Information Technology Governance

The purpose of information technology governance is to align the roles and responsibilities of the Information Technology department(s) with the roles and responsibilities of executive management, schools and mission areas of the Health Science Center. 

Information Technology Governance Council

Overall responsibility for information technology governance rests with the Information Technology Governance Council (ITGC).  The ITGC is comprised of representatives from:

  • Executive management
    • Chief Operating Officer
    • Chief Legal Officer
    • Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration
  • Mission areas
    • Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
    • Executive Vice President for Research
    • Director of Clinical Technology
  • Schools
    • Medical School
    • Dental Branch
    • School of Public Health
    • Graduate School
    • School of Health Information Sciences
    • School of Nursing
    • Harris County Psychiatric Center
  • Information Technology
    • Chief Information Officer

The ITGC is responsible for the campus-wide alignment of information technology including:

  • Information Technology (IT) policy including:
    • Adoption of policy
    • Exceptions to policy
  • Priority setting
  • Review and approval of major IT initiatives and projects
    • Alignment with UT-H strategy
    • Planning
    • Budgeting
  • Resource alignment including:
    • Overall budget for IT
      • Operational
      • Capital
      • Projects
    • Allocation among priority areas   
    • Alignment with complementary departmental resources

The ITGC is a decision making body for IT.  It is not a working group and it does not participate in the day-to-day management of the IT department or any projects.  The ITGC meets monthly.  The chair of the ITGC is the Chief Operating Officer.

ITGC Subcommittees

The function of the subcommittees to the ITGC is to review and prepare issues for consideration by the ITGC.  Like the ITGC, the subcommittees consider IT issues of campus-wide importance but from the perspective of their area of interest.  The ITGC may delegate issues to the subcommittees for deliberation.  Or, the subcommittees may deliberate on issues of their own and deliver them to the ITGC for adoption.

There are subcommittees for each mission area of the Health Science Center plus Administration, IT Infrastructure & Architecture and the Web Council:

Each subcommittee has a sponsor who is a member of the ITGC and is responsible for keeping the subcommittee active and focused.  The sponsor is not typically the chair of the subcommittee but is the subcommittee’s liaison to the ITGC.

Subcommittee members have a direct responsibility in the area of interest.  Broad representation across the university is encouraged.  The subcommittees should be no larger that 10 – 12 members.  With the exception of the ITIA, members of the subcommittees have a basic understanding of the applications, or potential applications, of technology within their area but are not IT professionals.

More than one subcommittee may be deliberating on a single issue since campus-wide issues may very well affect more than one area of interest.  One subcommittee will be designated as the lead subcommittee when this occurs.    

The subcommittees meet monthly to deliberate on topics within their area of interest as defined below.  The ITGC expects the subcommittees to thoroughly discuss the issues and make recommendations for adoption. 

Infrastructure and Architecture Subcommittee:

The Infrastructure and Architecture subcommittee will consider issues in the following areas:

  • Security
  • Networks
  • Servers
  • Desktops
  • Operating System Software
  • Telecommunications
  • Data Centers
  • Data retention and storage
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Software development methodologies and technologies

Learning Technology Advisory Team (Academic Technology Subcommittee):

 The LTAT will consider issues relating the application of technology to meet the academic mission of the university including:

  • e/distance-Learning infrastructure
  • Grid computing for advanced computational research and scholarly activities
  • Middleware for securely sharing on-line resources across organizational boundaries
  • Web publishing & application services for distribution of academic content
  • Multimedia and application programming support
  • Resources for on-demand streaming of audio and video content
  • Resource discovery, cataloging and semantic markup of on-line content
  • Identification and creation of standards for integrated information environments
  • Training and support for developing skills for learning and working in cyberspace

Research Technology Subcommittee:

The Research Technology subcommittee considers issues related to the use of technology to support the research mission of the university including the following areas:

  • Support for grant submission and management
  • Desktop support for researchers
  • Research data management (disaster planning, security, data sharing)
  • Research e-collaboration

Clinical Technology Subcommittee:

The Clinical Technology subcommittee considers issues related to the patient care mission of the university in the following organizational units:

  • UT Physicians
  • Medical School specialties (e.g. Radiology)
  • Dental School
  • School of Nursing
  • HCPC

 Administrative Technology Subcommittee:

The Administrative Technology subcommittee considers issues related to the application of technology for administrative purposes including:

  • HR/Financial
  • Records Management
  • Document Imaging
  • Student Information Systems (SIS, GMEIS, MS Grades, etc.)

Web Council:

The Web Council coordinates and facilitates campus web activities and considers issues related to the use of the web to meet university goals and objectives including:

  • Standards & Policy
  • Utilization management and tracking
  • Content management
  • Security
  • Usability
  • Access

Date Modified: 08/24/2006

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