Last edit: 05-03-17 Graham Wideman

Personal

Early '98 -- Obstacles

My assessment of the state of play in early '98 included the following obstacles:

• Implementation of a web-browsable organizational knowledge environment framework that would foster widespread understanding of the enterprise was stalled for several reasons, including: The HR project (and org-structure) had been canceled (and the colleague I depended on it that area had quit); all available I.S. resources and attention (soon to include me) were being focused on operational systems (notably the newly launched Oracle Financials implementation).
   
• Warehouse pursuits were stalled because the two most core systems were both in turmoil: SIMS (student/course/section/facility/faculty) increasingly behind schedule to avert a Y2K crisis, and FAS (accounting) embarking on what is likely to be a minimum two-year transition to a new system.
   
• Management recognition of campus-scope information issues as a critical point of leverage did not seem to be advancing. The management/I.S. committee and education mechanism that had been proposed in mid-97 to pursue this had not been convened or inaugurated a year after its proposal. There thus continued to be no focus for coordination of campus-scope information issues, and an absence of high-level executive advocacy for campus-scope disciplined application of process and system design principles. It therefore seemed inevitiable that the many disparate departments with I.S. groups would continue to build uncoordinated infrastructure that focus on local needs, unable to yield their full value to the enterprise as a whole.
   

These observations do not mean that the SDSU is forever to be without a solid information infrastructure.  However the knowledge environment and warehouse thrusts were both blocked by obstacles that seemed likely to keep my window of opportunity shut for a minimum of two years.  Accordingly I made personal plans to avoid getting into a habit of pushing rocks up hill, and ultimately left SDSU this position in May 98.

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