Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #1

It has been a tremendous pleasure to return to the University to such a friendly team with so much experience of the University and its operations. Thank you for making me feel so welcome second time around.

My primary objectives for the next six months are:

• Line Management for a number of permanent roles which report directly. 
• Management of a number of short-term contract staff, including two Business Analysts, and two Project Managers from Faithfull and Gould
• Oversight of operational plan delivery
• Oversight of the IT operational budget
• Membership of a number of groups and committees, including: Change Advisory Board, Digital Strategy Board, IT task and finish group, Information Security Board etc
• Membership of DAS Executive, contribution to DAS plans, and maintenance of Business As Usual

During my first week there have been a number of formal and informal opportunities to meet with people and begin to get up to speed with just some of the recent activities. Among other things, I was involved with:

• A TRIBAL briefing on future system strategy – I prepared and shared a briefing note and organised a follow up with the SITS Team in Registry.
• Attended DAS Leadership team meeting – emphasis on carrying on as planned, line management changes relate only to recent departures.
• Met with IT management team both as a team and in brief individual 1-2-1 sessions
• Developed and discussed viable options and consulted on line management plans for upcoming departure of senior IT manager.
• Organised a handover meeting and process to document outstanding tasks in progress
• Kicked off piece of work by IT managers on review of the current IT operational plan – specifically any projects that are “at risk”.
• Attended Panopto Project Board – some very positive feedback on Summer progress.
• Delegated and followed up on PwC penetration test paperwork
• AV supplier – both pre-meeting and face-to-face meeting with Directors. Successful outcome including resolution of all significant outstanding snags.
• Arranged to hold weekly review meetings with IT managers and on alternate weeks extend invitation to others involved in IT who report elsewhere - this schedule will commence from January.