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Thoughts on best practices regarding an organization's technology use


A good organization’s e-mail system has a directory readily available to staff, preferably also other stakeholders as well.  A staff member should be able to type the first few characters of a name in the addressline and either offer a list of matching names or actually complete the name and e-mailaddress; or press a readily-available Contacts button that would do the same.   I should be able to search via either firstname or lastname.  
The organization’s e-mail addresses all follow the same naming pattern, so that if the directory search is not available, I can deduce the name by following a logical pattern such as firstname.lastname@
Even when switching to a new naming standard, if old staff insist on keeping old addresses, add new addresses that fit the new standard, and move mailbox to the new name (and auto-forward mail sent to the old address).   Mixed standards ensure confusion.

Documentation is double-checked for correctness.  Triple-checked.  Never send anything out, even if it is urgent, without double-checking for accuracy.   Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose.

Documentation reflects the organization’s standard equipment and operating system.  For example, in an all-MacBook organization, do not refer to mouse-click, do not refer to right-click, as neither is obvious.  

Maintain a webpage with tech notes and documentation in a central location, readily retrievable.

In directory, files, folders, e-mailboxes, roomsigns, use consistent names so that search-terms can be consistent:  for example, Registrar@ e-mailbox also has “Registrar” in the name.

When setting up additional online usernames in separate systems, use same username conventions so that users don’t have to remember distinctive user i.d.

Minimize the number of usernames and passwords; preferably use a portal system that can passthrough authentication credentials.

Minimize number of separate websites to remember for different systems and functions: preferably use a portal so that users always signon to portal, then click-through to various other systems.   Portal also includes links to latest institutional news items and e-mail.

The system sometimes display grades as, for example, 94.00 when in truth the internal value is something like 94.14356; it should display simply 94 so that the decimal value is clearly ambiguous.   94.00 is not simply inaccurate; it is patently incorrect.

Reference documents should be in an easily-accessible central location so that updates will immediately be reflected in the document that everyone refers to.  If you e-mail attachments, then the attachment is out-of-date the next day, while the central document "in the cloud" is always the latest information.  No document is the "last version"-- there is always a later, more current version; we should all know how to find it.  

Calendaring can easily be centralized, and is more effective, the more everyone uses it -- particularly if management uses it.   When management does not use the calendar, or other technology, that is an implicit sign to everyone that it is unimportant.

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