ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guidelines
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Transcript of ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guidelines
Malaysian Administrative Modernisation & Management Planning Unit Error! Reference source not found. ICT Strategic Plan Guide
File name: ISP Guideline v1_CD Page 1 of 71 Date: 15/09/2003 3:09 PM Strictly Confidential
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Standards, Policies and Guidelines - Malaysian Public Sector ICT Strategic Plan Guide
Version 1.0
August 2003
Standards, Policies and Guidelines – ICT Strategic Plan Guideline
File name: ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guideline Version 1.0 Page 2 of 71 Date 17/08/2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 5
1.1 Objective 5
1.2 Scope 5
2. ICT STRATEGIC PLAN OVERVIEW 7
2.1 Why do we need an ICT Strategic Plan 8
2.2 Our Approach 9
2.2.1 The Malaysian Public Sector Methodology 9
2.2.2 Resources 10
2.2.3 Fact Finding 11
2.3 Assumptions 11
3. STAGE 1: ANALYSE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 12
3.1 Phase 1: Develop Agency Overview 12
3.1.1 Task A: Understand the background of the agency 12
3.1.2 Task B: Understand agency visioning and mission statement 15
3.2 Phase 2: Review of Current Business Environment 16
3.2.1 Task C: Develop an understanding of corporate strategies 17
3.2.2 Task D: Review current issues and opportunities 18
3.2.3 Task E: Develop the first-cut vision of opportunities and directions 20
3.2.4 Task F: Determine agency value chain 21
3.3 Phase 3: Identify Areas of Potential Strategic Advantage 22
3.3.1 Task G: Understand current business trends 22
3.3.2 Task H: Identify immediate ICT implications or contributions 23
3.3.3 Task I: Consolidate findings 24
4. STAGE 2: ANALYSE ICT ENVIRONMENT 25
4.1 Phase 1: Perform ICT Assessment 26
4.1.1 Task J: Review agency’s current ICT strategy, plans and budget 27
4.1.2 Task K: Perform high-level current ICT environment review 27
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4.1.3 Task L: Assess organisation and management 29
4.1.4 Task M: Assess applications and data 31
4.1.5 Task N: Assess technology infrastructure 33
4.1.6 Task O: Assess service delivery 35
4.1.7 Task P: Assess the strategic impact 37
4.2 Phase 2: Recommend Short Term Action 40
4.2.1 Task Q: Consolidate findings 41
4.2.2 Task R: Identify short-term ICT improvement projects 41
5. STAGE 3: DEVELOP ICT STRATEGY 42
5.1 Phase 1: Identify ICT Opportunities 42
5.1.1 Task S: Identify major ICT opportunities 43
5.1.2 Task T: Determine the benefits of ICT opportunities 45
5.1.3 Task U: Determine risks of ICT opportunities 46
5.2 Phase 2: Define Target Applications 47
5.2.1 Task V: Develop initial TA 47
5.2.2 Task W: Build TA overview 49
5.2.3 Task X: Prioritise TA 50
5.2.4 Task Y: Confirm TA with management 51
5.3 Phase 3: Develop Technology Strategy 52
5.3.1 Task Z: Identify technology trends 52
5.3.2 Task AA: Define principles for developing technology strategies 52
5.3.3 Task AB: Determine technology requirements 53
5.3.4 Task AC: Determine target technology architecture 53
5.3.5 Task AD: Formulate technology strategy 54
5.4 Phase 4: Develop ICT Governance Framework 55
5.4.1 Task AE: Revisit ICT organisation and management issues 56
5.4.2 Task AF: Identify ICT services and skills required 56
5.4.3 Task AG: Develop ICT governance framework 57
6. STAGE 4: DEVELOP IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 60
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6.1 What is an Implementation Plan? 60
6.2 Phase 1: Develop Implementation Roadmap 61
6.2.1 Task AH: Develop and rank projects 61
6.2.2 Task AI: Prepare for transition strategy 62
6.2.3 Task AJ: Formulate implementation strategy 64
6.3 Phase 2: Estimate Financial Implications 66
6.3.1 Task AK: Estimate project costing 66
7. POSSIBLE TABLE OF CONTENT FOR ISP REPORT 68
8. ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 71
Standards, Policies and Guidelines – ICT Strategic Plan Guideline
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1. Introduction
The Malaysian Public Sector Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Strategic Plan Guide is prepared to assist Government agencies in developing their
ICT strategic plans.
1.1 Objective
The objective of this document is to provide a guideline that represents activities and
tasks involved in developing an ICT Strategic Plan. This guideline consists of a
methodology that follows a set of standard steps grouped in 4 major stages:
• Stage 1: Analyse Business Environment;
• Stage 2: Analyse ICT Environment;
• Stage 3: Develop ICT Strategy; and
• Stage 4: Develop Implementation Plan
1.2 Scope
An ICT Strategic Plan is a blueprint developed for an agency for the use of ICT, which
is both cost effective and aligned with prioritised management and operational needs.
This plan will lead to the identification of strategic initiatives, either new or already
underway, which can be aided by application systems, technology and governance.
An ICT Strategic Plan contains several elements that drive the development of the
plan:
• Business alignment
o Establishing a communication path, shared understanding of technology
and business domains, and integrating, to some extent, the business and
ICT planning process; and
o Clearly assessing the ICT impact of business imperatives.
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• Vision
o Establishing the broad tenets and "product" set for ICT delivery today and
several years ahead.
• Allocation and Value
o Understanding the value of current spending and ICT resource allocation;
and
o Adjusting the spending according to business priorities.
• Enabling
o Identifying areas to apply emerging technologies and trends that have the
potential for competitive differentiation or operational benefit
• Governing and Capabilities
o Instituting the proper sourcing and responsibilities of ICT delivered
products to manage across organizational or ICT boundaries; and
o Identifying the competencies necessary for delivery.
• Action and Measurement
o Creating the valuation model and prioritized initiative portfolio to drive
downstream effort and execution; and
o Providing a systematic means of determining the most appropriate strategic
investments and to ensure that the government agency is prepared to
develop and implement them in the most effective and efficient way.
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2. ICT Strategic Plan Overview
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an increasingly powerful tool
for improving the delivery of government services, enhancing ICT development
opportunities and participating in global markets. Like other key business resources,
the ICT applications require strategic thinking; just as individuals need financial
strategies, human resource strategies and environmental strategies. A strategy is the
pattern of missions, objectives, policies, and significant resource utilisation plans
stated in such a way as to define what business the agency is in (or is to be in) and the
kind of agency it is or is to be, therefore strategy and business visions are closely
linked. A complete statement of strategy will define:
• Service line and the customers;
• Customers segments for which services are to be designed;
• Channels through which these customers will be reached;
• The means by which the operation is to be financed;
• Service objectives; and
• The "image" which the agency will project to its customers.
An ICT strategy is intended to align the application of ICT to the organisation’s overall
business strategy. The ICT strategy is also needed to plan for critical ICT investments
in a complex and fast changing environment. It assesses strategic needs and
opportunities for ICT applications, justifies investments and plans ICT related
transitions and migrations.
Generally, the objectives of an ICT strategy are to:
• Establish a clear ICT direction based upon the business needs;
• Adjust the ICT capability and delivery to respond to the business imperatives; and
• Determine fundamental approaches and choices for applications, organisation and
infrastructure.
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2.1 Why do we need an ICT Strategic Plan
The recent advances and fast pace in ICT is changing business processes and
structures, reshaping relationships with business partners and competitors, and in some
cases they even cause the transformation of an agency.
An ICT Strategic Plan will address the alignment between the strategic operational
requirements of an agency enterprise and the planned and economically justified
application of technology assets. This alignment is best achieved when ICT has been
deployed as an enabler of one or more cross-functional business processes. The basic
interplay between the business strategy area of expertise and the ICT strategy area of
expertise is the dynamic between business "requirements push" and "technology pull".
The “requirement push” is the direct specification of information and processing needs
by the business. However, true competitive advantages are very often gained through
"technology pull". This occurs when the business is made aware of opportunities
through insight and understanding of the capabilities of technology. Without this
insight there may be no customer self-service, costly information exchange, and a
disadvantage in establishing eBusiness and eCommerce.
In summary, the ICT Strategic Plan will help the agency to:
• Apply ICT creatively in order to obtain competitive advantage and support
business strategy;
• Ensure that ICT investments are cost-effective and benefits are measured against
planned goals/ budgets;
• Control ICT expenditures;
• Protect existing ICT investments;
• Resolve conflicting demands for limited ICT resources;
• Obtain joint ICT management/ user commitment; and
• Avoid ad-hoc ICT projects.
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2.2 Our Approach
2.2.1 The Malaysian Public Sector Methodology
This guide was developed based on the PwC’s ascendantTM suite of implementation
methodology for strategic ICT planning which includes ICT environment assessment
and planning, systems evaluation and selection, and also programme and project
management. It integrates the business process, functional assessment and change
integration with ICT and has been tailored accordingly to suit the Public Sector needs.
The methodology adopts the 4-stage approach that answers the Why, What, How and
When questions for each activities of an ICT Strategic Plan formulation. The stages are
then broken down into phases (as shown in Figure 1) and each phase contains steps
and detailed activities.
Figure 1: ICT Strategy Approach
Develop Agency Overview
Review of Current Business
Environment
Identify Areas of Potential Strategic
Advantage
Analyse Business Environment (WHY?)
