Tim Carroll - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bio

I have a degree in computer science and business administration with
thirteen years of experience in the I.T. field, and I am a PMP certified
project manager.  My I.T. experience is broad, holding roles in
application development, database administration, quality assurance,
project management, and service management.  Most recently, I have
accepted a position with the University of Illinois to serve as the
technical lead and service team manager for a University-wide portal
initiative that will ultimately serve the three University of Illinois
campuses consisting of over 100,000 students, faculty, and staff.

In preparation for my current position, I served as project manager for
a University-wide portal proof-of-concept project at the University of
Illinois.  During this project, I often times stepped outside of my role
as project manager and relied upon my technical experience to steer the
technical vision and contribute to the tactical delivery of the portal
product and service.  The proof-of-concept project exposed me to many of
the common challenges found in the delivery of student portals.  I have
been an active member in the uPortal Community for three years, which
has helped me to establish relationships with leaders at other uPortal
universities.  In addition, I was a member of the 2007 JASIG summer
conference committee that was recently held in Denver.

I believe that combining these activities with my I.T. experience and
project management background, give me a unique skill set that make me a
top candidate for serving on the uPortal steering team.

Platform Statement 

The uPortal steering team cannot make decisions in a vacuum.  The
steering team must focus on prioritizing the wishes of the community.
To do this, we must begin to analyze the impact of documented issues and
start to collect and formalize information on enhancement requests.
Combining this information with a portfolio based scorecard system would
allow the community to begin focusing valuable resources on the most
critical issues first.

To further complicate matters, the uPortal community has a unique
challenge in organizing and assigning work to resources that the
community depends upon but does not fund or control.  However, the new
found concept of member institutions may help us forge stronger
relationships with the institutions that have "skin in the game".  With
some work, this could allow the community to mobilize these resources to
fix critical defects and code high priority enhancement requests.

If selected, I would apply my training and experience in project and
portfolio management and call upon my uPortal community contacts to help
facilitate this endeavor.

In addition, I would remain committed to the fact that there are many
self motivated developers and list moderators that are the true unsung
heros of this community.  There will always be a need to find creative
ways to recognize these individuals for their exceptional commitment and
contributions, and I believe that the steering committee should play a
role in the development of programs that enable and encourage this
recognition and reward.