New Queensland Government ICT Strategy

The new "Queensland Government ICT strategy" was issued following a report into the failure of the Queensland Health Payroll System Development.

Objectives:

1. Effective digital services for our clients 18
2. Efficient digital services for government 42
3. Transformed and capable workforce 58 

Table of contents

Minister’s foreword 3
Executive summary 4

Section A: Accountability in Queensland Government ICT 8

Section B: Action plan 17

Objective 1: Effective digital services for our clients 18
Strategic focus area 1: Improving customer experience of government services 18
Strategic focus area 2: Digital economy 22
Strategic focus area 3: Information management 27
Strategic focus area 4: Open data 32
Strategic focus area 5: Information security and privacy of individuals 35
Strategic focus area 6: Digital archiving 39

Objective 2: Efficient digital services for government 42
Strategic focus area 7: Contestability and ICT strategic sourcing 42
Strategic focus area 8: ICT as-a-service 46
Strategic focus area 9: ICT innovation 50
Strategic focus area 10: Significant and at-risk ICT asset stabilisation 54

Objective 3: Transformed and capable workforce 58
Strategic focus area 11: A capable and competent workforce 58
Strategic focus area 12: Portfolio, program and project management 62

Glossary of terms 66
Acronyms 67
Attachment 1: Links and inter-dependencies 69

Australian Defence Facing the Next Enemy

Dr Robert O'Neill will speak on "Defence 2013 - preparing to face our next enemy" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 5:30pm 9 July 2013

Defence 2013 - preparing to face our next enemy

Public Lecture

Speaker Dr Robert O'Neill ... 

About the Lecture:

As the Australian Defence Force prepares to leave combat operations in Afghanistan in 2014, a question arises as to who our next enemy might be. For what contingencies should the ADF train? How should our forces be organized, equipped, commanded and deployed in the interval between 2014 and the next possible assignment? Shall we prove to be very good at preparing to fight our latest war, which will probably never repeat itself, or might we be able to take a well-founded look into the future and prepare the ADF for the challenges it will actually have to face? Releasing his Centre of Gravity Paper Dr O'Neill will explore the challenges facing the ADF today and how they should prepare to face the next enemy. Previous Centre of Gravity papers can be downloaded from http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sdsc/centre_of_gravity.php

We hope you will join us for drinks and nibbles after the speech.

About the Speaker:

Dr Robert O'Neill, AO is Honorary Professor at the US Studies Centre. O'Neill served as Planning Director for the Centre before its CEO was appointed. One of the world's leading experts on strategic and security studies, O'Neill previously served as Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and then as Chichele Professor of the History of War and Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University. Earlier in his career, O'Neill was Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the ANU. Professor O'Neill's extensive record of public service includes appointments as Chairman of Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, Chairman of the Council of the Centre for Defence Studies, King's College, Chairman of the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies in the University of London, and Chairman of the Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. A prodigious author and editor, O'Neill wrote the Official History of Australia's role in the Korean War, influential reports for the Ford Foundation on reducing levels of conflict in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as dozens of academic books and innumerable articles and essays. Professor O'Neill is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in Britain. O'Neill is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and the Royal Military College of Australia. A Rhodes Scholar, he received his PhD in Modern History from Oxford University.

ICT Empowering Citizen Engagement

Greetings from the CSIRO Discovery centre in Canberra where Mike Mitchelmore, Acting GM Strategy and Architecture, Department of Human Services (DHS) is speaking on the "Role of strategy and architecture in empowering citizen engagement". This is a meeting of the Australian Computer Society Special Interest Group of Strategy and Architecture. There is DHS Technology Plan 2012-2016 with a strategy of providing as many services for the citizens on-line as possible, preferably via mobile devices. Unfortunately, while there is an outline of the plan in the DHS Annual Report, I was not able to find the plan itself (Australian Government policy requires DHS to publish the report on-line). However, technology features in the "DHS Strategic Plan 2012–16".

