Guidelines for. ICT Strategic Planning in Parliaments

Transcription

1 Guidelines for ICT Strategic Planning in Parliaments April 2010

2 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS... 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 4 HOW TO DEVELOP A STRATEGY...5 PREREQUISITES... 5 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING A STRATEGY DOCUMENT...6 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES... 7 STEP 1: THE PRESENT: WHERE ARE WE ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATE...8 INTRODUCTION... 8 GATHERING INFORMATION... 9 STRUCTURING THE GATHERED INFORMATION...13 SWOT ANALYSIS ADDITIONAL RESOURCES STEP 2: THE FUTURE: WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO ENVISIONED STATE AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICES...27 THE VISIONING PROCESS...27 THE VISIONING MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP...28 GOALS SUCCESSFUL VISION IS A SHARED VISION...31 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES STEP 3 THE CHALLENGES: WHAT DO WE NEED AND WHAT IS THE GAP...32 ICT ADDITIONAL RESOURCES STEP 4 THE STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: HOW DO WE GET THERE, DEVELOPING THE PLAN OF ACTIONS...37 INTRODUCTION DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN FOR ICT...38 REVIEW ADDITIONAL RESOURCES THE STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN: IMPLEMENTATION & EVALUATION...52 THE CYCLE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING...52 IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGY EVALUATION: STRATEGY MID TERM REVIEW...56 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ANNEXES ANNEX 1: OUTLINE OF STRATEGY DOCUMENT...61 ANNEX 2: PROJECT EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE...63 ANNEX: STEPS 1 4: OUTLINE OF STRATEGY DOCUMENT...67 ANNEX: STEP 1 MAPPING SERVICES, PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS...69 ANNEX: STEP 1 SWOT ANALYSIS...70 ANNEX: STEP 3 FIT/GAP ANALYSIS AND CHALLENGES...71

3 ANNEX : STEP 4 FORMULATING ACTIONS AND THE ACTION PLAN FOR ICT...72 ANNEX: EVALUATION & MID TERM REVIEW...74

4 Executive Summary The Guidelines on Strategic Planning in Parliament are intended to strengthen and support the strategic planning discipline in parliaments by providing insights into what strategic planning is, why it is critical, and how it can be applied in the parliamentary context. The Guidelines are aimed at, on the one hand, the political and administrative leadership of parliaments to guide them in facilitating and creating a conducive environment for the strategic planning; this audience will be especially interested in why certain conditions need to be met and steps need to be taken and, on the other hand, at senior parliamentary staff and officials who will be tasked with among others, authoring parliamentary strategy documents and implementing the strategic plans. They will be especially concerned with how to carry out the specific steps of strategic planning to ensure realistic, feasible yet ambitious plans. The Guidelines place strategic planning within a context of institutional areas that are common to most modern day parliaments around the world, including: Constitutional Functions of the Parliament; Communication and Information Dissemination; Parliamentary Operations; Human Resources; and Information Technology Management. These areas are central within parliaments for carrying out their constitutional mandate and responsibilities. In these Guidelines the strategic planning process through examples focusing on Communication & Information Dissemination and Information Technology Management. The Guidelines distinguish a series of steps within the strategic planning process, that lead to a structured gathering of facts, information, analysis and production of critical inputs for the next steps and sub steps. These steps are: Step 1: The present: Where are we, analysis of the current state; Step 2: The future: Where do we want to go, envisioned state and choices; Step 3: The challenges: What do we need, the gap analysis; Step 4: The strategy: How do we get there, the plan of actions. Step 1 focuses on information gathering in order to understand the current context and describes the parliamentary organization, institutional mandates and responsibilities, the parliament's institutional areas, services, processes and existing support systems, concluded by brief analysis of the internal and external environment and the need for the strategy. Step 2 captures the long term view of key stakeholders on the future direction of the parliament, in terms of their vision, strategic goals and objectives for services, processes and systems that are required to support the institutional areas and so to eventually to create a better parliament, reflecting its core values, mandates and responsibilities. Steps 3 and 4 identify the gaps and challenges between the current state and the future vision, and formulate strategic recommendations and action plans. Accompanying the description of each step, are examples and templates to demonstrate when and how to support the information gathering and analysis tasks. For clarity, these can be found in the Appendix of this document. Finally the Guidelines provide information, references and links on best practices, methods and factors that should be taken into consideration during the preparation and actual implementation of the strategy through its various action plans, including methods for conducting evaluation and reviews.

5 How to develop a strategy Prerequisites Making changes take place inside parliament as a result of the strategic plan during the available timespan should not be regarded as a straightforward undertaking. People involved at the different levels in the organization (stakeholders) are in some way likely to be impacted: their work patterns might change, their roles, responsibilities and working relations alter, all for the sake of improving the functioning and operations within the parliament s institutional areas. Organizational change of this kind is not just about the introduction of new processes and tools, including technology. To be successful it needs the full support and commitment of all stakeholders and to achieve this the parliament needs to institute a change management process. Change management Any form of organizational change will be marked by support within some parts of the organization, and resistance and reluctance in others. In particular, during the introduction of new processes and tools internal factions may be created and even generational divides exposed. Change may be seen both as positive and negative, implying the creation of something new on the one hand and the discontinuity of familiar systems, relationships and arrangements on the other. Inevitably some staff will be more receptive to the changes with others trying to maintain the status quo as long as possible. The key to gaining greater support within the parliamentary organization in order to successfully implement change is for the parliamentary and administrative leadership to acknowledge all the concerns and challenges along the way, at all levels and responding constructively through change management. In the broadest sense this involves doing everything required to facilitate parts of the organization to make the switch from doing things the old way to doing things the new way, including being open to comments, criticism, feedback and input from (even lower ranked!) stakeholders. Commitment of the leadership Organizational and process change, as a result of the new strategy, should be led and managed at the highest political and administrative level of Parliament. How this happens in practice may vary by parliament. In any case it seems appropriate that a central body or platform is established within the parliament to be in charge of the strategic planning processes, that can also pro actively engage with all relevant stakeholders. As such, one suggestion is (if not already in place in some form or shape) that a Standing Committee be established that would be in charge of the strategic planning process and commission the development of the strategy document, including assigning its authors and communicating to key stakeholders how they can support the authors in their work. Not only would such a Standing Committee lend its support to the strategy development process, but it would also play an important role in facilitating the decision making process at the macro level where the political and administrative leadership of the parliament are present, and post strategy implementation overseeing the monitoring and evaluation of the process. At the micro level, in different parts of the parliamentary organization, this Standing Committee