Analyse ICT Environment (WHAT?)
Develop ICT Strategy(HOW?)
Develop Implementation Plan (WHEN?)
Perform ICT Assessment
Recommend Short-term
Action
Define Target Applications
Develop Technology
Strategy
Develop ICT Governance Framework
Develop ICT Implementation
Roadmap
Estimate Financial
Implication
Identify ICT Opportunities
Develop Agency Overview
Review of Current Business
Environment
Identify Areas of Potential Strategic
Advantage
Analyse Business Environment (WHY?)
Analyse ICT Environment (WHAT?)
Develop ICT Strategy(HOW?)
Develop Implementation Plan (WHEN?)
Perform ICT Assessment
Recommend Short-term
Action
Define Target Applications
Develop Technology
Strategy
Develop ICT Governance Framework
Develop ICT Implementation
Roadmap
Estimate Financial
Implication
Identify ICT Opportunities
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ICT Strategic Plan outputs are produced in every phase of this methodology. Broadly,
these output are categorised into deliverables and interim output. Deliverables are
provided to the agency for approval, usually making the completion of a stage and are
formal project documents. Interim outputs are internal project team documents that
support the mark progress toward the deliverables.
The two principle deliverables of the methodology are:
• An ICT Strategy which consists of a framework or a set of guidelines for the
development and use of ICT; and
• An ICT Strategy Implementation Plan to implement the strategy.
2.2.2 Resources
It is important to identify the key people that will be involved and the level of
participation in the ICT Strategic Plan development for each agency. This will
facilitate the planning for consultation and fact-finding. Consider the following items:
• Agency’s level – whether it is a ministry, department or unit, etc;
• Size of the agency;
• Scope of the ICT Strategic Plan (e.g. covering the Ministry and agencies or
Ministry only)
• Responsibility and main function of agency;
• Elapsed time allocated for the ICT Strategic Plan;
• Budget allocated for the ICT Strategic Plan; and
• Range of staffs involved, based on experience and skills
It is recommended that an ICT Strategic Plan project team have a common
understanding on each team member’s role and time commitment. Identify clearly the
reporting structure, (including the project steering committee) and external assistance
or contributors, if planned to have any.
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2.2.3 Fact Finding
Fact-findings and consultation are done to obtain representative views and functions of
an agency. Depending on various levels of stakeholders and the objective of the
discussion, ICT Strategic Plan project team must agree on the technique that will be
involved, either an interview, survey, workshop, site visit, correspondence or
questionnaire. The team must ensure that they move along a common path towards
achieving their objectives and shared vision.
2.3 Assumptions
Completing an ICT Strategic Plan is just the beginning, not the end. An ICT Strategic
Plan should be reviewed with each major change, each time an agency reviews its
business plan, or at least annually. Every three years or so, there should be a
consideration to develop a new plan, taking comprehensive fresh look at the
department or agency, its environment and business direction.
An ICT Strategic Plan has no right or wrong answer. Those involved in an ICT
Strategic Plan development can use this guide to leverage it according to the
complexity of the project scope and choose whether to scale up or scale down. It is not
intended to be totally precise, allowing room for changes in the environment, unique
situations, or special talents of team members.
Not all the activities shown in this guide must be accomplished, but these activities
provide a guideline on the important aspects of organising an ICT Strategic Plan. Bear
in mind that judgment is an important factor in formulating a strategy, to which detail
often adds little or no advantages. The main thing is to focus on the important element
of the agency’s business and avoid drilling into unnecessary details.
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3. Stage 1: Analyse Business Environment
During this stage an understanding of the background of the agency and its business
strategy is achieved at a high level. The main focus would be on the agency’s main
functions, business issues, opportunities and outcomes. The primary objectives of this
stage are to:
• Clarify and document the agency’s corporate and individual business objectives,
strategy and capabilities;
• Build and refine a strategic framework which documents and links agency
objectives, business strategies and strategic initiatives; and
• Understand the current market relevant to the agency’s nature of business
3.1 Phase 1: Develop Agency Overview
The purpose of this phase is to obtain a high-level overview of the agency, including
its mission, vision, objectives and client charter, and main business activities.
Information can be extracted from agency’s existing business strategic plan, external
databases, annual reports, and other unit planning and strategic documents that can
assist the research. If the agency already has an existing ICT Strategic Plan, it can be
used to gain an understanding of past objectives, strategies, plans and required
business and technical capabilities. Note: Do not go into unnecessary depth during this
initial review of materials and documents.
3.1.1 Task A: Understand the background of the agency
Collect and conduct a high-level review of the agency’s background and core business.
Take note of the agency’s structure, main functions of each unit, the relationship with
external agencies or suppliers and the agency’s business and technical capabilities.
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Activity 1: Identify agency's business objectives (corporate and functional)
The corporate business objective is an agency mission that describes what the agency
provides as well as a description of its customers and their expectations. The business
objectives support the agency mission and represent broad statements of direction
indicating what the agency aims to achieve. An example of a business objective is "To
address citizens and businesses requests within 3 days”.
Activity 2: Understand agency roles and responsibilities
Gather the agency’s main activities and functions and understand how each goals and
objectives are in line with its sectoral plans and national plan mission statement.
Activity 3: Identify the agency’s organisation structure
• It is important to recognise not only an organisational structure, but the
functional structure as well. One of the major determinants of an application
system definition is that it covers groups of functional processes. Figure 2
documents an agency structure.
Enterprise
Business segments
Business functions
Business process
Figure 2: Enterprise Structure
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The agency level defines the overall agency strategy of an agency. At this level, the
agency can be sub-divided into one or more business segment levels, each one of
which can be defined as a single business unit operating and managed as a single entry.
The business segment level is where business strategy is set and defined. The business
function level is an interdependent level derived from the business segment managed
as a single entity, such as marketing, production, finance, etc. The business process is a
subdivision of a business function that usually represents the lowest level to which a
single application system is applied in a business function.
Activity 4: Document the executive management view of the agency
Through discussions or meetings with the senior management, obtain an overall view
of the agency from their point of view. This activity could also be done at the project
initialisation stage or later in the next task (Agency visioning and mission statement).
Activity 5: Identify agency's suppliers and customers
Identify the major suppliers and customers for the agency and determine other
agencies that are also serviced by the same suppliers and customers.
Activity 6: Identify agency's strengths and weaknesses
Strengths can relate to research and development, mastery of a technological process,
manufacturing capability, distribution, customer service, or anything else that may be
an important aspect of creating, producing, or delivering products or services.
Weaknesses can relate to any issues or constraints that impedes an agency’s progress.
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3.1.2 Task B: Understand agency visioning and mission statement
This task involves gathering the agency’s strategic vision and mission and targets that
are aligned with the national agenda. This task also establishes an understanding of
how ICT will be contributing to the business in the future, usually some time beyond
the time horizon of the strategic plan.
Activity 1: Understand the strategic vision and mission of agency
Review the business directions and strategies, such as its strategic positioning, targets
and timeline associated with national economic and social development. Put an
emphasis on:
• The ICT implications; and
• New business possibilities enabled by the application of ICT
Activity 2: Identify agency targets
This is an extension of the previous activity. List out all the agency’s targets that are
put forward. Identify those that contribute to the development of ICT or e-
Government.
Activity 3: Document the mission statement
There is no recipe for writing vision statements; they depend essentially upon
“strategic insight” – being able to identify the key elements of the vision with a
balance between generality and meaning. Nevertheless, some basic components can be
identified, such as headings or slogans (e.g. Virtual Library), ICT in general/ particular
applications, tools and facilities, broad business impact or outcome and business driver
or strategy involved.
Document the agency corporate mission, objectives, industry or market participation,
competitive strengths and strategies.
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3.2 Phase 2: Review of Current Business Environment
The purposes of this phase are to develop an understanding of the agency’s corporate
strategy and identify current business issues and opportunities to assist in later stages.
At the end of this phase, an agency value chain will be documented to show current
process areas. This phase involves a series of interviews targeted at senior management
level (CEO, CIO, Director General, Head of Department, etc.).
The information gathered during the interview will provide an input to the “as-is”
status of the business environment. The major steps that should be undertaken in this
information gathering process are:
• Preparation – prepare a list of interview questions and identify the target
interviewees, review available information and distribute interview guides
before the real interview;
• Data Gathering – interview business leaders and other designated employees,
prepare formal record of interview and provide preliminary feedback;
• Analysis – summarise data gathered in the interviews into a business strategy
framework; and
• Validation – provide feedback of results to the leaders for review and
validation and send them back to show the team’s understanding.
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3.2.1 Task C: Develop an understanding of corporate strategies
Identify the agency’s business strategies as any set of policies and plans developed to
achieve business objectives and performance targets.
Activity 1: Identify corporate business strategies
A business strategy may include various strategy types, such as:
• Investment strategy: for the investment of money or capital for profitable returns;
• Marketing strategy: for advertising, packaging, pricing, selling, and delivering
products or services to existing or potential customers;
• Operating strategy: for operating the agency; and
• Resource strategy: for the acquisition, maintenance, and management of resources
The statement of a business strategy should be identified in terms of strategy elements
such as product lines, markets, supply channels, size of agency and means of
operational financing.
Activity 2: Prepare an overview of the business strategies
Summarise and document the agency’s business strategies, present it to the
management and discuss and resolve any issues.