DHS was formed from several government agencies which made payments to citizens. So DHS has considerable work to do, consolidating systems. There is also considerable scope for making service delivery better and cheaper, with citizens not having to deal with so many separate government offices.

DHS also has some systems which have 20 year old software running on  Model 204 Database.  DHS is planning to use SAP and Microsoft software. This would appear to me to be a very high risk strategy. The aim of rationalizing and centralizing may not be a good diea in an era of constant change. It is unlikely DHS could rationalize its systems before the next restructuring of government agencies (likely after this year's election) which would require the systems to be split again.

It may be better for DHS to build a set of systems which can work together, but be split apart when required. An alternative approach would be for DHS to build systems which can be used by any government agency, so other agencies could keep using the same systems when functions are administratively transferred.

DHS is building some interesting Apps, which will particularly appeal to university students. But it would be prudent for DHS to also offer an equivalent web application.

Some of DHS plans will provide benefits both for the government and citizens. An example is "tell us once" where citizens can advise just once of changes of address or bank account number for payments.

ACS Strategy and Architecture SIG:

The role of strategy and architecture in empowering citizen engagement ...

The role of strategy and architecture in empowering citizen engagement with government through effective ICT-based systems and services.
The Department of Human Services (http://www.humanservices.gov.au/) is responsible for the development of service delivery policy and provides access to social, health and other payments and services. It is currently undergoing major changes as part of Service Delivery Reform, which is designed to give Australians better access to social, health and welfare services. The aim is to improve services to meet people’s needs by providing more tailored and intensive support where it is needed most.
Modern and effective use of ICT is crucial to many of the initiatives that the Department is undertaking. Contemporary ICT offers new ways of delivering more attractive and engaging citizen service delivery models. Strategy and architecture plays a pivotal role in providing clear and achievable roadmaps for ICT-supported service delivery.
In this presentation, Mike will talk about the journey DHS is undertaking to move from legacy ICT supporting a traditional service delivery model to one that enables engaging, citizen-centric service delivery.

Biography: Mike Mitchelmore Acting GM Strategy and Architecture Department of Human Services Mike Mitchelmore joined the Department of Human Services (the department) as the National Manager of the Strategic Vendor Management and Sourcing Branch, in February 2012. Mike is currently the Acting General Manager of the Strategy, Architecture and Shared Services Division, within the Chief Information Officer Group. In this role, Mike leads ICT Strategy and Innovation, Architecture Standards, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Testing and the ICT Software Review Project, on behalf of the department. Previously, Mike was the Chief Information Officer for the Australian Research Council and has held several senior positions at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mike is a former Army officer and graduate of the Australian Officer Cadet School (Portsea), the Army Command and Staff College (Queenscliff) and the Royal Military College of Science (UK). He holds a Bachelor of Social Science, a Graduate Diploma of Telecommunications Systems Management and a Graduate Diploma of Management Studies. He is a graduate of Army Staff College (psc), and Army Technical Staff College UK (JTC). Mike was awarded the City of London Institute Guild Award for his research into Military Technology.

Victorian Whole of Government ICT Strategy

The Victorian government has announced work on a Whole of Government ICT Strategy. This follows an Ombudsman and Auditor-General released a "Own motion investigation into ICT-enabled projects" (November 2011).

The Ombudsman and AG looks at ten major Victorian IT projects which were over-budget and under performed. The best known of the problem projects is the MyKi smart ticketing system. The problems found are common to IT projects in the public and private sectors and the remedies will be familiar to any student of IT.

It is well know in the IT profession that many IT projects fail and that these failures are usually due to problems of project governance, not technical issues. When working for the Defence Department I part of a team which did a quick investigation of an IT project each week. These projects had sincere hardworking staff, who in most cases knew what was wrong, but were trapped in a system which would not admit failure.