6 would be able to manage change by involving stakeholders and garnering support through: Coordinating communication and information dissemination to key stakeholders; Hosting inclusive workshops with staff to inform about the strategic planning process and consult with them about upcoming changes; Providing sufficient training support during the strategy implementation phase, when new services, processes and innovations are introduced; Allowing staff to give their inputs during strategy evaluation phases. Steps for developing a strategy document Below an overview is provided of the required steps for developing a parliamentary strategy document; each step will be discussed in the following four chapters of these Guidelines. Step 1: The present: Where are we, analysis of the current state Parliaments values, mandates and responsibilities Parliament's institutional areas Services Processes Enabling environment Analysis of internal and external environment Step 2: The future: Where do we want to go, envisioned state and choices Vision for the parliament Vision for the parliament's institutional areas Strategic goals and objectives for services, processes and systems Technical options Long term assumptions and conditions Step 3: The challenges: What do we need, the gap analysis Gap analysis Identification of challenges and opportunities Constraints Step 4: The strategy: How do we get there, the plan of actions Addressing the challenges Strategic recommendations Actions Priorities & interdependencies? Roadmap of specific activities with expected outcomes Additional resources Developing Your Strategic Plan [Online] Available from:

7 Startegic Planning a Ten Step Guide [Online] Available from: eps.pdf Planning for Change and Technology [Online] Available from: Communication Strategy for Success skills 4confidence.com/communication strategy.html

8 STEP 1: The present: where are we analysis of the current state Introduction This chapter presents methods for gathering and presenting information to describe how the parliament currently fulfils its constitutional mandate and responsibilities. To do this we begin by identifying a set of institutional areas that are strategic to most parliaments around the world i.e. through which the parliament's constitutional mandate and responsibilities are carried out. These areas are (explained in detail in Box 1): Constitutional Functions of the Parliament; Communication and Information Dissemination; Parliamentary Operations; Human Resources; Information Technology Management Area 1: Constitutional Functions of the Parliament Most parliaments are entrusted by the constitution with the core functions of representation, legislation and oversight of the Executive: Representation: an elected parliament that is socially and politically representative, and committed to equal opportunities for its members so that they can carry out their mandates. Legislation: Parliament is responsible for approving new laws (legislation). The government introduces most plans for new laws, or changes to existing laws but they may also originate from MP's, or even a member of the public or private group. Before they can become law, representatives must debate and vote on the proposals. Oversight: Parliament is there to examine and oversee the work of the government. The principal methods are questioning government ministers, debating and the investigative work of committees. The government can publicly respond to explain and justify policies and decisions. Area 2: Communication and Information Dissemination Effective communication, promoting the free flow of ideas and access to information is an integral part of Parliament s mandate ensuring that in addition to the general public, key stakeholders are also kept informed about the parliament s work through multiple communication channels. Aside from the regular media coverage and parliament s own production of civic education materials, and press releases, it may also opt to publish its own official journal, produce information publications such as newsletters and own TV and radio information programs, and host a Parliamentary website, with regularly updated and accessible content. This might facilitate dissemination of official documents, such as bills, laws, resolutions, standing committee reports and plenary and committee agendas, minutes of proceedings of the plenary session as well as minutes and reports of proceedings of committee meetings. In this regard information management systems for filing and archiving documents in different formats in collaboration with Parliamentary libraries may be required. Area 3: Parliamentary Operations Predictable and orderly performance of day to day operations is critical to the effectiveness of any Parliament. However, should the Parliament not work within frameworks of calendars and work planning prepared in advance, but instead rely on ad hoc preparation of its agenda on week to week basis, this may seriously constrain the parliament's ability to discharge its duties allocating time comprehensively for all its important plenary and non plenary activities. Key in establishing efficiently and well functioning operations is a strong and well equipped Speaker's Office that is integrated well into the Parliamentary Administration and Services.

9 Area 4: Human Resources A well recruited, highly trained, motivated and professional staff is fundamental to building a robust parliament. Given the availability of professionally trained human resources, the Parliament will need to take a decidedly long term view in building up its human resource base. Staff inadequacy in a parliament may be compounded by other constraints such as the lack of detailed job descriptions, performance evaluations, and systematic training and capacity development plans. Area 5: Information Technology Management In many parliaments the availability of higher quality information and greater access to parliamentary documents and activities is at a level that is unsatisfactory for both MP's and citizens. The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have proven to be a very effective way to manage and disseminate information and can provide the tools and services to positively impact the internal organization and work processes and the delivery of information to both MP and citizens. As in any organisational change, the adoption of new technologies bring about the introduction of organizational and process change required by the integration of technologies. Box 1: Five institutional areas that are strategic to the parliament These institutional areas, in particular Communication & Information Dissemination and Information Technology Management, are the focus of the strategic planning steps in these Guidelines. They should be considered as the departure point for all information gathering, structuring, analysis and formulation of solutions and recommendation. In the remainder of this document they are referred to as institutional areas or simply area. During the strategic planning process, within each area the main services and processes should be identified and described, as well as the relevant stakeholders; these include the owners of services and processes (such as departments, offices, units or sections of parliament) and the clients such as MP's, parliamentary staff, citizens etc. By looking at the parliament from the perspective of these areas in how it exercises its constitutional mandate and carries out its roles and responsibilities, one can determine the entire set of services and processes that make such an area operational. For example in the area of communication and information dissemination the existing needs can be determined and their efficiency and effectiveness assessed. Once determined the level of ICT (if relevant) in support of these services and processes can be determined, and an assessment can be made of their effectiveness and efficiency. Gathering information In Box 1Box 2 an overview is given of the type of information that needs to be gathered to gain an understanding of the context of the institutional areas. Please note that these questions may not always pertain to the context of a particular parliament; each parliament is different in how the institutional areas are operationalized in terms of organization (departments, sections, units etc), roles, responsibilities, services, processes etc. The list of questions may seem very extensive but it should be taken into account that the strategy document may also be shared with non parliamentary readers e.g. external parties such as the international donor community and the public, who may not have prior knowledge of the parliament. Moreover organizational change related decisions and initiatives in parliaments often take place in a

