this crazy complicated. Honestly, what will happen is everyone will avoid doing it if it’s too complicated.
- Most of the discussion focused on the question, "How will we go about doing this?"
- General sentiment is that we are beginning to get to the heart of the problem.
- Homework due February 11:
articulate how individual units prioritize and make decisions about their own collections and workflows:
What are the steps you take?Analysis of individual area prioritization/decision-making strategy. Discussion prompts:- What are the steps you take?
- Project pre-review is important in potentially preempting factors that negatively impact the organization after the accessioning of born digital materials or a digitization project
- What are routine tasks vs. specialized vs unique?
- What are the factors you consider?
- How do embarking upon projects impact day-to-day workflows?
- How do you prioritize and re-allocate work when necessary?
- What are the steps you take?
December 10, 2020
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Recap of discussion "Current >>> Future States"
- Robust discussion around "Defining the Change" (see above)
- Action Items:
- Review "Benefits"
- Review, deep contemplation and suggestions for "Process"
November 24, 2020
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Kickoff meeting
- Discussion of the framing document to approach this activity as an exercise in change management. The framing document is adapted from DeEtta Jones and Associates' "Planning for Sustainable Change"
What is a Project?
Why do we need to define "project"? This term continually comes up in the discussion of how we prioritize the work we do within the University Libraries, both within our units and collaboratively across the organization.
Definitions and key concepts provided by team members:
- A project to be any activity for which we need to define parameters or create/significantly adjust workflows to accomplish the work.
- Projects are holistic work that cover a section/series/type of material.
- Quantity of materials/activity drives what is a project.
- Anything that involves multiple units and long-term commitment of time & labor.
- Projects can be internal to a unit or collaboratively across more than one unit.
- Project should have a defined beginning and end; identified outcomes or deliverables.
- Even routine daily activities if examined closely enough might be considered micro-projects
- Even within the routine workflows, we run into unusual situation that become projects because we have to use novel processes to manage them.
- We have other workflows that should be routine, but are currently not due to lack of standardized inputs and processes.
- A planned endeavor, usually with a specific goal and accomplished in several steps or stages. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/project Retrieved 2021.04.01)
Definition (approved April 22, 2021):
A project is an activity, or set of activities, for which we need to determine the parameters for completion, including a beginning and end; requirements, resources (fiscal/human/technical) and dependencies; and the outcomes and deliverables.
It is understood that work that is conducted collaboratively, across multiple units within the Libraries, may or often rise to the level of a "project." However, a project may just be internally focused.
In order for the Libraries to be able to appropriately prioritize collaborative project work, that work needs to be conspicuously visible; further, internal project work needs to be made visible to the entire organization.
How do we prioritize within the University Libraries?
Based upon input from team members, the following are key factors in determining workload priorities (listed alphabetically):
- Alignment with priorities of objectives for the University Libraries, and its divisions, departments, program areas and units
- Capacity/Availability of fiscal, human and technological resources
- Commitment to donors and community
- Deadlines that are justified
- Disaster mitigation
- Does this work lead to future efficiencies?
- Expression of exigent circumstances
- Fragility and obsolescence of materials.
- Knowing what work/projects is/are in the "queues" and existing priorities (this is aspirational)
- Matching of available capacity to the needs of the tasks
- Patron needs
- Project size/scope
- Readiness (is the project well thought out and planned; checklist ticked off)
- Identifying dependencies, obstacles and feasibility
Unexpected opportunity
- Who is requesting the work:
- Donor
- External collaborative projects
- Guest curators
- Legal/Compliance related
- Libraries' curators/librarians with primary responsibility for materials
- Libraries' Leadership
- Libraries' staff/faculty
- Patrons (standard and rush requests)
- University leadership
NEXT STEP(S): We need to determine if this is our list of priorities. Once we've settled on the list we need to establish how to operationalize it as a rubric, and how we will govern the process in an equitable manner.
- Much of the work is routine
- Routine work can/does include constant re-prioritization
- "Routine" might not be the appropriate word; routine might not be daily, but is routine; possibly "regular"
- Some units regular activity does not impact other units; conversely time sensitive/urgent requests may disrupt multiple cross-unit workflows
- An overarching goals is to try to make all of our work routine/regular with the ability to pivot back-and-forth to handle time-sensitive requests
- Various units will have factors that are unique to them; how do we accommodate those factors in an equitable manner?
- What are the factors you consider?
- Time sensitive
- requests for materials for classes, loans, exhibits, patrons and/or donor expectations
- Need to be transparent with our constituents as to our abilities to handle time sensitive requests
- Impact
- Time sensitive
- How do embarking upon projects impact day-to-day workflows?