Unfortunately, these days as an ICT consultant, I am called in only after a project has failed to be an expert witness in court cases, when blame is being assigned. Given a pile of project documents about a metre high, I can usually find the point (about one third from the start of the project), where it started to go wrong. This is where the project plan said the project was to meet a milestone, but did not. Rather than stop the project at this point and rectify the problem (or cancel the project), the management choose to keep going and hope for the best, which does not happen.

This "hope for the best" attitude is something I help teach IT students at the Australian National University to avoid. It will be interesting to see how the Victorian Government's new strategy evolves.

Some excerpts from the 125 page report:

Contents
Foreword
Executive summary

• Common themes
  
• Framework to better manage ICT-enabled projects

Background

• What is ICT?
  
• History
• Investigation
• Cabinet documents
• CenITex
• Report structure

Common themes

1. Leadership, accountability and governance
2. Planning
3. Funding
4. Probity and procurement
5. Project management

Framework to better manage ICT-enabled projects and recommendations

1. Leadership, accountability and governance
2. Planning
3. Funding
4. Probity and procurement
5. Project management

Case studies

1. Link
2. HealthSMART
3. myki
4. RandL
5. Client Relationship Information System (CRIS)
6. Ultranet
7. Integrated Courts Management System (ICMS)
   
8. Property and Laboratory Management (PALM)
9. HRAssist
10. Housing Integrated Information Program (HIIP)

...

Framework to better manage ICT-enabled projects ...

Leadership, accountability and governance
• Agency executives are to show stronger leadership; robust governance practices are to be implemented; and project staff are to be held to account for the performance of ICT-enabled projects.
• The role of DTF in ICT-enabled projects is to be enhanced and the value of Gateway as a mechanism for external oversight and accountability is to be capitalised.

Planning
• Business cases for some of the projects I examined were not subjected to adequate scrutiny. I have made recommendations to improve the level of scrutiny applied. The government’s ’high-value and high-risk’ process introduced in 2010 also provides for increased
scrutiny of business cases.

Funding
• Agencies are to adopt a whole of life approach to costing and funding major ICT systems and DTF is to assist by establishing a maintenance and replacement fund for these systems.
• The government is to consider refining how projects are funded to make agencies more accountable to government throughout the life of major ICT-enabled projects.

Probity and procurement
• Agencies are to adopt stricter probity practices.
• Agencies are to adopt robust approaches to purchasing ICT systems; DTF is to explore the potential to harness best practice procurement practices from other countries; and the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office is to examine and endorse all proposed contracts before they are signed to ensure the contract protects the interests of the state.

Project management
• Agencies are to adopt established project management methods.
• DTF and the State Services Authority (SSA) are to develop strategies to recruit and retain skilled ICT staff within government and better monitor the quality of work provided by contractors. ...

3. myki

Key issues
• The project is at least $350 million over budget and at least four years behind schedule.
• The Transport Ticketing Authority (TTA) was overly optimistic in believing it could achieve a two-year delivery of the system: less than half that achieved elsewhere in the world.
• The project proposed an ‘open architecture’43 solution: an approach not previously undertaken, heightening associated risk.
• The ‘outcomes-based’44 agreement proved problematic to manage and led to ambiguities and specification ‘creep’.
• Two Chief Executive Officers departed the TTA shortly following failure by the TTA to meet key delivery dates.
• Initially, the TTA board did not have the requisite number of appointees with relevant experience when needed.
• The Department of Transport (DOT)45 had responsibility for ticketing policy issues, but did not have a representative on the board. In my view, it should have.
• The TTA was highly critical of the quality of the project managers employed by the vendor. ...


From: Own motion investigation into ICT-enabled projects, Victorian Ombudsman and Victorian Auditor-General, November 2011

Australian National University New Strategic Plan

The Australian National University this morning released its ANU by 2020 Strategic Plan. The plan is available on the web and also in a 30 Page PDF Version (1 Mbyte).