10 complex political and administrative environment, hence providing more description of the context is certainly valuable. Parliamentary roles and responsibilities What are the legal/constitutional roles and responsibilities of each chamber? How does each chamber fulfil its roles and responsibilities? What is the composition of the national parliament? What is the budget and staffing of the parliament? What are the Presiding Officer s powers and prerogatives? What is the role of committees and commissions? What are the duties and functions of members? How are members elected? What are the duties and functions of the Secretariat of Parliament? What mechanisms does parliament use to make it more accessible and transparent? Members What are the roles and responsibilities of members? What are their duties and activities? What methods, mechanisms and tools are used to communicate with them? What information do they have access to, in what format and how frequently? What information do they produce, in what format, how do they disseminate it and how frequently? How do they use ICT? Citizens What methods are used to communicate with citizens? What information do they have access to, in what format and how frequently? What methods and mechanisms are available for citizens to express their views and communicate with Parliament, contributing and provide input to the legislative process? Websites Other media examples: radio, TV, video, web cast Plenary What is the mandate and terms of reference of the plenary? What are the primary activities of the plenary? How can citizens gain access to proceedings in the plenary? Which communication channels can be used for information dissemination? How is ICT used in plenary? What documentation and information is produced by the plenary? What is its purpose? Who produces it? How is it produced? Who uses it? How is it communicated or disseminated? Core Processes and activities Legislation What is the legislative process, including the relationship among the legislature s constituent bodies and between the legislature and the government and other national and sub national bodies? What information and documentation is produced during the legislative process? What is its purpose? Who produces it?

11 How is it produced? Who uses it? How is it communicated or disseminated? Oversight What is the oversight process, including the responsibilities and activities of the bodies responsible for conducting oversight of the government What information and documentation is produced during the oversight process? What is its purpose? Who produces it? How is it produced? Who uses it? How is it communicated or disseminated? Budget What the responsibilities and processes of parliament for the national budget and public financing? How can parliament access supporting documentation to support the budget and public finance processes in between budget sessions? What information and documentation is produced during these processes? What is its purpose? Who produces it? How is it produced? Who uses it? How is it communicated or disseminated? Supporting processes and activities Non plenary bodies What is the mandate and terms of reference of committees, commissions, and other official groups? What are their primary activities? How are the proceedings and meeting minutes from these groups documented? How are the proceedings and meeting minutes from these groups disseminated? How do they use ICT? What information and documentation is produced by these groups? What is its purpose? Who produces it? How is it produced? Who uses it? How is it communicated or disseminated? Library and research services Describe the role, responsibilities, and activities of the library and research group What services are provided? How do they use ICT? General & Administrative services HR Finance Publishing Building management etc. Box 2: Sample questions for better understanding the parliamentary institutional areas, the services and processes within, and the supporting ICT environment

12 Methods and techniques Desk research First and foremost, basic information on all the topics listed in Box 2 could be retrieved through desk research, simply by starting in the parliament s or national library, where existing documentation including parliamentary resolutions on institutional functions and procedures could be found. In addition other documentation such as studies and reports on the parliament can be consulted to construct a first picture of the parliament, its respective bodies and organs, functions and services. Interviews Once the desk research sources are exhausted the authors should proceed with follow up information gathering through interviews with, for example representatives of different departments, offices, units etc. to learn more about existing services and processes within each institutional areas, and where applicable the existing level of ICT. Sometimes witnessing something is much more effective than being explained with words and text. As such in gaining a deeper understanding it is extremely useful for the authors to see services being delivered or witness processes and supporting ICT systems in action. Authors should thus try to benefit from opportunities to be guided around in departments or offices to actually see for example how legislation is drafted using a Legislative Information System or with simple Office software ; or how research briefs are produced and stored using an Electronic Archiving System. The use of questionnaires When gathering information on specific services and processes Box 2it is appropriate to establish a consistent baseline for each area. To ensure such consistency a standardized questionnaire (Box 3) may be used. INSTITUTIONAL AREA:... Box 1 Services What services are being offered within this area? Who are the clients of per service? What are the main products per service? What information is collated abut the services in this area? How is this information communicated to the relevant stakeholders? Who is responsible for disseminating this information? What media are used for communicating information? How frequently is this information produced and disseminated? Processes How are these products produced (through which processes)? Actors Who is currently responsible for these services, processes, products? Technology Is ICT being used to support processes? To what extent? What systems exist for which processes? Give a simple description of the available systems? ICT services & support Enabling ICT environment Box 3: Questionnaire for gathering information on services, processes, systems by area