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3.2.2 Task D: Review current issues and opportunities
A more exhaustive interview should be done to understand current issues and
constraints faced by the agency such as:
• Organisational, cultural or policy related issues which present barriers or
constraints to the formulation, review, or implementation of the ICT strategy; and
• Immediate problem areas, normally of a technical or procedural nature, which
affect the short term efficiency or effectiveness of technology
Potential opportunities should also be identified to achieve agency’s goals and targets.
Focus on how technology can support the opportunities and determine the relative
priorities of these opportunities. Formally document these issues and opportunities for
improvement.
Activity 1: Identify and document cultural issues and opportunities
Gather input on the good and bad elements of the current agency culture. Stay at a high
level and capture information in bullet points during the interview. During the
interview, assess the gap between what the leader perceives the culture to be and the
leader's perception of what it needs to be.
Activity 2: Identify and document skill issues and opportunities
Obtain information about management's perception of current skill levels in their units.
Some questions that can be asked are:
• What skills are required (at a high level) for the unit function to satisfy its mission,
strategies, critical success factors, and to reach targeted levels of performance?;
• Does the business unit or function have those skills at the levels required?;
• What performance measurement systems assess skill-based contributions to
performance in key areas?; and
• What additional skills are needed to support performance in key areas?
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Activity 3: Identify and evaluate other external environment forces
Assess the impact of external environment forces on the attractiveness of each market;
these may include government regulation, technological changes, and environmental
factors such as social trends or conventions.
Activity 4: Determine how the agency operates under external constraints
Assess the success of the agency in achieving performance goals while meeting
external agency requirements or other external constraints.
Activity 5: Identify and document issues and opportunities associated with the
external environment forces
Identify and document the issues and opportunities relating to the efficiency and
effectiveness of communications used by the agency with the external agencies.
Activity 6: Identify and document issues and opportunities associated with suppliers
and strategic business partners
Identify and document any additional suppliers and/or strategic business partners of the
agency based on process areas (value chain), business processes and the primitive
process areas and elementary processes.
Activity 7: Determine key organisational interfaces
Determine the key organisational interfaces between the supplier and strategic business
partner and the agency internal work processes. Identify the processes and/or tasks
used to conduct that interface, and where in the agency the interfaces are managed.
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3.2.3 Task E: Develop the first-cut vision of opportunities and directions
The purpose of this task is to assess and prioritise the business opportunities based on
the established evaluation criteria. A first-cut vision of business opportunities and
directions is selected and understood for further investigation in the Analysis stage.
Note: Business opportunities that do not have a significant dependence on technology
will probably have little influence on the ICT strategy. Management may wish,
however, to carry these opportunities forward for further investigation outside of the
scope of the project as a special study.
Activity 1: Establish criteria for decision-making
Establish criteria (e.g. policies, practices and cultural aspects) for evaluating options
and justifying the ICT strategy. Obtain an agreement in principle on the criteria that
management will use in making business decisions about investment in ICT.
Activity 2: Prioritise potential opportunities
Assess the merits of the potential business opportunities, focusing on the contributions
of ICT. Determine the relative priorities of the opportunities.
Activity 3: Determine issues, assumptions and constraints
Consider the areas of the business affected by the use of technology. May be
replication of previous task.
Activity 4: Select opportunities for further investigation
Select and recommend to management opportunities for further investigation. Keep the
number of opportunities relatively small. Focus on the major, high priority
opportunities. The business opportunities that do not have a significant dependence on
technology will probably have little influence on the ICT strategy. Management may
wish, however, to carry these opportunities forward for further investigation outside of
the scope of the ICT Strategic Plan development.
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3.2.4 Task F: Determine agency value chain
An agency value chain (e.g. financial value chain which covers processes from
budgeting to operational expenditures) will represent the current processes of the area
of interest for the agency centred on major resources. It can be used to determine
where a company possesses strategic advantage or disadvantage.
Activity 1: Identify value chain process areas
Define functional groupings of key activities as preliminary process areas. Process
areas should be classified as either value chain process areas or support process areas.
Activity 2: Prepare an overview of the agency’s value chain
Document the agency’s value chain and support process areas that the agency
undertakes to deliver value to customers in the form of products and services. Present
the project team's understanding of the agency’s value chain to management.
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3.3 Phase 3: Identify Areas of Potential Strategic Advantage
Areas of potential strategic advantage are areas within an agency, defined at high level,
where the application of ICT would provide an agency with competitive advantage.
The purpose of this phase is to identify the immediate ICT implications in each area
that contribute to successful ICT implementation based on local or international
practices.
3.3.1 Task G: Understand current business trends
Extend the research on either local or international practices to determine current
trends on similar nature of business with agency and how each can contribute to
agency specific needs, especially on the use of ICT.
Activity 1: Review local or overseas best practices or developments
Identify other Government initiatives or efforts taken locally or abroad. Sought to
understand the leading practices (or case studies) and their lessons learnt in relation to
the role of agency and the enabling environment that is required for successful ICT
implementation.
Activity 2: Determine the contribution of ICT in supporting the current agency’s
business strategies and national goals
Come up with a list of initial ICT opportunities from other agencies, local or overseas,
that can relate to the agency’s nature of business, for example, online taxation for the
Ministry of Finance.
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3.3.2 Task H: Identify immediate ICT implications or contributions
Opportunities for gaining strategic advantage through the use of ICT are identified on a
preliminary basis. Insight gained as to where the ICT applications can provide
significant return on investment provides a basis for refinement of the scope and
approach for the next stages.
Activity 1: Identify what ICT can contribute based on the agency’s value chain
Based on the analysis done in Task F. Other techniques that can also be used are:
• Competitive analysis of the external environment; or
• CSF analysis; or
• Organisational impact analysis; or
• Applicability of emerging technologies.
Critical Success Factor (CSF) is closely link to the agency’s value chain. CSF refers to
the limited numbers of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful
competitive performance for the individual, department, or agency. They are the few
key areas where "things must go right" for the business to flourish and for the
manager's goals to be attained. Define the critical success factors for each of the
agency-level business objectives based on a review of background documentation,
industry research, and interviews with management.
Activity 2: Determine CSF performance measures and targets
CSFs should always be measurable. For instance, rather than having a CSF which says
"provide excellent customer service," it should be stated in specific terms such as
product quality, product delivery, product inventory, or product warranty, which are
factors that must be considered in meeting the business objective to "provide excellent
customer service". Determine one or more performance measures for each critical
success factor that can be used to assess performance (i.e., efficiency and/or
effectiveness) in achieving the critical success factor.
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Determine the targets for each CSF performance measure. The performance measures
should specify what to be measured and the targets should define the acceptable range
of results for the critical success factor. For example: "Hire 100 graduates in the top
10% of their class from ... by FYE June 30, 1995," would be a performance target of
the business objective "Hire the best and brightest."
Activity 3: Link business strategies to performance targets
Link the business strategies to the CSF. The CSFs are the few key areas in which
successful performance will lead to the achievement of the agency’s business
objectives.
Activity 4: Prepare the Enterprise Performance Framework
Document the agency’s performance framework, by defining the mission, business
objectives, and critical success factors (CSFs) that apply to the agency. Ensure that the
project is focused on improving the performance of the business and that project scope
is defined to support business objectives.
3.3.3 Task I: Consolidate findings
Compile the results from the business environment assessment and prepare a list of
areas of potential strategic advantage. Determine executive management and
perception of ICT strategic importance.
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4. Stage 2: Analyse ICT Environment The need to preserve and enhance current ICT investments could be a major
constraining factor in developing an agency’s ICT strategy. Information about the
current ICT environment needs to be gathered and assessed. The objectives of this
stage are to:
• Identify the agency’s current ICT readiness and potential in supporting the
government through ICT initiatives;
• Identify the current progress of these initiatives and examine their relative
strengths and importance; and
• Perform ICT assessment to measure ICT usage and effectiveness of agency
This stage involves a series of assessment on the current ICT environment that are
based on 5 major groups as shown below:
Figure 3: The 5 areas of ICT assessment
• Strategy: examines what ICT strategies are in place, how effectively they support
the business and how the business manages and controls ICT.
• Delivery: examines how resources are organised, monitored and controlled to
deliver ICT services and ICT projects.
• People: examines how ICT human resources are organised and managed in ICT
and examines the skills and attitudes of users and ICT staff.
• Technology: examines how technology trends are identified, the effectiveness of
the technology architecture and how technology is deployed.
Systems
People
Technology
Delivery
Strategy
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• Systems: examines the business functions that are supported by ICT applications,
the extent of coverage, the gaps that exist in the information provided by these
systems and seeks to identify any unsatisfied demand that may exist.
For Strategy, most were covered in the earlier stage when defining the overall mission
of the agency, with respect to ICT. The focus would mainly be on the remaining 4
groups.
4.1 Phase 1: Perform ICT Assessment
An ICT assessment is a process of identifying existing applications, hardware and
other technology architecture components that exist in the ICT environment. The
purpose of this phase is to assess the key components of the current ICT environment
in determining the ICT capabilities to meet the current and future needs of the
business. This analysis will be key to identifying short term and long-term
opportunities to improve the ICT environment and used in the gap analysis and
identification of strategic initiatives.
Performing ICT assessment requires information gathering from reviewing existing
documentation, system investigation and interviewing agency’s staff at management
and operational level. Templates should be provided to obtain input from information
gathering. Various methods can be used to gather information. One of the possible
information gathering techniques is questionnaire. The response can be formed into an
application assessment spreadsheet that provides an average for each question in the
surveys. These averages are the basis for the analysis. Analyse results to look for
patterns in the responses of satisfaction or business and technical issues.
