UC IT Project Managers Create a Systemwide Community

Egghead statue at UC Davis

By Savannah Gray.  Fun sessions that bring people together at the annual UC Computing Services Conference (UCCSC) are the “birds of a feather” meetings. Separate from the formal agenda of events, these are organized by different communities of interest as a convenient way to get together in person, since many participants would be traveling to the conference anyway.

This year, the IT project managers held their first BOF, having launched their systemwide IT PM community in May. About 30 PMs attended the BOF, and talked about formalizing their community, perhaps modeling it after other successful systemwide cohorts, such as the ServiceNow Users Group.

UC CIO Tom Andriola kicked off the meeting, noting that the project managers in the room have a “combined 700 to 800 years of experience!”

The energy was high for this second-ever in-person meeting. The group committed to holding monthly meetings by Zoom and developing priorities for group effort. These might include holding a project management track at the next UCCSC at UC Santa Barbara, or creating a repository of PM resources to share across UC.

Participant Katie Mankins, a project manager at UCSB, said, “We’re hoping we will be able to share best practices not only across different types of projects but also across campuses. As a group of project management professionals, we have varied experiences but together we can reach a common understanding of what’s essential for delivering successful projects.”

If you’re interested in participating in the UC IT Project Management community, join the project-management channel on UC Tech Slack.

Savannah Gray is a UC Berkeley student intern in IT marketing and communications at the UC Office of the President.

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