U of U, UETN IT staff share knowledge at inaugural IT Rendezvous conference
James Reynolds, senior systems administrator in the School of Biological Sciences, delivers opening remarks during the U of U IT Rendezvous on September 12 at S.J. Quinney College of Law’s Moot Courtroom.
In the spirit of sharing, but a far cry from intermountain rendezvous in the 1800s, the University of Utah IT Rendezvous focused on the transfer of technical knowledge rather than fur and goods.
Joseph Bradford, computer technician in the Office of Graduate Studies, left, presents a 3D printed clock as a thank you gift to Chief Information Officer Steve Hess, one of three keynote speakers at the U of U IT Rendezvous.
The inaugural conference for U of U and Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) IT staff, held September 12, 2025, at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, featured keynote addresses by Troy Jessup, UETN’s director of operations, U of U Chief Information Officer Steve Hess, and Technical Writer Patrick Harris, in addition to breakout sessions on AI, cybersecurity, and various IT tools.
Trevor Long, director for Governance, Risk & Compliance, introduced Hess, who also serves as CIO for the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) and is the founding director of UETN, as “an educator, mentor, and visionary, always focused on making technology the focus of access and excellence.”
Hess’ address highlighted how dramatically IT, specifically cybersecurity, has evolved in the 52 years since his association with the university began and many of the challenges ahead.
“If the internet goes down, there’s a lot of collateral damage. Between maintaining continuity of IT services and protecting everyone’s personal data, we’re more critical than ever to the operations of the university,” Hess said. “When you’re trying to keep people online so they can do their jobs, it can be a stressful experience, but you all do an outstanding job.”
After his presentation, which included an overview of a UIT-focused SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and the FY2026-2029 University of Utah IT strategic plan, Joseph Bradford, computer technician in the Office of Graduate Studies, presented Hess with “a gift of time” — a 3D printed clock — ahead of his retirement.
Patrick Harris, technical writer, UIT Strategic Communication
Harris’ talk titled, “Docs or It Didn’t (or Won’t) Happen: The Value of Effective IT Documentation,” concentrated on how clear, concise, and user-focused documentation supports workflows, reduces errors, and makes knowledge more scalable.
To illustrate the detriment of poor documentation, and value of effective documentation, Harris, who co-chairs the ITS-UIT Documentation Community of Practice (CoP), used two real-world examples: the London Garden Bridge Project and an emergency plane landing commonly called the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
The botched pedestrian bridge project was ultimately scrapped because poor documentation led to unclear financial commitments and left decision-makers unaware of escalating costs and feasibility issues.
By contrast, US Airways Flight 1549, Harris said, owed its success to standardized and documented emergency procedures that allowed the pilots to make quick decisions; manuals and checklists with clear instructions on recovering from dual engine failure; and accurate air traffic control logs that ensured a coordinated rescue effort.
“The quickness with which they were able to get down safely really speaks to how valuable documentation can be in all events,” Harris said.
Breakout sessions by UIT staff
- “Getting a Grasp on Vulnerabilities” by Dustin Udy covered how dashboards in Qualys, a cyberthreat detection tool, can help teams find and prioritize vulnerabilities.
- “Privileged Access Management with Password Safe” by Charles Wilcox provided an overview of privileged account management for active directory, Entra ID, and local server accounts using Password Safe from BeyondTrust.
- “ServiceNow Unlocked: What It Is and How We Use It” by Kaylee Richardson, Angelina Geest, and Javier Cime focused on how ServiceNow is the backbone of how UIT streamlines requests, automates workflows, and delivers services across the organization.
- “Tanium Deploy – Your Software Might Need an Update” by Hayden Waters detailed how Tanium’s deploy module can install, update, and remove software and upgrade operating systems, and how it can help users build software packages and bundles to configure new workstations.
The lessons the US Airways event teaches about risk mitigation and disaster recovery can be applied to internal IT documentation as well, Harris said.
“We want to ensure that our systems and processes are protected against failures and can recover quickly from disruptions,” he said.
Other benefits of good documentation include communicating an organization’s goals, onboarding and training, the freedom to take vacations, succession planning, and process versioning.
“We want to be able to track our changes so that we can make good decisions and also understand why decisions were made in the past,” he said.
Harris discussed some different roles around documentation — document champions, who promote best practices and establishes standards; subject matter experts, who possess deep knowledge of a specific area, tool, or process; knowledge managers, who organize and capture knowledge across the organization in the spirit of continuous improvement; and project managers, who can help promote a culture of documentation.
Harris also discussed the pros and cons of some common documentation tools (e.g., UBox, ServiceNow, GitLab, and Microsoft OneNote).
Node 4
Our monthly newsletter includes news from UIT and other campus/ University of Utah Health IT organizations, features about UIT employees, IT governance news, and various announcements and updates.