The plan includes nineteen ambitious targets, for performance in research, education and policy. Unlike the vague aspirational statements in many strategic plans, these are mostly numeric performance measures, most of which are to be met by 2015. Presumably the ANU will be publishing its performance against all these measures at least annually.

While ANU will continue to emphasize its role in research, the areas of education and contributions to public policy, are also addressed.

Sections of the ANU by 2020 Strategic Plan

• Overview
• VC's introduction
• Overarching aims
• Core objectives
  • Excellence in research
  • Excellence in education
  • Excellence as a national policy resource
• Building blocks
  • World-class staff
  • Inspired students
  • Engaged alumni
  • National outreach
  • International outreach
  • Embedded access & equity
  • High-quality infrastructure
  • Effective organisation
  • Broad resource base

The plan includes performance measures for the university in three areas: Research, Education and Policy:

Research Performance Measures for ANU:

1. The vast majority of academic staff at ANU will be highly research-active.
2. By 2015, 85 per cent of academic staff will be in four digit field of research code areas (discipline areas) rated ERA 4 or 5. This will rise to 90 per cent by 2020. (compared to 80 per cent in 2010).
3. ANU will enhance both the quantity and percentage of publications in the most highly ranked outlets, typical of the publication profile of ERA groups ranked at level 5.
4. By 2015, at least 55 per cent of ANU academic staff¹ will be an investigator (in any capacity) on at least one current Category 1 research grant. This percentage will rise to 60 per cent by 2020 (compared to approx 52 per cent in 2010).
5. By 2015, at least 46 per cent of ANU academic staff¹ will be the first named investigator on at least one current Category 1 research grant. This will rise to 50 per cent by 2020 (compared to approx 43 per cent in 2010).
6. By 2015, at least 27 per cent of ANU academic staff¹ will be first named investigator on at least one current Category 2, 3 or 4 research grant or consultancy. This will rise to 35 per cent by 2020 (compared to approx 23 per cent in 2010).
7. ANU will remain the top-ranked Australian university on a per capita basis in the Shanghai Jiaotong and QS rankings.
8. By 2015, the number of HDR students supervised per FTE member of academic staff will rise to 1.68, increasing to 1.75 by 2020 (compared to 1.64 in 2010).

¹ For these purposes Academic staff at Levels C and above are considered

Education Performance Measures for ANU:

1. ANU will perform above the Go8 average in national course and university surveys (Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), or successor, survey results averaged across the Good Teaching, Overall Satisfaction and Generic Skills scales).
2. ANU will maintain the percentage of students who undertake further postgraduate study above the Go8 average.
3. ANU will maintain employment rates of graduates, as measured by the Graduate Destination Survey above the Go8 average.
4. ANU will aim to continually increase the number of national teaching awards won by staff.
   By 2015, 65 per cent of courses offered will obtain an agreement rate of over 80 per cent for Overall Satisfaction in the SELT survey (for courses with over 5 responses), rising to 70 per cent by 2020 (compared to 60 per cent of courses in 2010).
5. By 2015, all new staff appointed with a teaching role (including HDR supervision), who do not have prior teaching experience will complete the Foundations of Teaching & Learning course within 12 months of commencement.

Policy Performance Measures for ANU:

1. ANU will achieve an ERA ranking of 5 in the majority of the discipline areas which, by their nature, have strong public policy relevance (e.g. economics, environment, politics, health etc).
2. ANU will continue to expand high-quality postgraduate coursework programs in public policy with a 4 per cent annual increase in enrolments.
3. By 2020, ANU will be seen unequivocally as the national leader in contributions to public policy analysis and formulation.
4. ANU will continue to grow HDR enrolments on public policy related topics
5. ANU will regularly subject its public policy position to international review. These reviews will show a continued increase in the quantity and impact of our public policy activity.
6. The number of ANU staff acting in formal advisory positions to government will increase over the period to 2020.

ps: This is just my take on the plan, and may differ from the official ANU position.