13 Structuring the gathered information As the information is being gathered the writing process can start. This is an important phase because while writing, it will become clear what pieces of information are still missing and need to be collected. In Box 4 a sample index is provided of the chapters of the strategy document. Upon completion of Step 1 here described PART I: Current Situation of the strategy document needs to be produced. PART I: CURRENT SITUATION Parliament institutional context Mandate & Responsibilities institutional areas General organizational structure by area (organogram) Services, processes & systems <AREA> Services Processes Communication and information dissemination Enabling (ICT) environment <AREA>.. <AREA>.. <AREA>.. ICT services & support in parliament ICT department Services Roles and responsibility Governance, policies and standards ICT Systems & Infrastructure Communication services & support in parliament Communications department Services Roles and responsibility Governance, policies and standards ICT Systems & Infrastructure Box 44: Sample index: Current Situation The desired content for PART I (see Box 4) the three sections: Parliamentary Institutional Context; Services, Processes and Systems; and ICT Services & Support in Parliament, are further elaborated below. Box 4

14 Box 2Box 1 Section: Parliamentary institutional context Institutional areas & organization In describing the parliamentary institutional and organizational context it best to depart from the parliamentary institutional areas (see Box 1) The description of the organizational structure surrounding each area should focus on the different bodies in relation to these areas i.e. what roles and responsibilities do the different bodies have and how to they contribute to their operationalization. All should be written with a bird eye's view: clear and concise with presenting the relevant details so that readers can quickly get an understanding of the organizational structure. Per unit, section or body a maximum of 2 paragraphs or ½ page must be dedicated. As parliaments are complex organizations the use of visuals such as organograms and organizational schemas clarifying hierarchies are highly recommended. Sometimes it may also be necessary to briefly state something about the physical environment and location of departments and offices as it may be relevant to the eventual formulation of action plans in step 4. An example of this may be that some of the parliament's offices are temporarily housed elsewhere due to renovation or construction and this could be enough to impact the planning of certain activities. Section: services, processes & systems For each institutional area an overview should be provided of: how area specific services are currently performed; who are the stakeholders (clients and owners of these services i.e. departments, offices etc); what information is produced by the institutional area in question and how frequently? how it is information disseminated and archived? how is it information communicated to key stakeholders, using which media? what criteria apply in the delivery of these services (e.g. Hansard production within one day or two hours after parliamentary proceedings); the processes through which these services are delivered; (and where relevant) what ICT tools are used for supporting the processes. Producing descriptions per area of how services, processes and systems are arranged and interact can be supported process mapping, that is a way to systematically gather facts present them in a way to maintain a link between services, processes and systems. This linking ensures that systems are always described in relation to processes, and processes described in relation to services. The main benefit of producing process maps (see Example 1) is that in the remainder of the strategic planning process they can serve as reference for discussion and analysis. In addition these maps can also provide a clear and consistent overview of where and to what extend ICT may be integrated into the institutional areas, and as such may also reveal issues or challenges i.e. overlapping services and processes within areas, or a duplication of ICT systems across different areas could be revealed. For further details on how to conduct a process mapping exercise, and see what type of templates can be used please see Example 1 and Template 1.

15 Example of mapping exercise To clarify the mapping process let us consider the following example: Within the area of Constitutional Functions Legislation, exists the sub area Parliamentary Research where specialized disciplines (stakeholders) offer the following services: Policy analysis Research information dissemination Research collection management The first two services are provided to clients such as MP's, Committees and the Public, while the research management collection service is more oriented to internal users. Looking closer at the provision of Policy analysis, the table shows that it is carried out through two main processes: Production of on demand scientific research & information; Production of research bulletin The former is research upon request by individual MP's and Committees while for the latter bulletins are produced on a programmatic basis throughout the year for all MP's. As for the supporting ICT systems: For on demand research the PRD staff need to use office productivity tools to produce highquality reports. For additional research staff make use of internet access to conduct on line searches and consult on line research databases. E mail is also used to interact with the MP in question and electronically deliver the research reports to him/her. Once the reports are finished they are archived using the digital repository and reports are also published on the parliaments Intranet portal that is based on a content management platform. To give more control and consistency over the information gathering and structuring process, especially when looking at areas rich with technology the following two step method can be used explained in Table 1 and Table 2 through the example above: Area: Constitutional function Legislating Product or Client(s) Process Service Sub Area: Parliamentary Research Provision of Policy Analysis Dissemination of Research Information MP's, Committees MP's, Committees MP's, Committees Public Production of on demand scientific research & information Production of Research Bulletins.. Publication of research information through research papers.. Publication of research information on Research Dept. public website Process Owner <Name Dept. or Office>.. MP's, Committees Publication of research information on intranet portals.. Management of Research n/a (internal) Systematization of legal normative analysis.. Cataloguing of parliamentary research resources..

16 Area: Constitutional function Legislating Collection Acquisition of parliamentary research resources.. Sub Area: Library Table 1: Overview of service delivery processes in ICT System and the communication and information dissemination area In the first step (Table 1) for each area and sub area the services, clients and processes are identified, and in the second step (Table 2) the existing enabling ICT systems are mapped. Please note that to carry out the mapping of systems with the processes, table 1 is simply expanded on the right hand side with columns listing the systems. Area: Constitutional function Legislating Video Management System Digital Repository Content Management System Internet Access E mail Office productivity tools Process owner Process Client(s) Product or Service Sub Area: Parliamentary Research Provision of Policy Analysis MP's, Committees Production of on demand scientific research & information Dept. X X X MP's Production of Research Bulletins Dept. X X X X Dissemination of Research Information MP's, Committees Public Publication of research information on Intranet portal Publication of research information on Research Dept. public website Office of.. X X Office of.. X X Managem ent of Research Collection n/a (internal) Systematization of legal normative analysis Cataloguing of parliamentary research resources Acquisition of parliamentary research resources X X X X X Table 2: Mapping of ICT systems and applications on parliamentary research processes Using the same style of writing, with the same level of detail and according to the structure area > service > process > system information could be gathered and structured for the other areas.

