SF State sought to improve the alignment of IT policy, practice, and initiative implementation across campus IT and related business units. In early 2019, it established an IT Communities of Practice (CoP) serving three distinct communities: Workstation Practice, Service Management, and Information Security Operations. The groups provide a forum for IT engagement, alignment, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. The CoP’s meet monthly and have enjoyed active engagement since their inception. As a result of the IT COPs, the campus has seen significant improvements in the following IT areas:

• Nimbleness
• Change Management
• Information Security
• Process Alignment and Cohesiveness
• Risk Reduction
• Communications

This session will go into details on how to breathe life into COPs, share ideas for caring and feeding the COPs, and show what can be done to transform COPs. In addition, it will cover why campuses should consider using the COP approach instead of using the more traditional stakeholder meetings. The presentation will identify expected outcomes and “quick-wins.” And finally, SF State will share specific challenges the COP model solved.