The Importance of Digital Governance

Does your school have a ‘legacy spaghetti’ network?

Most school IT systems have evolved with well-meaning enthusiasts in the vanguard of the IT revolution: a school management system here, a time-tabling package there; a laptop programme in Physics, an iPad programme in French; a great app for English teaching here, a graphing package for Maths there.

Most school networks are testimony to at least a decade of anarchy.

It is common for schools to hold data in multiple databases and to use a range of ocal, network and web-based packages which aren't integrated.?Each new teacher and administrator joining the school brings great new ideas and 'innovation' and, with it, even more complexity to an already overloaded system.?The result is what Information Systems experts term?legacy spaghetti.

Ultimately this situation is a?failure of a past school leadership?which did even know they needed to understand how IT systems work before setting them up. Such an oversight is both understandable and forgivable for it was a time when IT expertise was not part of the school leader's toolkit, but it does pose a significant challenge for today’s school leader.

Why is legacy spaghetti a problem?

‘Legacy spaghetti schools’?are tying themselves up in more and more layers of complexity that mean that pupils, teachers and school administrators are wasting precious time and resources. At some point the school reaches a point (and perhaps yours is already there) when the whole system begins to run so slowly that upgrades and simply adding more RAM and Terabytes just won't solve the problem. In the long run legacy spaghetti means that the school network will no longer be fit for purpose will prevent schools from keeping up with innovation. Resolution of these historic issues is possible but it does require strong?Digital Leadership today?and good?Digital Governance?going forward.

Digital Governance

Corporate governance structures exist to ensure that executive management act in the best interest of the organisation/shareholders and not merely to maximise their own self interests.

For example, school leaders will be familiar with the concept of Financial Governance which ensures that employees know the limits of their authority to commit the organisation’s financial resources. This usually takes the form of policy document which outlines the rules on expenditure, contracts, salary levels etc. Digital Governance works in a similar way.

“[It] is concerned with promoting consistent and coherent decision-making behaviour across an organisation regarding Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT) in order to maximise the value the organisation derives from IS/IT” (Peppard & Ward, The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a Digital Strategy, 4th Edition 2016, 368).

An organisation’s Digital Governance document is in effect the rule-book outlining

·????????why the strategy is the way it is (the principles on which the strategy is founded)

·????????who can make IS/IT decisions;

·????????how IS/IT decisions are made;

·????????what is permitted in the organisation.

Digital Governance ensures that a year group/department/colleague can’t declare UDI and strike off in their own direction. These policies outline the rules for anyone who wants to purchase a new device/software program/app, and put in place procedures to check that the proposed development is aligned to the school’s wider strategy and compatible with the rest of the IS/IT network.

The ‘Why’ of Digital Governance

Digital Governance allows an organisation to align IS/IT developments to the wider vision and direction for the organisation. For example, Digital Governance enables organisations to standardize systems and processes, which ultimately bring greater efficiency and reduced costs. Digital Governance is a way to break down the ‘silo culture’ of some organisation as it puts structures in place which encourage alignment and collaboration.

?The ‘Who’ of Digital Governance

There is significant debate about who should be making IS/IT decisions. There are real dangers in leaving these decisions to IT Network Managers as, too often, decisions are made from self-interest (see BLOGPOST). Equally, there are dangers in allowing enthusiastic administrators/ educationalists who do not understand the technical aspects of school networks to dominate -they are fundamentally responsible for the legacy spaghetti. Instead, it is worth considering two other common models:

1.?????Digital Governance Committees.?These groups combine some of the senior team with teachers and the Network team. Together they can evaluate new technologies and put in place the necessary infrastructure to ensure that it is effective. Such a group is well placed to draft the initial Digital Governance Document and to revise it as necessary. Large organisations may like to differentiate between a wider digital governance group, which oversees policy, and a narrower network architecture group, which looks at the technical specification of the network required to deliver that strategy.

2.?????Digital Leadership Roles. It has become quite common for large firms in industry to appoint ‘Chief Digital Officers’ (CDOs) to drive digital change from an executive level. Some schools have appointed Assistant/Deputy Headteachers/Principals to fulfil this role. This is undoubtedly an excellent solution as it means that a single senior leader has time and authority to drive the necessary change. However, the difficulties are cost and finding a candidate with sufficient pedagogical and technical knowledge to be able to do the role effectively.

?The ‘How’ of Digital Governance

As with all other areas of school life, there are inevitably good ideas competing for limited resources. The Digital Governance document should define the process by which IS/IT decisions are made and how competing IS and IT priorities should be managed and implemented. It is often helpful to consider these as either ‘demand’ or ‘supply’ decisions:

1.?????‘Demand’ Decisions include deciding how much to invest in IS/IT and how these decisions are prioritised.?(‘We want to be able to . . . . ‘)

2.?????‘Supply’ Decisions include deciding on required IT capability, how projects and programmes will be managed, and IT services delivered. (‘Here’s how you can do it . . .’)

After Peppard &. Ward, 2016, 371

?The ‘What’ of Digital Governance

A Digital Governance document should define the School’s IS/IT policies on the following areas:

1.?????Define the core Information Systems for the organisation

2.?????Define the compatibility requirements for new software

3.?????Set out the rules for procuring Cloud-based services. There is a trend away from making a one-off purchase of a ‘software package’ to contracting for ‘software as a service’ on an annual licence. The same applies to ‘storage as a service’. In many ways these are no different from other contracted services which fall under the remit of financial governance.

4.?????Define the specification for hardware procurement outlining specification requirements and clear expectations in terms of performance. This should include the specifications for Servers, Switches, Cabling, End-user devices, and other Peripherals (especially printers!). There is much to be said for having an agreed specification for the ‘standard classroom’ – this brings greater reliability to the system, allows for quick and easy replacement if a piece of kit fails, and aids familiarity for teachers moving between classrooms.

5.?????Define BYOD and Guest User Policies. Schools need to have clear policies on BYOD and outline the Terms and Conditions under which non-school devices might be connected to the network.

6.?????Define the School’s User Behaviour and Security Policies. It is essential that school have clear policies relating to data access and levels of security, which outline what to do if the event of a failure or breach. These should sit alongside the school’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) which defines the way in which all users in the organisation conduct themselves on the network and online.

Given the fast-moving nature of IS/IT, each policy needs to be subject to regular review, at least at six month intervals, although it makes sense to review hardware specifications on a monthly basis, given the rate of change in this area.

How to untangle the spaghetti:

Trying to untangle the spaghetti is possible, but it is probably too complex for most organisations. The simplest solution is to start again move to a new structure. Cloud Computing solutions present a real opportunity?for schools to do some much needed housekeeping of their Information Systems (IS) and Technology (IT) and to impose some much needed structure and discipline on the way in which the school handles information.

The operational challenge for school leaders is one shared with many other organisations in a range of sectors, namely how to keep the show on the road while moving to a new and better system.?The standard way that industry deals with this problem is to run a dual speed IT network, whereby one part of the IT unit continues to support the traditional platform, while a second develops a new one. This approach allows the school to continue to function teaching lessons, writing reports, registering admissions etc., whilst a second team develop the new (cloud-based) structures in parallel.

This article was published as a insert in Philippa Wraithmell's The Digital Ecosystem.

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