17 Section: ICT Services in Parliament While the previous two sections Box 2dealt with where and to what extent ICT systems are part of processes and services within the institutional areas, this section deals with describing the necessary ICT services to support the mentioned ICT systems within the institutional areas operational. Services, Roles & Responsibilities First it is important to understand what range of ICT services are currently available within the parliament. As such information should be collected to determine the parliament's ability to: develop and manage its own ICT infrastructure (e.g. data centre, networks and cabling); procure, manage and maintain the hardware inventory (e.g PCs, printers, servers etc); manage systems administration & data management tasks; support end users, provide help desk services including training; initiate and manage end to end ICT system implementation projects. This information is particularly relevant for Steps 2 and 4 of the strategic planning process, where respectively strategic objectives are set and strategic recommendations formulated, that will in some cases include ICT. And in order to do this it is best to depart from the factual situation within the parliament (the current reality), including the existing available ICT services, support, capabilities, experience and resources. Some parliaments may score high on all the above listed abilities while others may score less high. Depending on an assessment of these abilities, realistic objectives and solutions can be formulated. A note on gathering this type of information: it is unlikely to uncover this information through desk research in libraries; instead it will require several Q&A sessions with the Head of the ICT department, office or unit and/or other senior ICT staff. Questions that may be asked are listed in Box 5. Is there an ICT department or office that serves the rest of the parliament? How is this department organized? What structure of roles and responsibilities are there? What kind of teams operate providing what type of ICT services? Does the ICT department exclusively work with in house staff or also with outsourced staff and to what extend? ICT Governance For setting strategic objectives and making strategic recommendations it is also crucial to know how the development of ICT is governed, planned and managed within the parliament. Questions that need answering in this regard are listed in Box 6. Again gathering this type of information is relevant as it will reveal more about the maturity of ICT operations and governance within the parliament, and the existence of relevant mechanisms. Do parliamentary departments or offices have their own ICT budgets for developing and maintaining their systems, or are all ICT systems developed and maintained centrally? What is the role and responsibility of the ICT Committee for Planning and Development (if existing) within this ICT governance context? Does it promote and see through that parliament wide ICT policies and procedures with regard to security, procurement, system management and development are adopted and enforced? How are information systems developed and implemented in relation to an enterprise architecture?

18 SWOT Analysis Before proceeding with Step 2 of the strategic planning process (visioning) it is very useful to make a SWOT analysis (strengths weaknesses opportunities threats) of the current situation. The SWOT analysis supports the strategic planning process by identifying areas for development. Strengths and weaknesses After gathering and structuring information on the current situation concerning the parliamentary institutional context in terms of the services, processes and systems, an overview could be made of the strengths and weaknesses, grouped by the institutional areas; in this case by Information Technology Management and Communication and Information Dissemination respectively. To read how to carry out an Strengths and Weaknesses (SW) analysis, please see Example 2 and Example 3 that show SW analyses for respectively the case of Information Technology Management and Communication & Information Dissemination. For the respective SW templates see Template 2 Strengths and weaknesses: the case of ICT In this example the SW analysis of ICT systems and available ICT services in a parliament is shown. Performance within the institutional areas Communication & Information Dissemination Strengths Parliament does have a website There is a trial going on with a Content Management System Services, processes & systems Legislative drafting Staff knows how to use PCs and office productivity tools Parliamentary reporting Staff knows how to use PCs and office productivity tools Weakness The parliament's website does not feature information on parliamentary activity, such as schedules etc The parliament's website does not show updated voting records, transcripts of MP's speeches etc There is not sufficient information posted to talk about access to information Human resource capacity to maintain the website is limited or lacking Lack of document management systems; lack of central storage and version control of legislative documents; Drafters use different versions of word processing tools leading sometimes to incompatible files etc It takes 2 3 days before the hansard is produced Parliamentary research Staff use and intranet to disseminate the hansard report and related documents Staff make use of electronic logging of research requests in a database; good level of client orientation, and staff is accessible through e mail, and over the intranet Tools to record parliamentary proceedings are not functioning well. Lack of systematized legislative information; to consult laws staff needs to access different databases in at different govt. websites. For some laws older than 20 years, there

19 Library services ICT infrastructure Intranet Internet Remote connectivity Security ICT organization Structured roles & responsibilities Independent budget & resources ICT services User support & helpdesk PC support Data & Network operations Systems management Systems development Project management ICT governance Enterprise wide policies and procedures Enterprise wide planning Strengths Staff make use of an electronic cataloguing system; staff has gained experience in electronic cataloguing There is among the maintenance team a good understanding of anti virus concepts and where they have to find new updates etc The ICT organization has clearly defined roles for ICT management, development, maintenance and support The help desk does have incident tracking processes and a database to support logging incidents Till now this has been outsourced. The Head of ICT has good experiences with managing outside contractors The Head of ICT has good Project management skills The Head of ICT has a good understanding of policies and procedures and recognizes that it needs to be introduced There are discussions of establishing an ICT committee for planning and management Weakness is poor electronic access, and sometimes not even paper based access Lack of circulation management system; the electronic catalogue is only accessible from a PC within the library. No OPAC features Intranet connects 2 of the 6 buildings of the parliament Individual PC connectivity is poor; speeds are very low; the parliament has an intranet cafe, but with 4 PCs is not sufficient There is a Virtual Private Network that was installed some years ago, but technology is outdated Anti virus maintenance is not managed centrally over intranet, but on each PC individually by maintenance team ICT organization depends on administrative general budget. Meaning that carrying out ICT developments are tied to interdepartmental agreeing and politics There are no parliamentary wide ICT policies and procedures e.g. some departments have Windows 97 pc's while others have Windows 2000, while others have Vista. There is insufficient coordinated ICT planning; departments rather buy and install their own systems and infrastructure instead of outsourcing that function to the ICT department Table 3: ICT Strengths Weakness Analysis

