Information Management in the Government of Canada: The Business Problem Assessment

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Complete text
• Next page

The IM Program Transformation Initiative

Although work has been focused at many areas of information management, no overarching design exists that brings the many solutions to IM problems together and no master plan coordinates the way forward across the many organizations that must participate. A piecemeal approach to solving IM problems has been largely ineffective. The Government of Canada needs one coherent, explicit, broadly supported Information Management capability. Without this, over time, the government will face steadily greater difficulty meeting its policy commitments to Canadians for the responsible stewardship of their information. Barriers to collaboration, program alignment and service integration will only become more entrenched, undermining the government’s ability to adapt to change and achieve public outcomes.  Major transformation initiatives, under extreme pressure to deliver results, will be left to build their own particular solutions to their IM problems.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), in cooperation with Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) and Library and Archives of Canada (LAC), is leading the GC IM Program Transformation Initiative to guide the creation of next-generation IM services for the Government of Canada.

The outcomes of the IM Program Transformation Initiative will be better IM outcomes for the GC:

• Better availability of information for programs to deliver services, collaborate, manage themselves and  trace processes and decisions;
• Better preservation and safeguarding of programs’ information;
• Information and supporting processes that are better structured to support service integration;
• Information and supporting processes that are better structured to promote the GC’s agility, uphold clients’ rights, ensure the integrity of the GC record, and support the GC in operating as an enterprise; and
• An IM Program that is structured to operate effectively throughout the GC.

Any business under transformation has activities underway in five streams:

• Governance;
• Strategic Design & Planning;
• Alignment;
• Transition; and
• Operations.

Indeed, everything going on in the business can be located in one of these five streams.

It is the coordinated action of Governance, Strategic Design and Planning (SD&P), Alignment and Transition streams that ensures that a target state for the IM Program emerges over time, through the gradual implementation and strategic alignment of changes. Activities in these four streams make up the GC IM Program Transformation Initiative. They provide an overarching framework for implementing and aligning change.

Each of the streams is described below.

Governance

The Information Management Committee (IMC) acts as the governing body for the initiative. The IMC supports the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Canada, who has overall accountability for IM in the GC. The IMC will recommend approval of strategic design and planning deliverables and of alignment recommendations to the CIO and provide guidance to the IM Program Transformation Initiative. Final authority for all decisions rests with the CIO.

A Steering Committee, composed of a small number of IMC members, provides guidance to the GC IM Program Transformation Initiative at a more detailed level and advises the initiative in how best to engage IMC and the CIO.

As the IM Program Transformation Initiative gains momentum and definition, additional governance structures will be required to better coordinate project work in the Transition stream.

Strategic Design and Planning (SD&P)

The IM Program Transformation Initiative uses the BTEP methodology for SD&P. Deliverables from this stream will be developed collaboratively by stakeholders, endorsed by IMC and approved by the CIO. They will then be used as the basis for aligning current projects and initiating new projects in the Transition stream. Results of detailed project work in the Transition stream and feedback from Operations as it is gradually transformed, are harvested back into the SD&P stream to inform subsequent designs and plans.

This stream proceeds cyclically through five phases: Vision; Strategy; Design; Business Case; and Plan. A sixth phase—Start Up—is added at the beginning of the cycle only when an SD&P process is being initiated for the first time. Currently, the initiative is nearing the completion of the Vision Phase of the SD&P stream. This deliverable, the Business Problem Assessment, is one of the phase’s two primary deliverables.

It is planned that a full cycle of collaborative SD&P will be completed by the end of the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

Alignment

The Alignment stream assesses the alignment of projects in the Transition stream to the emerging strategic context provided by the SD&P stream. It will deliver alignment assessments to Governance recommending action on projects that require modification to support the emerging strategic context, both those that pre-dated the SD&P and those initiated from it.

Transition

The Transition stream contains all projects that act to change IM in the GC, including those that have begun without the benefit of the overarching strategic design and plan and those that have been initiated because of it. Transition projects impact the fifth stream: Operations.

Operations

Activities in the Operations stream represent the steady state of the business. As projects in the Transition stream come to fruition they realize changes in the Operations stream.

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Complete text
• Next page