- How do you prioritize and re-allocate work when necessary?
- Need for open/transparent communications channels, including when a priority drops.
- How do we de-prioritize work vs. the need for completed projects?
- Potential future solution: a regular (e.g. monthly) meeting similar to the compliment of this sub-group that discusses/decides priorities
- Other concerns:
- Discussion devolves to digitization at the expense of handling born digital
- Need for systems-thinking vs. silos thinking, not only across units, but within units
- Did not get to this Agenda Item: Begin to create a synthesized prioritization/decision-making strategy
January 26, 2021
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Review of "Benefits" section
- tweaked some of the language to include not only research, but instruction and its associated stakeholders
- Discussion of "Process" section
- Most of the discussion focused on the question, "How will we go about doing this?"
- General sentiment is that we are beginning to get to the heart of the problem.
- Homework due February 11:
articulate how individual units prioritize and make decisions about their own collections and workflows:
- What are the steps you take?
- What are routine tasks vs. specialized vs unique?
- What are the factors you consider?
- How do embarking upon projects impact day-to-day workflows?
- How do you prioritize and re-allocate work when necessary?
December 10, 2020
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Recap of discussion "Current >>> Future States"
- Robust discussion around "Defining the Change" (see above)
- Action Items:
- Review "Benefits"
- Review, deep contemplation and suggestions for "Process"
November 24, 2020
Attendance: Sue Beck, Morag Boyd, Miriam Centeno, Tamar Chute, Nena Couch, Dan Noonan, Jenny Robb, & Gene Springs
Agenda
- Kickoff meeting
- Discussion of the framing document to approach this activity as an exercise in change management. The framing document is adapted from DeEtta Jones and Associates' "Planning for Sustainable Change"
What is a Project?
Why do we need to define "project"? This term continually comes up in the discussion of how we prioritize the work we do within the University Libraries, both within our units and collaboratively across the organization.
Definitions and key concepts provided by team members:
- A project to be any activity for which we need to define parameters or create/significantly adjust workflows to accomplish the work.
- Projects are holistic work that cover a section/series/type of material.
- Quantity of materials/activity drives what is a project.
- Anything that involves multiple units and long-term commitment of time & labor.
- Projects can be internal to a unit or collaboratively across more than one unit.
- Project should have a defined beginning and end; identified outcomes or deliverables.
- Even routine daily activities if examined closely enough might be considered micro-projects
- Even within the routine workflows, we run into unusual situation that become projects because we have to use novel processes to manage them.
- We have other workflows that should be routine, but are currently not due to lack of standardized inputs and processes.
- A planned endeavor, usually with a specific goal and accomplished in several steps or stages. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/project Retrieved 2021.04.01)
Definition (approved April 22, 2021):
A project is an activity, or set of activities, for which we need to determine the parameters for completion, including a beginning and end; requirements, resources (fiscal/human/technical) and dependencies; and the outcomes and deliverables.
It is understood that work that is conducted collaboratively, across multiple units within the Libraries, may or often rise to the level of a "project." However, a project may just be internally focused.
In order for the Libraries to be able to appropriately prioritize collaborative project work, that work needs to be conspicuously visible; further, internal project work needs to be made visible to the entire organization.
How do we prioritize within the University Libraries?
Based upon input from team members, the following are key factors in determining workload priorities (listed alphabetically):
Alignment
- Alignment with priorities of objectives for the University Libraries (UL) and its divisions, departments, program areas and units
- Alignment with the core services (need to define/articulate) of the UL's divisions, departments, program areas and units
- Commitment to donors and community
- Patron needs
Opportunity
- Deadlines that are justified
- Disaster mitigation
- Does this work lead to future efficiencies?
- Expression of exigent circumstances
- Fragility and obsolescence of materials.
- Unexpected opportunity
Readiness
- Capacity/Availability of fiscal, human and technological resources
- Identifying dependencies, obstacles and feasibility
- Knowing what work/projects is/are in the "queues" and existing priorities (this is aspirational)
- Matching of available capacity to the needs of the tasks
- Project size/scope
- Readiness (is the project well thought out and planned; checklist ticked off)
Who is requesting the work?
- Donor
- External collaborative projects
- Guest curators
- Legal/Compliance related
- Libraries' curators/librarians with primary responsibility for materials
- Libraries' Leadership
- Libraries' staff/faculty
- Patrons (standard and rush requests)
- University leadership
Additional Considerations/Resources
...