20 Strengths and weaknesses: the case of Communication and Information Dissemination In this example the SW analysis for Communication and Information Dissemination systems in a parliament is shown. Strengths Weakness Performance within the institutional areas Democratic Representation Legislation Legislative drafting Quality of representation of the people s wishes in the House Specific days may be allocated for constituency visits, according to standing orders Public hearings are routinely conducted Regular press releases are made of parliamentary proceedings Government makes submissions to Parliament openly available TV or radio broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings Dedicated TV or radio broadcasts Regular publication of Debate Records and parliamentary publications Dedicated parliamentary section in national newspapers and publications Parliament has Internet access, library, etc for research Press releases about the parliament activities made regularly, and distributed by Staff knows how to use PCs and office productivity tools Channels and mechanisms for communicating the results of this representation back to the people are limited Constituency visits may not consider constituencies that are remote or difficult to access Limited public access to information from committees Limited channels for communication to constituents on a broad basis Limited access to information from government No TV or public broadcast of parliamentary proceedings Limited national coverage of TV or radio broadcasts Limited circulation or civil society access to parliamentary publications Limited information available through national newspapers and publications Lack of support for effective research facilities, e.g. limited human resource capacity no research experts, limited or no internet access Lack of public exposure to plenary debates No regular legislative agenda/calendar of activities publicly available Language problems: bills may be not be drafted in indigenous languages thereby limiting broader access to their content Limited or no exposure of bills to the public and no clear channel or system for information dissemination (e.g. website, publications etc.) Lack of document management systems; Lack of central storage and version control of legislative documents; Drafters use different versions of word processing tools leading sometimes to incompatible files etc Oversight Committees regularly conduct oversight visits Limited or no public dissemination of

21 Strengths Weakness oversight findings Internet facilities to gather technical information/research Research/technical support services are being established by parliament Limited or no parliamentary dissemination of oversight findings Inadequate or no dedicated research or technical information teams to support parliamentary committees Institutional Cooperation Inter parliamentary Relations and Parliamentary Diplomacy Administration Well established or functional system for institutional cooperation Lack of coordination and communication capacity with other institutions Well established and information exchange and communication linkages with government or civil society Regional and/or international Inter parliamentary relationships established Established administrative structures to oversee Communication and Information Dissemination may improve information production, dissemination and communication matters substantially Established Communication and Information Dissemination structures can coordinate the dissemination of information within parliament, between members and standing committees. Oversight reports not followed up by government No established or functional system for institutional cooperation Lack of coordination and communication capacity with other institutions Institutional communication and information exchange linkages with government are weak No clear mechanisms or channels to share information between institutions No direct link with civil society Problems in communication between Parliament and Government No effective reporting dissemination of findings and lessons learned between parliaments No designated authority to coordinate communication and information dissemination issues within parliament to facilitate flow of information on agendas etc. Lack of communication/information on parliamentary management Lack of professional information and communication management expertise within the administration No clear information and communication dissemination strategies/development policies in place Services, processes & systems Library services Parliamentary research Staff make use of an electronic cataloguing system; Staff has gained experience in electronic cataloguing Staff make use of electronic logging of research requests in a database; Lack of circulation management system; The electronic catalogue is only accessible from a PC within the library. No online public access catalogue (OPAC) features in the library database Lack of systematized legislative information;

22 Strengths Good level of client orientation, and staff is accessible through e mail, and over the intranet Digitized laws available from online websites Weakness Poor client orientation and limited staff have access to online research facilities or access To consult laws, staff needs to access different databases in different government websites. Parliamentary reporting Staff knows how to use PCs and office productivity tools Most laws are not available in electronic format and sometimes not even in paper based access format The Hansard is production is lengthy and takes more than 2 3 days to produce. Staff use and the intranet to disseminate the Hansard report and related documents Tools to record parliamentary proceedings are not functioning well. Table 4: Communication and Information Dissemination Strengths Weakness Analysis Opportunities & Threats It is of great importance that the parliamentary strategic planning process is grounded in social, economic, political, legal and technological realities. The purpose of the Opportunities and Threats (OT) analysis is to offer the authors of the parliament's vision (i.e. parliamentary leadership) the chance to conduct a reality check, along the lines of the social, economic, political, legal and technological boundaries (see Box 10) within which the parliament operates. The OT analysis may be specific to the institutional area. In Example 4 and Example 5 the way how to carry out an OT analysis is described for respectively the Information Technology Management and Communication & Information Dissemination areas. For the respective OT templates see Template 3 Box 10 Social & economical: this includes all social and economic factors that are at play in the country that influence whether and how citizens are using technology, accessing information, communicating and interacting with the parliament.. Factors include: the digital divide and inclusion; who is connected and who not; internet penetration and affordability in the country's household; computer literacy, communication channels and national penetration of different communication medium, literacy etc. Political: all political trends and development that influence the way the parliament operates and interacts with its citizen. In some parliaments there is a culture of openness and accountability towards the press and the public while in others such culture is still in its infancy; in some parliaments are more open to public opinion and input while in others, citizens input it is simply not seen as part of the democratic equation. Legal: all legal barriers (or opportunities) that would prevent (or stimulate) great communication, information dissemination and technological solutions from (to) reaching their potential; Some parliaments have passed laws that make it mandatory that certain parliamentary information is published; in other countries this is not the case. Sometimes the technology would allow easy publication of information while the laws prevent, or do not encourage this.