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4.1.1 Task J: Review agency’s current ICT strategy, plans and budget
This task will cover the Strategy dimension of the assessment. Main activities include:
• Understand the ICT and business strategy alignment;
• Understanding policies and guidelines for ICT management and implementation
that have been put in place for the agency to operate in an ICT environment;
• Reviewing past year actual budget and actual year forecast budget for ICT
infrastructure and application development. Break down by expense category,
business unit and work type. “Normalise” budget across years so that the unusual
or one-time expense (such as Y2K) are recognised; and
• Prioritising strategic initiatives and prepare high-level cost estimates for related
projects for next year and the duration of the project.
4.1.2 Task K: Perform high-level current ICT environment review
Collect relevant information about the existing ICT environment and conduct a high-
level review to identify opportunities and issues that should be considered when
defining the project scope. This review should be conducted at a high level and
judgment should be exercised to prevent delving into unnecessary detail since the
objective is to allow the project scope and boundaries to be accurately assessed.
Additional information gathered and more detailed analysis completed later. Any
information gathered should be reviewed to ensure it is current.
Activity 1: Establish relationship with information system and related departments
Organise and conduct meetings with information systems and related departments to
gain access to corporate knowledge associated with the existing ICT infrastructure and
with the legacy systems.
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Activity 2: Review background documentation
Review background documents to gain an initial understanding of the project and the
current ICT infrastructure, such as:
• System abstracts (for application efforts);
• Required ICT architectures (for specific products);
• Inventories of ICT applications and data files;
• Inventories of ICT systems and technology components;
• Profiles of user and ICT organisation skills;
• Current system architecture; and
• Current system service levels (e.g. service level agreements)
This review should be conducted at a high level without going into unnecessary depth.
Obtain a clear statement of the business goals and target applications that the ICT
infrastructure design must support. It is not sufficient to only analyse technical factors.
Activity 3: Complete high-level review of existing ICT environment
Focus the review of the existing ICT environment on platforms and applications,
operations and support, ICT organisation structure and standards and pre-existing
decisions. The depth of the analysis to be completed in this step needs to be carefully
related to project scope before the work commences since it is easy to spend too much
time gathering excessive detail.
Activity 4: Understand the current ICT function
Complete a high-level assessment of the current ICT function, based on a comparison
with best practices and industry norms.
Activity 5: Identify issues and improvement goals
Identify the primary issues and opportunities for improvement based on the
preliminary review of existing ICT environment.
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4.1.3 Task L: Assess organisation and management
This task will cover the People dimension of the assessment. In this task, existing skill
levels are assessed to determine the degree to which they enable and will continue to
enable the agency to reach its performance goals. The task assesses the degree to which
groups of people in the agency have attained needed levels of knowledge and skills.
The primary focus is on business units or support functions (such as financial
management, ICT management) with skill issues or questions that arose in the skill
evaluation.
Activity 1: Understand current knowledge and skills
Knowledge and skills are the "what" and "how" of work. To establish skills in an area,
an individual must know what to do and how to do it. Three important characteristics
of a skill are flexibility, effectiveness and context sensitivity. Assess the operational
skills, management and team leading skills and job task skills and identify the gaps that
currently exist.
Activity 2: Determine existing ICT organisation
Review the existing ICT organisation to identify potential transition and/or support
risks and determine the training and hiring needs. Consider the following:
• Purpose of the ICT organisation and management unit;
• Management level;
• Number of staff and skill sets (including the distribution) for users, system
analysts, application developers, data and database administrators, data security
administrators and system administrators;
• Areas of accountability and responsibility;
• Application services and practices;
• Third party roles;
• Budget, cost of budget and funding; and
• Performance measures and rewards
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Activity 3: Assess communication
The communication assessment should aim to determine the following information:
• Review the effectiveness of external (e.g., with customers and suppliers) and
internal (e.g., amount individuals and business units within the agency)
communication
• Assess the appropriateness of the way people in the agency communicate;
• Focus on bottlenecks and barriers that interfere with the ability to get information
needed to make critical decisions in a well informed and timely fashion; and
• Create and deliver messages in ways that are meaningful to and preferred by the
target audience.
Activity 4: Understand integrating mechanisms (cross-functional business units)
Assess the mechanism that exists within the agency to link the activities with shared
responsibilities, for example:
• Individual cross-business roles (e.g. coordinator);
• Cross business committee or teams (e.g. sales or ICT liaison group);
• Project teams (e.g. new product launch team, relocation project team); and
• Informal mechanism (e.g. personal network, informal support group).
Activity 5: Determine organisation and management issues and opportunities
Determine and document organisation and management issues and opportunities for
improvement.
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4.1.4 Tas k M: Assess applications and data
This task will cover the Systems dimension of the assessment. Assess the functionality
of the applications that supports the business function. This will provide a basis for the
definition and design of the target environment.
Activity 1: Identify ICT components supporting systems
Categorise the ICT components according to hardware, system software, data
management software, EDI software, operations support software and
telecommunication software.
Activity 2: Identify system interface
Determine the interfaces between current systems. These interfaces may be direct
interfaces through a transaction or indirect interfaces through a data set (one or more
shared data set or batch transaction).
Activity 3: Review system documentation
Identify and review the documentation for each current system, both on-line and paper-
based such as:
• Process documentation;
• Process documentation (e.g., Event Response Analysis, Process Dependency
Diagrams, Process Descriptions);
• Data documentation (e.g., Conceptual Data Model, Logical Data Model, Physical
Data Storage Characteristics, Data Dictionary);
• Test documentation (e.g., Test Plans and Test Data for system and acceptance
testing);
• Specifications (e.g., Edit/Validation Specifications, System Diagrams, Window
Layout/Definitions, Program Macro Diagrams, Report Definitions);
• Source program listings;
• Sample input forms and outputs;
• User documentation; and
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• Operations manuals
Activity 4: Understand system components
Identify the software components of each current system included in the analysis.
Software components include program source code, common logic modules, job
streams (e.g., JCL, Unix scripts), DLL members and executable programs
Activity 5: Review systems support for business p rocesses and objectives
Review the support and strategic impact for the business processes by the current or
planned systems or applications.
Activity 6: Define systems scope
Determine the criteria to be used in selecting the systems or applications relevant to the
scope and objectives of the project. Achieve agreement with the executive
management, key stakeholders and the project's steering committee.
Activity 8: Determine application issues and opportunities
Determine and document application issues and opportunities for improvement.
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4.1.5 Task N: Assess technology infrastructure
This task will cover the Technology dimension of the assessment. Determine the
effectiveness of the existing infrastructure and technologies to meet current and future
ICT infrastructure needs. Assess the stability and performance of the current
infrastructure and the ability to extend the reach to users. Note: The level of detail for
this task depends heavily on the project rationale and goals established for the
infrastructure development effort. Care should be taken to avoid collecting
unnecessary information.
Activity 1: Understand existing hardware and software
Determine existing hardware configurations, locations, capacity, capacity utilisation,
and age. Sources of information include the ICT department staff and users. An asset
management tool, if in use, may also be an information source.
Activity 2: Understand software development tools
Determine the software development tools in use, and the degree to which they are
used in the agency. Data collected in this task can be used to determine which tools can
be carried over into the new environment or which should be replaced.
Activity 3: Understand networking and communication components
Understand current configuration and available capacities for areas on LAN and WAN,
communications software and middleware, protocols, hardware (e.g. cabling, bridges,
routers and gateways), telecommunications and voice conferencing and mail systems.
Activity 4: Understand operation and management tools
Understand the operation and management tools to administer the ability to the health
and welfare of ICT infrastructure, which includes:
• Performance and capacity management;
• Service level analysis and reporting;
• Network management;
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• Scheduling;
• Disaster recovery and automated back-up; and
• Security.
Activity 5: Determine system usage of ICT infrastructures
Determine the systems that operate on each ICT infrastructure.
Activity 6: Determine operational or facilities capabilities and issues
Determine operational/facilities issues that may hinder or facilitate the use of certain
technologies. Space of operations, power, cooling, cabling, building conditions, and
location of facilities may affect the choice of technology. The information gathered
will be used for gap analysis, capacity analysis, and presentations.
Activity 7: Review existing interface and standards
Review existing interface and standards and determine overall high-level processing
volume (or data interchange rates), required hardware and software and networking
components as well as technical standards (technology vendors and platforms (e.g.,
hardware and software), development and productivity tools, methodologies, network
and communications and support standards) that are currently used in the ICT
environment.
Activity 8: Understand existing business and management requirements and
constraints for ICT infrastructure
Understand and determine the business and technology requirements and constraints
for the distribution, growth, and standards of the ICT infrastructure. This includes
corporate standards, current organisation, investment and budget constraints, risk
profile and other ICT infrastructure constraints.
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Activity 9: Review disaster contingency planning
Review the adequacy of disaster contingency planning for the current facility,
equipment, and ICT infrastructures of the in-scope business units. First identify the
risks associated with the current infrastructure, and then review the current disaster
contingency plan (if one exists) to determine whether it appropriately addresses the
identified infrastructure risks.
Activity 10: Review the technology policies, standards and methods
Review and understand existing technology policies, standards and methods for
existing ICT environment.
