This Persona Mapping project will examine the impact and timing of Information Technology (IT) support for macOS. IT needs to understand questions and issues that various groups might have over the next six months to provide appropriate answers. We also need to understand vendor’s plans for application support and migration. This Persona Mapping project will examine how IT should phase in support for macOS and how that support will impact IT teams.
Prepare: Analyze IT practices, infrastructure, and workflows.
Persona Mapping
- Identify distinct user groups
- Map user/group needs, behaviors, and pain points to inform solution design and enhancements
- Align modernization efforts with real-world usage patterns and expectations
- Enable targeted communication, onboarding, and support strategies for each persona
- Reduce adoption friction by proactively addressing user-specific challenges
- Ensure the updated technology delivers measurable value and improved user experience
Effectively identify and reduce friction is critical to ensuring a smooth transition, faster adoption, and successful modernization.
- Process misalignment between old methods of working and new system requirements
- Training gaps
- Data migration and integration challenges
- Performance or usability issues
Current Environment Review
- Assess application use and gaps.
- Perform comprehensive assessment to identify current workflow practices and key usage needs of all major workflow hubs.
This will include:- Evaluate existing systems and policies.
- Assess existing critical in-house services.
- Assess existing email solution.
- Assess existing application use with persona mapping.
- Assess existing web application.
- Assess existing backup and data recovery solution.
- Assess existing security measures and policies in place.
- Review Zero Trust
- Review Compliance
- Review existing security stack
- Assess existing tools used to enforce security policies and practices.
- Assess existing Apple device hardware and OS configurations.
- Assess any new proposed hardware setup and configuration.
- Assess existing storage configurations.
- Assess client infrastructure documentation.
- Assess current client workflows.
- Assess Device Management services goals.
- Assess Identity Management and Single sign-on for Mac computer login.
- Review all Identity Providers (IdP) and SSO goals.
- Plan for Platform Single sign-on (PSSO)
- Assess existing operating system and application patch management.
- Assess AI initiatives
Recommendation Categories
The Persona Mapping Project will examine the following categories and make recommendations initially using web-based surveys and direct interviews with:
- IT Help Desk
- Vendors
- End Users
- Relevant Third Parties
- Network Administrator
- Development Teams
Environmental Scan
- What is the actual use of macOS and the demand for support among the various groups?
- Conduct staff survey or focus groups.
- What are the likely questions users will ask over the next six months?
- What plans do peer institutions have for supporting macOS?
- What plans do our vendors have for supporting existing versions of applications and for migrating?
Scenarios of how and when macOS support might be implemented
What level of support, if any, should IT have for the following technologies?
Those, which are imperative, with immediate support impact and possibly, impact on developers and maintainers:
Aqua (the macOS GUI) and standard Mac services?
Those which are imperative, but with less immediate support impact and possibly impact on developers and maintainers:
Applications native to macOS?
- Is there a combination of demand, stability, and native applications that we can identify as “critical mass” to guide us in adopting support?
- Should IT introduce support in phases? If so, how?
- What is needed to understand the various dependencies and the impact of introducing support in this way?
- Do we need separate release processes for major applications when native versions are released?
- What are the impacts of the underlying UNIX layer? How much, if any, UNIX functionality will support providers need to know for proper troubleshooting and maintenance?
- How much, if any, will users need to know for proper use and maintenance?
Examination of impact on IT with the introduction of macOS support including organizational impacts
- IT Process teams: Help Desk, Faculty Liaisons, Delivery/development, network, net-security
- IT Partners
- IT colleagues who develop, maintain, and support enterprise-wide site applications
Expected Outcomes
Environmental scan including the following:
Description of current customer use of macOS including anticipated requirements for support.
Description of macOS support status at peer locations.
Analysis of vendor plans for supporting existing versions and migrating applications to macOS.
Recommendation to sponsor for appropriate IT support of macOS.
IT support statement and target date for communicating statement.
Identification of support implications for each affected team or group including new resource requirements.
Suggestions for team / resource realignment, if necessary.
Plan for communicating the rollout of support.
Plan for communicating during the Discovery effort to groups and within IT.
Propose measures to assess the success of the Support Plan Project.