23 Technological: this includes all current and expected application of ICT within a country. ICT is developing at a rapid pace. Where 10 years ago one had to go to internet cafe's to browse the internet, today it is possible to sit in a restaurant or other public space and get on line using a mobile device. Citizens are increasingly connecting through multiple channels, and exchanging information in different formats including text, video and photo. Technological may also include the state of the local ICT sector i.e. whether there is a growing local sector, with well trained professionals and availability to ICT goods and products. Example 4 Opportunities & Threats: the case of ICT In the case of ICTTable 5 we can provide an overview of the opportunities and threats facing a parliament that wants to use technology to fulfil its mandates and responsibilities and wants to enhance its communication and information dissemination capabilities. This helps to prevent the parliament from formulating a vision that is out of touch with reality and therefore not feasible. To complete this analysistable 5 the authors must carry out desk research on the four dimensions for their own country to gain a complete picture of the social & economic, political, legal and technological developments spanning the past five years to date, and discuss the facts and developments related to each dimension. Sources for these facts and developments may be national statistics, country studies, but also UN reports such as ITU's reports on internet and mobile usage and penetration as well as a survey like the World e Parliament Report that may be useful to identify the upcoming trends. In extracting relevant facts and developments the authors must reason and think from the perspective of a parliament that wants to deploy ICTs to more effectively conduct is mandates and responsibilities, to connect with its citizens, and be much stronger in the country's democratic context. Dimensions of the external environment Opportunities Threats Social & economical 75% of the population is between 18 and 25 ICT Literacy levels are low Digital divide is still large Political Legal Technological..fact....development....fact....development.. Rise of social networking on the internet Open Source software is becoming more widely available and is supported by the local IT sector Mobile technology in society is widespread especially among young people Electronic document management technologies are very advanced to allow paperless working and information dissemination Incidents of curtailing of free press No legal framework that supports open access to parliamentary documentation Internet connectivity is mostly in the capital of the country and expensive...fact....development..

24 Dimensions of the external environment Opportunities Threats Table 5: Opportunities & Threats Analysis ICT Each of these facts or developments (opportunities and threats) must be formulated in maximum 3 4 sentences, written in the respective columns. Identifying opportunities Facts and developments that will present possible synergies in the implementation of the vision should be listed as opportunities. Research may show that there is an increasing number of younger MP's who take pride in using ICT; they have their own websites, they engage in social networking and innovative methods to connect with their constituencies. This fact of % of MP's that are endorsing ICTs are clear opportunities that should be listed in the Political dimension. In cases where the parliament has passed legislation that will make it mandatory for government institutions to adopt open standards based on XML to exchange inter governmental data, this would open the gates for establishing open information exchange between the parliament and the executive, and also parliament and information systems of the Judiciary and the Courts. Clearly such a legislative advantage must be listed as an opportunity in the Legal dimension. In the deliberations during the visioning workshop this kind of fact would very likely shape the vision for ICT in the parliament. Identifying threats Facts and developments, that as a result of more ICT in parliament will lead to a multiplication of problems, or creation of new ones should be seen as a threat. For example there may be a large digital divide in the country because rural areas are not connected, and when the parliament goes digital this will cause political exclusion of some groups of society, causing the parliament not to represent an entire nation. This fact must clearly be listed as a threat under the social & economic dimension. The level of the national literacy rate in the language in which parliamentary business is conducted is critical and can negatively impact citizen s ability to participate or engage with parliament if publications are not translated into the prevalent indigenous languages. The limited distribution and information dissemination channels may further marginalize members of the population in remote areas. Desk research (and perhaps simple common knowledge) might also show that the local IT sector is still in its infancy. Suppliers are very few, not well trained, prices are very high (compared to countries in the regions) Such an environment with which the parliament will have to deal with to implement its ambitious vision for ICT poses risks, and therefore should be listed as a threat under the Technological dimension. The penetration rate and availability of radio and television signals across all parts of the country in addition to the prevalence of radios and television instruments should parliament use these media for communication must also be considered under this dimension. This level of understanding of the external environment is required for formulating a vision for an e parliament that responds well to public expectations and demand. In the example given the opportunities such as social networking, young electorate, the penetration of Open Source software and mobile technology in the country provide very relevant clues for the technological

25 direction of the vision. Similarly the threats given provide points of reference as to whether the vision maybe out of touch with reality. For example a vision that ignores the digital divide and that solely focuses on disseminating information through the internet may be failing to respond to the expectations and needs of non connected citizenry. Perhaps that vision must instead focus on the internet and mobile technologies as well as other methods for communicating with citizens by for example newspapers, radio, television, public debates and constituency visits leaving the possibility open of establishing rural government/parliament offices featuring internet kiosks etc. Identifying opportunities Facts and developments that will present possible synergies in the implementation of the vision should be listed as opportunities. The main levels at which information is required by members of parliament are at constituency, party, parliamentary committee, parliament, regionally and internationally. In addition, within parliament, the administration, staff and researchers need to access and share information. Other stakeholders that need to exchange information and communicate with parliament (both provide and access) include government, the media, civil society, development agencies and the general public. Today, with the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), there are many more opportunities to provide open, meaningful communication that is targeted at the right recipients using different medium in a timely manner. These opportunities must be listed as opportunities in the respective Social and Economic, Political, Legal and Technological dimensions. Where mechanisms and procedures and processes have already been implemented for communication and information dissemination that are already in effect, these must be included as opportunities, however, the effectiveness and efficiency of these processes must also be factored in and assessed accordingly. Identifying threats While the adoption of ICTs to facilitate more efficient retrievement, analysis and production of information provides an excellent opportunity for enhancing the efficieny of parliament, care must be taken in considering the effect of adoption of a greater use of ICTs for communication particularly with external stakeholders such as constituencies, the community, special interest and the general public. This can be attributed to the challenge in many developing countries of the digital divide where many rural and remote areas remain off the communication grid and un connected. Alternate mechanisms must be found to communicate with these areas to limit possibilities of exclusion from participation in the democratic processes of the country. This fact must clearly be listed as a threat under the social & economic dimension. The level of the national literacy rate in the language in which parliamentary business is conducted is critical and can negatively impact citizen s ability to participate or engage with parliament if publications are not translated into the prevalent indigenous languages. The limited distribution and information dissemination channels may further marginalize members of the population in remote areas. A level of understanding of the external environment is required for formulating a vision for an e parliament that responds well to public expectations and demands, and, where necessary adapts its solutions to meet the needs of the greatest number of members of the electorate. In the example given the opportunities such as social networking, young electorate, the penetration of Open Source software and mobile technology in the country provide very relevant clues for the technological direction of the vision. Similarly the threats given provide points of reference as to whether the vision maybe out of touch with reality. For example a vision that ignores the digital divide and that solely focuses on