Activity 11: Determine ICT infrastructure issues and opportunities
Determine and document infrastructure issues and opportunities for improvement.
4.1.6 Task O: Assess service delivery
This task will cover the Delivery dimension of the assessment that includes the
management and organisation on ICT services and resources.
Activity 1: Profile current and under development systems
Identify and analyse the major information systems currently being used and under
development by the in-scope business units. This will provide a basis for the definition
and design of the target environment. Each system (existing and under development) is
described and analysed, including its development details, business unit ownership,
development, maintenance and operational details, skill requirements, interfaces to
other information systems, quality and importance to the business.
Activity 2: Review current data security
Conduct a high-level review to provide a relevant context for defining the agency's
data security requirements in areas such as:
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• Existence and adequacy of a Data Resource Management (DRM) organisation
(including data administration, database administration, and data security
administration functions) for the development, management, and control of the
agency's data resources;
• Existence and adequacy of a corporate security policy to ensure that the agency's
data is secure from destruction, corruption, unauthorised access, and breach of
confidentiality - whether accidental or deliberate;
• Management review and enforcement of the data security requirements;
• Scope and terms of reference of internal audit in the context of data security;
• Management of compliance with industry and statutory data needs/statutes (e.g.,
privacy acts);
• Existence and adequacy of disaster contingency/recovery plans and whether they
are updated and tested regularly; and
• Existence of a security awareness program for staff
Activity 3: Understand the project management policy, including standards and
methods
Define procedures, standards and methods for supporting the ‘to be’ technical
infrastructure which includes back up and recovery, defining necessary skill sets and
departmental responsibility for supporting the technical environment. Service level
agreements, tools for performance tuning, source code management, editors, etc. are
also defined here.
Activity 4: Determine service delivery issues and opportunities
Determine and document service delivery issues and opportunities for improvement.
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4.1.7 Task P: Assess the strategic impact
Identify the direction for ICT strategy development that will eventually lead to a list of
ICT opportunities. To do so, two techniques are involved: ICT Strategic Grid and the
Systems Audit Grid. The ICT Strategic Grid will be referenced in the method to
determine ICT organisation strategies and to assess the appropriateness of the degrees
of risk of the information system development portfolio and the implementation
projects portfolio. The Systems Audit Grid will determine whether the existing
applications should be retained, enhanced or replaced in the new target ICT
environment.
Determine the strategic nature of the agency (or business unit's) ICT environment
based on the assessed strategic impact of the current systems and the systems under
development based on four different ICT environment defined in the ICT Strategic
Grid.
Activity 1: Conduct the ICT Strategic Grid analysis to assess the nature of the ICT
environment
The ICT Strategic Grid below is defined based on the following two dimensions:
• The strategic impact of current systems, that is, the level of dependence on
existing systems, (e.g., how critical is it that existing systems run in a reliable,
cost-effective fashion 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year?); and
• The strategic impact of the planned systems including those under development
(e.g., how critical are the new systems and electronic support that are going to be
developed over the next few years?).
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Figure 4: ICT Strategic Grid
Depending on the assessed values along these two dimensions (i.e., high or low), four
different ICT environments can be identified as follows:
• Strategic: Smooth functioning of the ICT activity critical to the firm's operation
on a daily basis; applications under development critical for future competitive
success.
• Turnaround: Uninterrupted cost-effective functioning of ICT operational
support not absolutely vital to achieving short-term or long-term objectives;
applications under development critical for achieving strategic objectives.
• Factory: Cost-effective and reliable ICT operational support vital for the smooth
functioning of the firm; applications portfolio, dominated by maintenance work,
not fundamental to the firm's ability to compete.
• Support: ICT operational support not critical to smooth functioning of the
agency; applications portfolio not strategically important.
Activity 2: Prepare the ICT Strategic Grid
Discuss and agree on the assessed strategic values of the current application systems
and application development projects as reflected in the Current ICT Strategic Grid.
Modify the findings as appropriate.
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Activity 3: Conduct the Systems Audit Grid analysis to assess the technical and
business value of each major application
Assess the technical and business value of each major application supporting the business
units to form a basis in determining whether it should be retained, enhanced, or replaced in
the target environment. Categorise the current application into classes of potential
disposition in the target environment based on their assessed business and technical values
using the Systems Audit Grid framework.
Figure 5: Systems Audit Grid
Plot the agency’s applications according to their business and technical values and
categorise application into one of four groups, depending on its placement:
• Eliminate (low in both business value and technical value) - Applications in this
category are candidates for elimination from the target environment. They may
never have been necessary or they may have become obsolete because of the
business segments they support may have changed;
• Reassess (high technical value but low business value) - Applications in this
category may be the technician's products looking for applications or applications
which the users have failed to support and use or applications which were in
advance of the business needs. They should be reassessed to determine if they
should be eliminated or if they could be enhanced to add business value;
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• Renew/Replace (high business value but low technical value) – Applications in
this category represent potential business exposures. If they fail, business
operation or management capability will suffer. ICT opportunities are likely to be
identified from these applications; and
• Maintain/Enhance (high in both business value and technical value).
Applications in this category should be given priority for any maintenance or
enhancement to sustain any benefits or competitive advantages from these
applications. Failure to adequately maintain these applications may cause them to
become business exposures.
Activity 4: Prepare the Systems Audit Grid
Discuss and agree on the assessed business and technical values of the current
applications as reflected in the Systems Audit Grid. Modify the findings as
appropriate.
4.2 Phase 2: Recommend Short Term Action
It is important that all those involved with an ICT strategy understand the business and
ICT issues to plan ICT development, deployment, and operations in a manner that best
meets agency’s needs both now and into the future. An agency should plan
strategically to meet its needs in the long term (4 years and beyond) and in the short
term (12-18 months). Due to the nature and complexity of the ICT projects, it is
suggested that the ICT Strategic Plan team identify early opportunities to demonstrate
tangible benefits of the development project; an interim (short-term) solution while
working towards achieving a complete ICT target environment. The purpose of this
stage is to identify a list of short-term ICT projects based on evaluation of the
government's existing ICT environment and actions for obtaining early benefits.
Proceed with the recommending short-term ICT projects before obtaining approval
from the senior management.
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4.2.1 Task Q: Consolidat e findings
Compile all the findings from the previous tasks and compile the results of the ICT
assessment. Determine the short-term ICT opportunities.
Activity 1: Develop an overview of the current ICT environment
Include the agency’s ICT heritage, senior management's perception of ICT strategic
importance, and findings gathered from a high-level review of the ICT environment
and assessment of the ICT function. Also to include is the strengths and weaknesses of
the current ICT environment.
Activity 2: Compile the results of ICT assessment
Review all the findings for overall consistency and completeness. Summarise key
findings related to major current applications, data files, ICT technology environment
and ICT management organisations.
4.2.2 Task R: Identify short-term ICT improvement projects
Activity 1: Recommend short term actions
Identify any short-term improvement project, taking advantage of the short-lived
opportunity that are necessary to support the ICT environment until the ICT strategy is
sufficiently implemented.
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5. Stage 3: Develop ICT Strategy In this stage, new applications and their functionality processing requirements that will
have strategic impact on the current ICT environment are identified and a set of
prioritised application for the target environment are defined. The objectives of this
stage are to:
• Identify the ICT opportunities to better support the business strategy; and
• Design the target ICT environment, covering prioritised target applications,
technology architecture and ICT governance.
This stage also suggests the target applications and implementation options, the
technology architecture and profile of the ICT organisation.
5.1 Phase 1: Identify ICT Opportunities
The purpose of this phase is to generate ideas and identify opportunities enabled by
new applications or current applications not presently in use within the agency. These
opportunities should also cover the business process operations and operating
decisions that can be improved through extension of applications support. An ICT
opportunity may cover the following aspect:
• New information (e.g., customer preference and quality rating);
• New information relationships (e.g., sales by product group and receipts by
supplier);
• Physical changes (e.g., more timely, more accurate, and better format);
• Business opportunities (e.g., organisational changes and business process
transformation); and
• Lower computing hardware costs (e.g., down sizing from a mainframe to
workstations connected by a LAN).
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The approaches that can be taken to identifying ICT opportunities are as follows:
• Brainstorming;
• Cross-fertilization (between business and system personnel);
• Reviewing system development projects (for new ideas in further enhancing
products and/or services);
• Conducting market research and competitor analysis;
• Benchmarking (finding out what and how other companies including competitors
in the same or similar industries are doing in applying IS to gain competitive
advantage);
• Reviewing in-place technology (for new ways in using existing resources);
• Analysing existing products (for ideas of products complementing or adding value
to existing products); and
• Engaging in new technology ventures.
The objective of this phase is not to define the functional processing requirements of
each application. Hence, defining functional processing requirements is an
implementation activity that is performed in the requirement definition phase of a
system development project.
5.1.1 Task S: Identify major ICT opportunities
When identifying major ICT opportunities for improvement, always examine ICT
technologies as a means for an agency to create competitive advantage or improve
operation performance. Therefore strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of
an agency should always be determined initially. Depending on the specific project
circumstances, various techniques may be used to generate ideas for ICT opportunities.
Major techniques that can assist in this analysis are:
• Competitive analysis of the external environment;
• Value chain analysis;
• CSF analysis;
• Organisational impact analysis; and
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• Applicability of emerging technologies.
Activity 1: Leverage on the value chain analysis
Value is identified by defining high priority activities that are performed by an agency.
