Hébert Díaz-Flores, Campus Chief Technology Architect
One of the initial priorities assigned to me after being appointed as Berkeley's first Chief Technology Architect in May 2007, was to reorganize and restart the activities of the campus's Information Technology Architecture Committee (ITAC).
ITAC's first charter is dated September 25, 2001, and indicates that
The IT Architecture Committee is the primary campus forum for developing a shared vision of how information technologies can best support UC Berkeley. The ITAC carries out this charge through research, consultation, advice, and communication. The ITAC reports to the Berkeley campus Chief Information Officer and also functions as an advisory group for the e-Berkeley Steering Committee. The ITAC consults with campus constituencies, including the Academic Senate Committee on Computing and Communications, on topics under consideration.
While no previous ITAC Charter appears in the documented archives, it is clear that the campus had an Information Technology Architecture (ITA) function that produced campuswide recommendations as far back as June of 1997 [1].
The need for a shared campus vision of how information technologies can best support UC Berkeley is not new. However, as information technologies become more pervasive across campus and as their complexity and rate of change increases, the need for campuswide technology standards and reference architectures that are aligned with campus strategic goals also becomes a growing priority, as does fostering collaboration and enhancing the skills of campus technology staff. Finally, with information technology budgets unable to grow at the pace of technology needs, there is ever-increasing pressure to ensure that the investments we do make are in sync with the IT Strategic Plan.
Recognizing the increasing importance of adopting an information technology architecture that is fully aligned with campus strategic goals and that meets the growing need for campus standards and a more rational approach towards technology investments in 2006, CIO Shel Waggener made the strategic decision to create a Chief Technology Architect (CTA) position to oversee the process of developing and maintaining this architectural framework. This is where I entered the picture.
My initial recommendations to CIO Waggener were as follows:
Based on these recommendations, ITAC has been reorganized as of June 14, 2007. The new Committee Charter states that:
The vision to be shared, known as the Enterprise Architecture (EA), encompasses issues related to information management, business process analysis, applications architecture, and technology infrastructure. In addition, the EA encompasses certain non-technical topics that affect the feasibility of the EA, including IT skills, training, as well as governance and cultural implications of changes induced by the EA. The EA provides a framework in which decisions may be made in designing and purchasing technology. [2]
ITAC's reorganized committee has 17 members (15 voting) providing cross-campus representation. ITAC includes technical leaders that usually guide technology architecture decisions in their organizations or play key enterprise information technology roles for the campus. Nominations to the Committee are reviewed by the CIO who makes the final appointments. The Chief Technology Architect serves as the permanent Committee chair. The vice-chair has a 2-year term. For a list of the current ITAC membership, see ITAC: Membership on the ITAC website.
ITAC will have the primary role of developing and maintaining the following architectural roadmaps, which will describe the desired shared vision for the future that the campus will move towards:
ITAC members have agreed on the key building blocks of these roadmaps to ensure that they become actionable blueprints. These key building blocks are depicted in the following diagram. Descriptions of each of these building blocks will be shared with the campus in a future iNews article.
Enterprise Architecture roadmaps will be "living" documents that will periodically (e.g., every two years or so) be updated by ITAC and sent to the CTC for review and adoption. Approved roadmaps represent the shared vision the campus will move towards and will significantly inform campus IT priority-setting and funding decisions.
Besides being stewards of the campus enterprise architecture roadmaps, ITAC members will be tasked with reviewing and assessing information technology issues that have an immediate or relatively near-term impact on the campus. Under steady-state conditions, ITAC reviews these issues using the adopted enterprise architecture roadmaps, making sure that its assessments and recommendations are in agreement with these blueprints. Because the first set of architectural roadmaps will take at least a year to develop and approve, ITAC must address the current set of critical issues using the group assessment, discussion, and consensus-building processes used in past years. The critical issues that ITAC will review during 2007–08 are:
For more details about these critical issues, see ITAC Critical Issues for 2007–08 on the ITAC website.
Most of the work that ITAC will perform will be done via permanent subgroups and issue working groups. Permanent subgroups are currently being formed to start developing each of the enterprise architecture roadmaps described above. Issue working groups are being formed to address the critical issues described above. Both the permanent subgroups and the issue working groups can include non-ITAC members and represent an opportunity for interested staff to join in the efforts.
Adopted products and public materials developed by ITAC for broad consumption will be published on the ITAC website.
Working products, reference materials, meeting agendas, minutes, discussions, surveys, and other collaborative information will be available at the following CalShare site (requires CalNet authentication): https://calshare.berkeley.edu/sites/itac/default.aspx
If you are interested in joining an ITAC permanent subgroup or issue working group, or if you want to provide any feedback related to ITAC, please email me at or call me at 2-6365.
[1] See ITA: Hot Topic: Mac Status at UC Berkeley.
[2] See the new ITAC Charter.
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