CCFIT > Calendar & Minutes > 1998-2003 Minutes > January 6, 2003 AdC3 Minutes

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Announcements
3. Report on the Funding of Information Technology Projects for the Fiscal Year
4. IV. Report on the Progress of the DaFIS Transaction Processor Rewrite Project

Present: Chair Robert Smiley, Mike Allred, John Bruno, Joseph Calger, James Case, Lynne Chronister, Bob Franks, Janet Hamilton, John Meyer, Kathleen Moore, Robert Murta, Robert Ono, Celeste Rose, Steve Roth, Dave Shelby, Judy Sakaki, Brenda Unterleitner, Abby Zubov.

Absent: None.

Guest: Sharine Dinwiddie, Jonathan Keller, Patty Strauss.

Staff to the Council:

The meeting began at 3:00 p.m.

Chair Smiley introduced Brenda Unterleitner, new AdMAN representative on the Council, and Professor Jim Case, AC4 representative.  Chair Smiley informed the Council that Lorraine Beaman, Staff Assembly representative, has retired, and that this would be Vice Chancellor Hamilton's last meeting as a Council representative.

Chair Smiley asked whether there were any edits or amendments to the minutes from the October meeting.  Council approved the minutes as submitted.

• Availability of the Common Authentication ATP Report

  Bob Ono, Campus IT Security Coordinator, indicated that the report from the Common Authentication Advanced Technology Project (ATP) Team was released in December and is available on the Web (see http://vpiet.ucdavis.edu/advancedprojects/AATPFinal%20Report.pdf/).

  Ono provided an overview of the strategic authentication recommendations published in the report. He reported that the project team first worked with campus groups to develop a set of requirements, which they then used to assess each of the campus major systems. The team found that only some of the existing system architectures meet some of the requirements.

  The ATP team also analyzed seven vendor responses to the Request for Information (RFI). Ono reported that although the vendor solutions would meet the strategic requirements identified by the project team, they are expensive and require the existence on campus of an enterprise directory with person-specific roles and responsibilities.

  The main recommendations of the project team are to: 

  1. Continue development efforts for Distauth services,
  2. Participate in the Internet2 Web-ISO Initiative, and
  3. Participate in the PKI Project Discussion with UCOP.

  Council asked about the definition of PKI.  Ono replied that PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure.  It is a standard way of using encryption and signing cryptography to secure documents in transmission over the Internet and to assure that the sender is the person you expect them to be.

• IT Security Symposium

  Bob Ono announced that a project team is planning a symposium on IT security issues.  The symposium will be held on campus over 2 and ½ days, from June 18 through June 20, 2003, and it will be targeted primarily at campus developers and IT administrators.  Ono described the symposium as a blend of presentations, discussions, and hands-on laboratory sessions.  The program will include nationally recognized experts and is being partially sponsored by the UC Office of the President.  Ono indicated that a call for presentations and proposals will be distributed to various campus groups in the next few days.

  UC Davis campus administrators and developers are strongly encouraged to participate.  An invitation will also be extended to colleagues from other UC campuses.  Ono indicated that the total attendance would be limited to between 250 and 275.

  Council members asked about fees related to the symposium.  Ono replied that, thanks to sponsorship from UCOP and IET, registration fees will be kept to a minimum, and will probably range between $75 and $80 per participant. 

  (For more information on the UC Davis IT Security Symposium and to access the proposal submission form, see http://ietsymposia.ucdavis.edu/security/.)

• Enterprise Directory Services Project -- John Bruno, Vice Provost for Information and Educational Technology (IET)

  Handout:  Enterprise Directory (Information) Services

  Vice Provost Bruno gave an update on the Enterprise Directory Services Implementation Project. He described the current configuration of campus computing systems as a highly distributed environment that underscores the need for strong enterprise directory services. The current systems are authoritative over a certain set of the campus data, but there is no single authoritative information system for all campus data.

  Dr. Bruno described the first phase of the implementation project as the development of a UC Davis Person Registry. Currently, each campus system creates and manages person identity records independently of all other systems. The Person Registry will become the campus' system of record for person identity management and will create a registry ID for each person affiliated with the campus. The common registry ID will allow the joining of person data among various systems.

  Dr. Bruno described his vision for directory services, noting that they will be built upon a meta directory that will consolidate and correlate information from source authoritative systems. From the meta directory, application-specific directories will be constructed. An example of an application-specific directory service built from the current meta directory (Mothra) is the campus' white pages. The team will work closely with campus constituents to identify the services they need and develop LDAP directories to meet those needs.