Value chain analysis is used to model an organisation’s internal business environment.
It identifies the value brought to the marketplace. It is based on the premise that
competitive advantage is best understood by looking at the firm as a system of discrete
but interdependent processes.
Analysis of the value chain should look at how well the agency actually puts its
strategies into practice and identify the information content of each value activity and
its linkages. The potential opportunities can be derived from the value chain in terms
of:
• Automating the physical tasks in a value activity;
• Physically connecting or controlling activities across linkages;
• Improving management and control of value activities; and
• Optimising or coordinating value activities across linkages.
Activity 2: Perform gap analysis
Identifying the gap in performance between current ICT environment and target ICT
environment. Identify potential areas of operation that require improvement by
collecting information which was not currently recorded and applying the current
recorded information in various new ways. The use of strategic assessments and best
practices can also help identify potential solutions.
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Activity 3: Derive appropriate ICT opportunities
When completing the competitiveness analysis, value chain analysis, organisational
restructuring, or other opportunity analyses, the target opportunities should be matched
with the appropriate choices of technologies.
Activity 4: Identifying risks associated with ICT opportunities
Identify the risks associated with new and unproven technologies before considering
the ICT opportunities based on emerging technology. Examine factors that could
threaten any planned project actions from being carried out successfully, prevent any
milestones from being achieved, or otherwise represent a risk such as time and ease or
difficulty of catching up with the emerging technology.
5.1.2 Task T: Determine the benefits of ICT opportunities
Activity 1: Agree on high-level benefits on ICT opportunities
Identify and determine the benefits, both quantifiable and unquantifiable, for each ICT
strategy option based on information derived from the definition of the respective
strategy components. Examples of the types of benefits of an ICT opportunity include
the following:
• Information formerly unavailable;
• Information more complete, more accurate, and/or more timely;
• More effective management control;
• Reduction of clerical workload;
• Reduction of supervision time;
• Equipment/space reduction; and
• ICT personnel reduction
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5.1.3 Task U: Determine risks of ICT opportunities
Activity 1: Associate potential risks with the identified ICT opportunities
Assess the overall risk associated with each ICT strategy option based on a review of
the risk assessment of the following areas completed during the definition of the
respective strategy components:
• ICT opportunities;
• Target applications;
• Implementation options; and
• Technology and organisational infrastructures.
Assign levels of risk expressed as the probability of occurrence to each of the
identified risks. Examples of potential risk are:
• Market concept risk (as judged by customer acceptance and continued use);
• Technology risk (in terms of proven capabilities and performance);
• Implementation risk (as related to problems impeding turning the idea into a
reliable product or service, such as problems in system development and supplier
delivery);
• Economic risk (as determined by the likelihood that the expected outcomes or
benefits of the ICT opportunities cannot be achieved);
• Organisational risk (as determined based on the assessed degree of support
provided by the agency’s organisational infrastructure, such as its culture,
management processes, and human resources, for successful implementation); and
• Regulatory risk (in terms of possible changes of governmental policy or social
interest groups).
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5.2 Phase 2: Define Target Applications
The objectives of this phase are to define the target applications (TA) that should be
included in the target ICT environment and to summarise the significant features of the
target applications that will influence implementation and operation. At the end of this
phase, it is recommended that a workshop be held with the project team to share the
analysis and findings on the ICT opportunities and identify the major TA.
5.2.1 Tas k V: Develop initial TA
This task involves the envisioning of initial TA, including a preliminary definition of
the functional requirements of these applications. The approach taken to develop an
initial TA framework is to revisit information system opportunities for improvement
and develop initial TA architecture based on ICT opportunities identified previously.
The earlier assessment of current applications using the Systems Audit Grid (Task P)
will be used as reference.
Activity 1: Identify current applications to be retained, enhanced or replaced
Compare the initial business system architecture to current applications to identify the
current applications to be retained, enhanced, or replaced in the target environment by
doing the following:
• Match the initial business systems with current applications which support the
same business processes and/or use the same data entities;
• Examine and compare the characteristics of the matched target and current
applications, focusing on their functional descriptions, and their data usage
characteristics (type of usage such as create, use, or modify; type of data used
such as global, local or personal); and
• Identify current applications that should be retained (those having the same
functional and data usage characteristics as the initial business systems), enhanced
or renewed (those having a majority of common functional and data usage
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characteristics), or replaced (those having few common functional and data usage
characteristics).
Activity 2: Revise the scope of certain target applications so that related current
applications might be retained
If further assessment is required, be sure to consider the following characteristics for
migration into the target environment:
• Critical to other portions of the business environment that may not have been
included within the scope of the planning study;
• Having significant interfaces with other applications;
• Representing a recent significant investment of development resources; and
• Providing major operational or tactical support that cannot be replaced within a
short time (e.g., within six months).
Activity 3: Define new TA
Examine the initial business systems that have not been mapped to any current
applications and determine the ones that corresponds to applications under
development, the ones that should require new applications and the ones that are
should subject to further review in the target environment.
Address the following when defining new applications:
• Assessed business opportunities;
• Required resources to develop and support the new applications;
• Architectural impact of required system interfaces; and
• Assessed risk and return.
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Activity 4: Categorise the TA
Categorise the TAs based on the nature of the application systems (office automation,
end-user computing, operations support, decision support, management information,
and real-time processing and control) and the nature of the business applications they
support (mandatory applications, strategic applications, traditional applications,
infrastructure applications). The different types of applications as shown in the figure 6
below will have different implications on the appropriate techniques to use in
determining the benefits of the applications.
5.2.2 Task W: Build TA overview
Determine the overview of each TA for major data inputs and outputs and process
descriptions. Additional fact-finding may sometimes be required.
Figure 6: Target Application Portfolio (example)
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Activity 1: Summarise the key processing characteristics of the TA
Define high-level functional requirements for the information processes envisioned for
each of the TA based on the relevant results of process analysis, data analysis, and
process envisioning tasks. Prepare a preliminary functional requirement lists to
document the following items:
• Functional Requirement: grouping of related key requirements in a structured,
hierarchical manner (i.e., by business process by elementary process);
• Comments: where appropriate, documenting any additional information whic h
explains the requirement in more detail; and
• Desirability: indicating whether the requirement is mandatory, highly desirable, or
desirable
Activity 2: Develop a management overview TA diagram
Develop a diagram that provides management with an overview of the TAs. The
diagram should include linkages between TAs (if any).
5.2.3 Task X: Prioritise TA
Activity 1: Agree on prioritisation area
Prioritise the TA systems based on their expected benefits and the assessed strategic
and operational importance. Based on their potential impact on business segment
CSF’s, assign target application to priority groups.
Activity 2: Determine the priorities of the target applications
The factors in determining the priorities of the TA:
• Overall business impact - high, medium, low;
• Return on investment: immediate, short-term, long-term (not applicable for
current applications without modifications);
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• Implementation complexity: high, medium, low, and not applicable (n/a). This
rating of expected complexity takes into consideration such items as conversion,
migration, and development;
• Dependencies: high, medium, low. This is the degree to which this application
depends upon other applications in terms of items such as system interfaces or
shared data; and
• Overall priority group: high priority, medium priority and low priority. Assign an
overall priority grouping to the TAs based on their relative importance within the
business unit. In some instances, it may be appropriate to consider prioritising the
TA on an organisation-wide basis, possibly in the case of limited funds
Identify two to four "high priority" TA as pivotal applications, having the most impact
on the agency's business based on the strategic values of the business objectives and
CSFs they support. These pivotal TA will have a major impact in formulating the
skeleton ICT strategies.
5.2.4 Task Y: Confirm TA with management
Activity 1: Conduct workshop to present findings, analysis and recommendations
Conduct a workshop to present findings, analysis and recommendations to the team
members and Steering Committee. Recap on the business segment strategies, business
and ICT environment summary, TA and known ICT strategy assumptions and
constraints. Arrange for an off-site location and a facilitator to ensure participant’s
focus and involvement. Generate solutions, ideas and alternatives during brainstorming
sessions and discussions and agree on the priorities of the target applications.
Activity 2: Obtain approval and feedback of the deliverable and authorisation to
proceed
Be sure to include all the project team members to approve of the prioritised list of
target applications. Once finalised, gain approval and authorisation to proceed to the
next phase.
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5.3 Phase 3: Develop Technology Strategy
The objective of this phase is to identify a set of technology components to support the
TA. A technology design/architecture will be developed to capture various components
(e.g. communication, database, server and client system software, security and control,
etc).
5.3.1 Task Z: Identify technology trends
Activity 1: Perform research on the latest technology trends
Conduct a research on best practice surveys/benchmarking, best practice visits (within
and outside the industry), technology trends, or industry standards. Source of
information on technology trends can be obtain through seminars, journals,
publications and subject matter expert. This technology strategy must be positioned to
meet the current and anticipated business needs in response to technological changes.
Activity 2: Determine its implications on the agency’s environment
If a technology trend could increase the growth requirements of the ICT infrastructure,
determine this potential impact in the growth forecast. For example, a technology trend
is the use of a corporate intranet. In developing an agency’s ICT infrastructure,
examine the opportunities and risks (both business and technical) of an intranet policy.
5.3.2 Task AA: Define principles for developing technology strategies
Activity 1: Revisit high-level technology issues
Revisit the high-level technology issues (e.g. the limitations, maturity, feasibility in the
current environment) and consider their present and likely future relevance within the
agency.
