[17] in Management Reporting Authorizations Team
Second Quarter FY1997 Report for the MRAUTH Project
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rocklyn E. Clarke)
Thu Jul 3 01:22:36 1997
Resent-From: "Rocklyn E. Clarke" <RCLARKE@mitvma.mit.edu>
Resent-To: MRAUTH-L List Archive <mrauth-mtg@menelaus.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 97 00:06:47 EST
From: "Rocklyn E. Clarke" <RCLARKE@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: "Lorraine J. Rappaport" <ljr@mit.edu>
Cc: Robert V Ferrara <rferrara@MIT.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
MRAUTH - The Management Reporting Authorizations Project
This new project originated in response to the concern on the part of the
faculty and administrative officers that the widespread use of SAP on campus
would not adequately restrict access to purchasing information. A typical
concern was that one faculty member would be able to display purchases made
by another faculty member (especially in the same department). Two basic
ways of resolving this situation have been proposed:
1. Modify SAP to eliminate this problem.
2. Change MIT's culture to accept this problem.
On November 27 these options were incorporated in a presentation (put together
jointly by IS and the Management Reporting Team) to Bill Dickson, the Sr. Vice
President for Operations. Subsequntly, during the last MIT "Town Meeting"
President Vest stated that "we would solve the authorizations problem". This
effectively set aside option 2 (at least temporarily). Since that time, an
informal team including representatives from IS and Management Reporting has
continued to analyze the feasibility of modifying SAP to restrict transaction
visibility to the satisfaction of the clients.
Plans for the Third Quarter
- Establish a more formal team to "own" this problem.
Note - as of the writing of this report this team has been formed and has
the following members: Rocklyn Clarke (IS), Robert Ferrara (IS),
Stephen Kellogg (MR), George Petrowsky Jr. (IS), Stephen Roach
(Consultant), and Barry Roberts (MR).
- Develop more detailed versions of the SAP Modifications approach previously
considered, test them, and report the results along with the pros and cons
for future work on each of them. Then wait for direction from the process
owners.