  Dr. Bruno indicated that the project team is focusing on the integration of 2 systems, Banner and Payroll Personnel System (PPS), as part of the development of the Person Registry.  The initial hardware for the Person Registry has been acquired, and the database design is established.  Dr. Bruno also reported that the team is preparing a Request for Information (RFI) to identify vendor solutions for identity management.

  Vice Provost Bruno then identified some issues that remain to be resolved, including the need to identify an authoritative source for a person's role in campus data systems. Another issue is that applications currently access data from different sources, some directly from business systems, others from Mothra, and others from the data warehouses.

  Council members asked several questions about which systems will be included in the Enterprise Directory.  Dr. Bruno indicated that the first systems that will be included in the Person Registry are PPS and Banner.  The project team is developing is developing new Person Registry processes that will replace the identity matching processes currently used by Banner and PPS.  Dr. Bruno also noted that other systems and groups would be added to the Person Registry over time.  He cited the job machine as one example.  Other groups to be included in the identity management system could include alumni, parents of students, and potential students. Dr. Bruno noted that there's growing interest on campus for expanding access to campus resources to these and other groups.

  Other points of discussion included the following:

  • Connections with the UC Davis Medical Center human resources system. Dr. Bruno explained that the project team has been in contact with the UCDMC. The Medical Center system receives its employee IDs from IID, a function in PPS that generates IDs for new employees.  The Medical Center system then updates PPS with employee information, either weekly or monthly.
  • Anticipated impact on users. Dr. Bruno indicated that the project is designed in such a way that the impact on users will be minimal.
  • Person Registry office.  Dr. Bruno noted that, from an identity management perspective, the suspense process by which matching identity issues get resolved is the most important part.  The Person Registry will enable the current suspense processes to work better. 

• IT Strategic Plan-- Vice Provost Bruno

  Vice Provost Bruno briefly updated Council members on the progress toward the development of the UC Davis Information Technology Strategic Plan. Dr. Bruno reminded members that the IT strategic planning effort that he and Vice Chancellor John Meyer have launched coincides with the development of the campus strategic plan headed by Provost Hinshaw. Dr. Bruno mentioned that a Web site for the IT Strategic Plan is in development. The site's main purpose will be to keep the campus informed about, and engaged in, the development of the plan. Dr. Bruno shared the draft home page layout with the Council. (Note: The Web site is now available at http://itstrategicplan.ucdavis.edu).

  Vice Provost Bruno reported that he has identified leads for each focus area/priority. They are as follows:

• Information Technology Infrastructure -- Bill Cooper and Minh Nguyen, co-chairs of the UC Davis Technology Infrastructure Forum. This group has already met to start discussing their charge.

• Educational Technology -- Andy Jones, Chair of the AC4 Subcommittee on Educational Technology.

• Research Technology -- Mani Tripathi, Chair of the AC4 Subcommittee on Research Technology.

• Business Processes -- Janet Brown-Simmons and Joseph Calger, Co-chairs, New Business Architecture Business Process Team.

  Each workgroup will be developing an approach for their respective focus areas. They will communicate their progress to Vice Provost Bruno and Vice Chancellor Meyer who jointly oversee this initiative.

  Council members commented about the priorities and workgroup leads.  They recommended that the leads of the business process workgroup coordinate extensively with the business system owners.  Dr. Bruno replied that that was his expectation.  Calger indicated that the focus of the NBA Business Process Team so far has been on identifying NBA processes, but will be engaging the team and business system owners in discussions related to the strategic plan.  Members also noted that Vice Chancellors will likely be involved in IT strategic plan discussions by virtue of their membership in the NBA Steering Committee.

• New Business Architecture Update - Dave Shelby and Mike Allred

  Assistant Vice Provost Dave Shelby and Associate Vice Chancellor Mike Allred, who co-chair the New Business Architecture (NBA) Implementation Workgroup, gave an update on the team's progress.  Shelby noted that the NBA Project Manager, Deborah Flagg-Parker, started in her new role in early November.  Shelby also informed the Council that the team is focusing of identifying and prioritizing campus business processes that might need to be re-engineered.  The team is developing an inventory of those processes and sorting them into 3 categories:

  • Projects that are moving forward, have demonstrated progress, and need no assistance or involvement from the NBA teams,

  • Processes that present an opportunity for some NBA involvement (e.g., change policy, technical help), and

  • Processes that need the NBA involvement to get started or completed.

Shelby indicated that the priority would be given to processes in categories 2 and 3.  The team expects to then focus on the re-engineering of 2 to 3 major processes.

Associate Vice Chancellor Allred added that this identification process is expected to take 2 to 3 months, and that the identification and prioritization of business processes will need to be accomplished through the early and ongoing involvement of business owners.

The NBA team will hold a retreat on January 22, 2003 with the primary goal of identifying goals to guide the development of the NBA initiative for the next 2-5 years.