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Activity 2: Determine its implications on the agency’s environment
Translate the outcome of the analysis of technology issues into simple and direct
statement governing the development of the technology strategy.
5.3.3 Task AB: Determine technology requirements
Activity 1: Identify the technology components determinants
The technology components are identified in this step on a preliminary basis to
supplement the definition, understand the associated preliminary system development
option, and estimate the implementation efforts and durations. The components
provide the input to defining the first-cut list of ICT components and infrastructures
during ICT infrastructure definition. Such components include main hardware,
operating systems, telecommunication and supporting tools. Determine the high-level
requirements of these components.
Activity 2: Identify high-level requirements of these components
5.3.4 Task AC: Determine target technology architecture
This task involves considering key business and technical drivers and high-level
processing paradigms to form the basic choices for initial architecture decisions.
Activity 1: Consider key business and technical drivers and high-level processing
requirements
Review the technology architecture, considering all components in the context of the
following factors - Required use of specific vendors/products, required use of legacy
system components, application software package constraints, required interfaces,
required technologies and standards.
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Activity 2: Derive high-level technology architecture
Consider multiple alternatives, and demonstrate that the fundamental options have
been considered by applying knowledge of existing ICT environment, drivers
identified previously, system distribution options, target applications and technology
requirements. Some factors to be considered are:
• Integration with existing systems;
• Placement of data closer to its source;
• Ease of user growth, performance, data integrity and consistency of distributed
databases;
• Security, volume and transaction requirement;
• Location of users; and
• Skill set of support staff.
5.3.5 Task AD: Formulate technology strategy
Activity 1: Consolidate the findings and recommendations
Prepare a Technology Strategy Abstract that represent the technology design and
contain the following suggested information:
• High-level requirements;
• Summary of current technology architecture shortfalls;
• Proposed technology design, illustrating how the design satisfies requirements,
including (where applicable):
o Communication;
o Database;
o Server and client;
o System software;
o Security and control;
o Outsourcing;
o Tools (e.g. network management, operation management, end user, etc);
and
o Support and management;
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• Expansion, redundancy, and recoverability approach.
5.4 Phase 4: Develop ICT Governance Framework
The purpose of this phase is to define and recommend to senior management the ICT
governance framework, which is the process of how ICT policy, resources and systems
are established, deployed, managed, amended and enforced.
In summary, ICT Governance is:
• The body of rules, agreements and standards that defines the basis for
interaction between different people, departments, roles and functions within
the agency;
• The principles that determine the way decisions are made and conflicts
resolved at all levels;
• An explicit statement of when and under what conditions ICT decisions fall
within the authority of ICT governance; and
• The distribution of accountabilities and responsibilities.
A strong ICT governance structure is essential to the development and implementation
of the e-government initiatives. An ICT governance framework should contain the
following criteria:
• Promote and support collaborative approach to ICT;
• Increase cooperation between agencies, resolving hard issues;
• Inform debate at senior agency levels on achieving strategic outcomes;
• Recognise the opportunities to accommodate the extensive investment required
for integrated service delivery; and
• Enable agencies to continue to manage their own ICT strategy, development,
implementation and support.
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5.4.1 Task AE: Revisit ICT organisation and management issues
Revisit and obtain an oversight on the on-going ICT environment to understand the
how an ICT lifecycle is being planned, managed and delivered. Review deliverables
from the previous stages, if preferred. Understand the strategic priorities that reflect
government’s commitment to continue to embrace the opportunities offered by the
advancement of ICT.
Activity 1: Understand the agency’s culture
Activity 2: Determine its impact on the ICT strategies
Consider the following factors and how they affect the agency’s business and ICT
strategy:
• Characteristics of the agency;
• Agency’s strategic importance;
• Impact of ICT on the business of the agency;
• Agency’s high level ICT organisation; and
• Management issues
From the observations, identify the gaps that exist in the ICT leadership and
coordination that are required to lead and support successful ICT initiatives
implementations.
5.4.2 Task AF: Identify ICT services and skills required
Activity 1: Determine the required management, technical and functional skills and
services
Determine the required management, technical and functional skills and services to
support the target applications in business and industry knowledge, application specific
knowledge, system development, operation management, network management,
technical support and end user support. Review the processing distribution and
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locations where end-users of the target applications reside to identify where ICT
management skills and services must be provided. Therefore the characteristics of the
agency’s overall organisational structure and their implications must be considered.
5.4.3 Task AG: Develop ICT governance framework
Determine the approach to be used in defining ICT governance for the specific agency.
The framework is should support the entire life cycle of ICT. This lifecycle covers
three main functions that are, planning, managing and delivering.
Activity 1: Identify and resolve differences between current and target ICT
organisation/ management
Compare the current and target ICT management organisation to identify the
inconsistencies and gaps in the support for business processes by TA. Recognise the
planned use for new technologies in the target environment, view the similarities and
differences between the current and target environment and decide on how to leverage
on the corporate culture by weighing its strategic importance to be in the agency, both
for now and in the future.
For example, analyse the major inconsistencies on management issues, such as the
need for specialised skills to handle the TA, which would affect the ICT strategy.
Estimate the number of staffs by location and determine the means of acquiring
additional skills, considering such options as utilising and enhancing the available
skills within the current ICT environment. Identify and analyse alternative solutions.
Resolve the issues, through discussions with the Steering Committee and senior
management.
Activity 2: Identify necessary supporting organisation and management practices
Redesign the organisational structure and identify the distribution of ICT technical
support and management personnel throughout the agency, such as:
• Planning and management control;
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• Project management;
• System development;
• End user support;
• Technical support;
• Database administration;
• Operations management;
• Network management; and
• Security management
The distribution of the above must be considered in terms of the need to support the
target applications and in terms of on-going ICT staff retention and training.
Activity 3: Compile the ICT governance framework
Summarise the overall components for the ICT governance and highlight the key
observations and gaps identified in the existing ICT governance environment by
grouping them under three functions mentioned earlier.
Suggest the agency’s governance role according to the two following functions:
• Coordination Function – To provide the central drive and management of ICT
programmes; and
• Relationship Management Function – To manage relationship and communication
with internal and external parties.
An example of a coordination function is for the areas of planning and standards,
portfolio management and monitoring. An example of a relationship management
function is for user and vendor management. Some challenges that should be
considered when developing an ICT governance framework:
• Governance arrangements: where does shared infrastructure stop and the front
door of an agency starts?;
• Funding, investment and financial accountability for joint ventures;
• Measuring return on investment;
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• Existing legislation: E-Government tests the boundaries; and
• Overcoming departmental silo cultures.
Refine, as appropriate the strategies based on the knowledge gain during this phase.
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6. Stage 4: Develop Implementation Plan Based on the tasks and activities carried out in previous stages, this final stage defines
the major projects that are required to implement and execute the strategy selected and
schedule the costs and technology resources required. The objectives of this stage are
to:
• Develop a roadmap that highlights the major projects required to implement the
recommended strategy; and
• Estimate the investment required to implement the recommended ICT
environment
The major projects to be implemented are defined by milestones or phases of
development. They are identified after a review of their underlying technology and
ICT infrastructure management. The effort to implement each project is then
estimated.
6.1 What is an Implementation Plan?
An Implementation Plan can be defined as an action plan that determines how to
transform an agency’s strategy into reality. A more simplistic view is to sequence the
ICT opportunities defined earlier and perform necessary analysis to determine the
milestones, timeframe and resources required to implement them. A number of
business considerations should be addressed when developing an Implementation Plan,
such as:
• What is the business case for change?
• When and how will the benefits be realised?
• What is the complexity of the implementation and development?
• How will the project be managed?
• Are there any technical constraints?
• Does it require any complementary business or HR initiatives?
• What are the risks associated with the implementation?
• What are the resources required and how are we going to get it?
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An implementation roadmap represents the actions required to change opportunity into
realised benefits.
6.2 Phase 1: Develop Implementation Roadmap
The objectives of this phase are to:
• Identify primary development projects that determine the major milestones and
phases;
• Define the supporting projects which serve to implement the selected ICT strategy
including target applications, organisational unit and structure, policies,
procedures, equipment and system software;
• Identify strategy to move from current to target environment; and
• Develop the plan and implement the ICT strategy
6.2.1 Task AH: Develop and rank projects
Review the implementation efforts and identify those of primary importance, the
accomplishment of which can serve as major milestones for phases of implementation.
Identify these major efforts as the primary projects.
Activity 1: Identify projects, which define major milestones
Review the target application profiles and technology architecture. Develop a broad
timeline for major implementation. Projects are prioritised by their relationship to the
target environment. Individual projects are grouped to present a high-level overview of
each project's prerequisites, dependencies, time-frame, barriers, enablers, and resources
requirements.
Activity 2: Identify and resolve migration issues
Address major implementation issues that must be resolved to ensure successful
transition to the target environment. Example: Redefine the disposition of current
equipment configurations and applications during migration, the role of ICT
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management during migration and the policies and procedures for procurement of
staff, equipment, software, etc.
Activity 3: Identify project barriers and enablers
Identify the barriers and enablers especially the ones that involve stakeholders and
determine their relevance for each project.
Activity 4: Define project dependencies
Review the primary projects and identify possible dependencies between projects such
as:
• Implementation date;
• Project date;
• Test start date;
• Prototyping start date; and
• Development start date.
Activity 5: Rank the project
Perform sequencing of projects based on ranking of the applications and precedence
relationship with other projects.
