Gmail Project Organization, Goals, and Timeline

 

Gmail Steering Group Members:

  • Matthew Link, Interim Chief Information Officer
  • Armando Guzman, Server Systems Administrator
  • Barton Janes, Server Systems Administrator
  • Jared Hoover, Server Systems Manager
  • Adam Smith, Faculty
  • Chris Kendall, Faculty
  • Hilary Robbeloth, Associate Director Resource Management Services
  • Faithlina Abeshima, Information Security Administrator
  • Kevin Kirner, Educational Technologist
  • Margot Casson, Educational Technologist
  • Paul Monaghan, Educational Technologist

Goal:

Deliver Google Mail (Gmail) and Google Calendar to the campus and transition from Microsoft Exchange.  

Timeline and Major Milestones:

Kickoff Meeting - Oct 2021

  • Initial communication
  • Design of rollout
  • Initial technical exploration
  • Development of initial web documentation

Development - Dec 2021

  • Analysis
  • Review of current use cases
  • Build initial test environment
  • Begin testing
  • Update FAQ

Pilot Test - June 2022

  • Decision point - should all new staff/faculty/students from this point on be in new environment?
  • Identify success criteria of pilot
  • Collect feedback from pilot
  • Make modifications to environment based on feedback 
  • Determine final roll-out schedule

Training Sessions - October 2022

  • Provide in-person, hybrid, and virtual open training sessions to campus members
  • Create and publish documentation

Roll Out - January 2023

  • Publish finalized self-help documentation
  • Setup service desk with necessary equipment to transition users
  • Establish schedule of transitions
  • Survey campus for feedback and results

Note: Because of both personnel issues within Technology Services and COVID challenges, this project experienced significant delays. 

 

Communication Plan

All general campus communications will be posted to a prominent website on TS’s main page at https://www.pugetsound.edu/ts

Initial messaging and final messaging will be completed using an all-campus message while mid-term communications will be conducted over TS blog.

Direct communications will be held with constituent bodies in accordance with the standard communications protocols for each group.

Faculty

Updates through LMIS subcommittee of the Faculty Senate
Meet with departments for training and FAQ sessions
Regular communications by way of Faculty Comms

Staff

Update to Staff Senate as requested by Staff Senate
Meet with departments for training and FAQ sessions
Regular communications by way of Staff Comms

Students

Coordination with ASUPS, Student Affairs, and Office of Communications for their preferred governance communication structure 
Student messaging

Broad Communication:

Additional messages will be sent out as all-campus messages as appropriate. These messages will be sent out in a manner so as not to inundate mailboxes and will, as such, only be sent out for the following purposes:

Announcement of re-engagement of work
Announcement of completed testing and plans to move forward
Announcement of roll-out

Other communication means, such as the Hatchet, institutional social media, myPugetSound announcements, physical posters, and the Puget Sound website, will be leveraged to reach campus community members.

 

Roles and Responsibilities

The purpose of this committee is to provide guidance and assistance in the overall rollout and deployment of Gmail as the defacto email service for the entirety of the university population with the exception of alumni.

Members will:

  • Provide feedback to the technical implementation team
  • Serve as a bidirectional conduit for communication with their respective constituencies
  • Assist in testing and evaluation
  • Provide substantive feedback to documentation, roll-out plans, and communications