6.2.2 Task AI: Prepare for transition strategy
A transition strategy is based on a review of the implementation approaches and
implementation sequences developed for the target applications. Assess the impact of
the strategy on the project efforts, including the additional resources and skills
required. Use the following discussion points to determine how the system transition
strategy can fit into and support the selected implementation approaches:
• What are the top priority projects?
• What are the project dependencies?
• What is required to provide on-going operational support of needed business
systems?
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• Are interfaces between legacy systems and target systems in development
required during the transition?
• What strategy is appropriate to ensure the successful co-existence of current and
target environment components?
• What are the implications of attempts in the target environment design to
leverage legacy systems? (These implications may vary depending on whether
the legacy system is to be migrated, enhanced, retired, or left unchanged).
Activity 1: Evaluate and select transition approach
Evaluate and select the following transition approach:
• Enterprise-wide simultaneous cutover to target environment elements;
• Pilot implementations to test and refine target environment elements;
• Phased implementation of target environment elements over time;
• Direct, one-time implementation;
• Parallel operation of both the existing systems and the proposed systems for a
period of time;
• Implementation of the proposed systems at a pilot location; and
• Staged implementation, such as by location, division, department, company,
store, or product.
Activity 2: Agree on transition approach
Facilitate a discussion to select and reach consensus on a transition approach that
addresses each of the following, as applicable:
• Overall approach (i.e., cutover, pilot, phased, or a combination);
• Continuation of day-to-day work in the current environment during cutover
preparation, pilot, and/or phased transition activities;
• Resource availability;
• Training;
• Integration and sequencing of transition activities;
• Design and implementation of transitional organisational structures, systems,
and/or facilities as stopgap measures during the transition (necessary when the
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required change exceeds the agency’s capacity for adjusting to and accepting
change);
• Transitional funding mechanisms and budgeting procedures;
• Start and end dates; and
• Linkage of transition approach to the business case for change.
6.2.3 Task AJ: Formulate implementation strategy
Coordinate with application teams to complete the implementation strategy for each
ICT environment, considering items such as:
• Which infrastructure components (e.g., network, servers, mainframe regions,
database instances) will be included the particular environments? Are there
opportunities to consolidate functions on the same components?
• What is the impact of network availability and performance (e.g., service levels)
on daily business operations (e.g., hours of operation, transaction volumes)?
• How will applications and data be migrated between the environments?
• How will environments be affected by sharing infrastructure components?
• Which environments can and should exist/operate in parallel, and which ones
must maintain isolation?
• How will infrastructure components such as servers, mass storage, and
mainframe regions transition between environments through the progression of
the project?
• How will the new ICT environments exist with and/or transition from any
existing ICT environments?
• What specific availability or other service level requirements exist for each
proposed environment?
• How flexible will the environments be to changes in the overall project scope, or
changes in the overall project implementation strategy?
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These environment implementation considerations directly impact the schedule and
cost of the infrastructure. Incorporate within the implementation schedule the
dependencies these considerations imply.
Determine the implementation strategy for each environment. Consider the life span of
these environments if they are to be combined with or expanded into other
environments. Also consider whether the environments are to continue once the system
has commenced production. For those environments that will cease to exist, indicate
how and when this will be affected.
Activity 1: Determine the principal for implementation
Define the adopted strategy to implement the ICT strategic plan by:
• Determining all of the tasks and work elements that are necessary to realise the
new processes and ways of working, and their interactions and interdependencies;
• Determining the delivery milestones associated with each task and work element;
and
• Identifying the resources required for implementation and the associated costs,
skills required, people who will be used, when they will be used.
Activity 2: Estimate implementation effort and duration
Consider the implementation approach and nature of the project while estimating the
effort and duration required for implementation. Estimate the start date and end date,
and calculate the duration (in days) required to complete each project based on an
understanding of the project priorities, change action dependencies, resource
requirements/availability, and skill requirements/availability.
Activity 3: Determine the implementation sequence and recommended ICT
environment
Prepare time-phased schedules for the overall project implementation roadmap.
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6.3 Phase 2: Estimate Financial Implications
The purpose of this phase is to develop estimates for implementation of the
recommendations. As any estimate will be based on some degree of assumption, it is
important that all these assumptions are documented and contingency included are
allowed for variance in the assumptions.
6.3.1 Task AK: Estimate project costing
Costs are easier to identify than benefits in terms of their classification (e.g.,
development costs and operating costs). However, the quantification of each category
of costs can be somewhat more difficult. The following factors should be addressed
before assessing the costs of a project:
• Estimating guidelines: If the agency has particular cost estimating guidelines or
metrics, use of these should be considered; they should of course be reviewed for
completeness and relevance before usage;
• Source of costs: It is preferable to use "real" sources for costs rather than using
estimates;
• Uncertainty: In many cases there will be uncertainty in cost estimation. Use cost
ranges to identify uncertainty and quote maximum cost figures in headline or
management summaries;
• Sensitivity analysis: Establish the key cost drivers (the parameters which lead to
significant overall cost differences) and complete sensitivity analysis to
determine cost range figures; and
• The "do nothing" option: Ensure that the baseline (or "do nothing") option is
included in costing alternative courses of action (e.g., the costs of lost market
share if nothing is done). Also ensure that the full costs of the baseline option are
taken into consideration (e.g., maintenance and repair charges and the effects of
downtime as a result of failure).
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Activity 1: Identify project which cost can be estimated
Determine project cost estimates based on the business areas, applications, ICT
infrastructure components, production site types, and the implementation and support
strategies determined in the previous steps.
This is an important part of finalising the project scope because, if the costs are more
substantial than expected, it may be necessary to remove certain project items
(infrastructure or application) from scope or look for other cost reduction options.
Activity 2: Develop high-level requirements and project costing estimation
Develop a high-level requirement of a project, considering all major costs associated
such as hardware, software (both system software and application software) and data
resources and estimate the project costing for every item.
Activity 4: Summarise overall financial cost
Summarise overall financial cost of implementation based on the resource assignments
and schedule and consider the relevance of the following cost categories:
• Workforce adjustment;
• Personnel;
• Materials and equipment;
• Facilities;
• Marketing; and
• Training
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7. Possible Table of Content for ISP Report
As outlined earlier, the two principle deliverables of the methodology are:
• An ICT Strategy which consists of a framework or a set of guidelines for the
development and use of ICT; and
• An ICT Strategy Implementation Plan to implement the strategy.
In addition to describing the processes involved in the development of ISPs (Sections
2-6), we have also outlined below a possible table of content for an ISP report for
reference purposes.
Suggested Topics
Remarks
Introduction
This section provides an overview of the document that includes items such as purpose of document, the target audience, version control, data gathering mechanism and interview list.
Current Business Environment
This section describes an understanding of the agency’s background and its business strategy. Some of the topics that can be included here are agency’s vision, mission, corporate objectives, business strategies, core businesses, client charter, main business activities, organisational structure and main functions, organisation value chain, major processes, roles and responsibilities, relationships with external parties/agencies, local or overseas leading practices, as well as existing ISP (if any). This section should also include a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses and business opportunities of the agency’s business environment.
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Suggested Topics
Remarks
Current ICT Environment
This section outlines an understanding of the agency’s ICT environment. Some of the topics that can be included here are the agency’s ICT readiness and potential in supporting the new ICT initiatives and progress of existing initiatives. In addition to the above, an ICT assessment on the ICT usage and effectiveness involving identifying existing applications, hardware, network, interfaces and other technology components that exist in the ICT environment systems such as strategy, delivery, technology and people (users and ICT management). The strengths and weaknesses (and action steps to maintain, enhance, replace, etc) of the agency’s ICT environment for the components highlighted above should also be included.
ICT Opportunities
At the conclusion of the Business and ICT Environment assessments, a list of possible new applications and their processing requirements or functionalities that will have strategic impact on the current ICT environment can be identified. These are opportunities that can be leverage of for strategic advantage through the use of ICT. The list of possible opportunities will then need to prioritised using a set of criteria. This section should also indicate ICT opportunities according to their priorities.
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Suggested Topics
Remarks
Develop ICT Strategy Upon the identification and prioritisation of the ICT opportunities, descriptions of the opportunities will need to be developed to transform the opportunities into target applications. In describing the target applications, it would also be useful to leverage of work done during the technology or leading practices scan. Based on these target applications, the ICT strategy covering target applications, technology architecture, network infrastructure, interfaces, ICT governance, implementation / migration / realignment options, as well as profile of the ICT management organisation will also need to be agreed and documented.
Develop implementation plan This section will lay down the roadmap for the implementation of the prioritised applications. High-level cost estimates of the initiatives identified will also need to be included here.
Standards, Policies and Guidelines – ICT Strategic Plan Guideline
File name: ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guideline Version 1.0 Page 71 of 71 Date 17/08/2003
8. Abbreviations and Acronyms
List of abbreviations and acronyms used in this Guide for easy reference.
Abbreviations and Acronyms used in ICT Strategic Plan Guide CEO Chief Executive Officer
CIO Chief Information Officer CSF Critical Success Factor
DLL Dynamic Link Library EPU Economic Planning Unit
HR Human Resource
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IS Information Systems IT Information Technology
JCL Job Control Language LAN Local Area Network
MAMPU Malaysian Administrative Modernisation & Management Planning Unit
TA Target Applications Y2K Year 2000
n/a not applicable