26 disseminating information through the internet may be failing to respond to the expectations and needs of non connected citizenry. Perhaps that vision must ensure that alternate technologies and solutions are accommodated and not only focus on the latest and most innovative solutions where a combination of new and old existing technologies such as radio, newspapers, radio, television, public debates and constituency visits could actually be adapted to provide innovative solutions, instead of focussing purely on the internet and mobile technologies for communicating with citizens. There could therefore be the possibility of establishing open rural government/parliament offices featuring internet kiosks which integrated and provided information for community radios and local publications, etc. Additional resources Business Process Reengineering Assessment Guide, United States General Accounting Office, May Enterprise Architecture: An Overview (Paper): Business Process Reengineering: A Consolidated Methodology Service Oriented Architecture: Mapping of ICT Architecture: Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis:

27 STEP 2: The future: where do we want to go envisioned state and technological choices While Step 1 focused on mapping and analysing the current situation, this chapter focuses entirely on the future and as such provides guidance on methods for producing: the vision statement for the parliament; the vision statement for each institutional area; the strategic goals and objectives for services, processes and systems within each institutional area. The vision statements for the parliament and the individual institutional areas need to be expressed by the political and administrative leadership of the parliament. In this regard the involvement of the (Deputy) Speaker, Secretary General (SG) or Clerk and other senior administrators within the parliament is critical. The strategic goals and objectives for services, processes and possibly systems need to be expressed by senior officials within the parliament that are responsible for the provision of the daily services and their management. These are more likely to include the administrative leadership of the parliament, the SG or Clerk (Deputy SG/Clerk), heads of departments and important offices. The Visioning Process As each parliament faces its specific set of local circumstances and operates within an environment that is unique, this chapter explains how the authors can work towards formulating a vision for the parliament and its institutional areas that is based on the local parameters and parliamentary ambitions. The process of formulating the vision (also called visioning ) for ICT in parliament should: 1. depart from the parliament's fundamental values, mandates and responsibilities; 2. encompass an assessment of the internal performance within the institutional area of the parliament; 3. encompass an assessment of the external environment the parliament operates in, including social, demographic, technological, political and legal factors; 4. allow for prioritization and mediation by the leadership and key stakeholders as to what the focus of the vision and the strategic goals and objectives should be; 5. deliver a set of choices as a result of this prioritizing and mediating, from where the vision statement can be constructed and the strategic goals and objectives per area can be set. Concerning the above listed inputs, in Step 1 already information about the Fundamental Values and institutional areas was gathered; also the SW and OT analyses provided insight into the internal performance of the parliament within each institutional area as well as the external factors affecting it. Hence with all these four inputs within reach a visioning management workshop can be conducted for gathering information to formulate the vision, strategic goals and objectives. In Box 4 the sample outline of the strategic document is provided, including for for PART II: The Future, which the authors will be able to produce through Step 2.

28 PART II: THE FUTURE THE VISION STATEMENT Vision statement for the Parliament Vision statements by institutional area STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES <AREA> Goal Objectives: Services Processes Systems <AREA>.. <AREA>.. Outline of Part II of ICT Strategy Document The visioning management workshop The visioning process can best take place during a workshop or meeting called a visioning management workshop, initiated and facilitated by the Standing Committee (or other body in charge of strategic planning) and that will see the participation of the parliamentary leadership and all the key stakeholders. Naturally the writers of the strategy document must also be present to record all discussions and outcomes. During this workshop the leadership and key stakeholders will discuss the four mentioned inputs prepared and presented by facilitators of the workshop, and from there discussions will take place to that will result in agreements on the vision, strategic goals and objectives. Preparing the Visioning Workshop For the visioning workshop to be successful the authors need to prepare the following input documentation: Input 1: Fundamental Values, Mandates & Responsibilities of the Parliament Input 2: Institutional areas of the Parliament Input 3: Strengths & Weaknesses Input 4: Opportunities & Threats Inputs 1 and 2 should be drafted based on the desk research that was carried out in Step 1 ; Input 3 based on the Strengths and Weaknesses Analyses, and Input 4 based on the Opportunities & Threats analyses, all carried out during Step 1. Each part should be described in maximum 1 2 pages.

29 Prioritizing, mediating and making choices It will be useful that the visioning workshop starts with an explanation to all participating stakeholders about the visioning process and what is expected from each of them and how they can contribute to the strategic planning process. The resources for implementing the envisioned goals and objectives are not infinite, and higher priorities in one areas can take resources away from another. The stakeholders given that they actively participate will soon realize where they might receive more or less resources for the next three five years. As such the workshop will have an element of negotiation, mediation, finding agreement among stakeholders, and making concessions and choices based on the priorities for the next three five years. This also implies that when there are deadlocks, the presence of the highest leadership is critical to resolve conflicts. Formulating the Vision Statement Vision for the Parliament The stakeholders should discuss the four input documents and give their views during the discussions to get a clearer focus of the future direction of the parliament. As such the discussions at this stage must centre around the following question: Taking into account the presented strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, which parliamentary values, mandates and responsibilities have the highest priority to be strengthened? Vision for institutional areas Once the elements of the vision for the parliament are clear and agreed upon the vision for the different institutional areas needs to be discussed and agreed upon. As such the focus by the political and administrative leadership should be on answering the question: Taking into account the vision statement for the entire parliament, which institutional areas have the highest priority of strengthening? From the set of negotiated and mediated priorities the vision statement should be formulated. The vision must describe an image of the parliament during the next three five years. It should inspire action and in that sense it must be resolute, unambiguous, written in clear and concise language that is easily understood, especially by non technical audiences. In Box 5Box 11 examples are provided of style of writing. The vision statement should not consume too many pages; as a rule of thumb the vision may cover maximum 1½ pages. Vision for the Parliament: To bring the parliament back in the hands of citizens by demonstrating greater transparency and accountability and encourage public participation Vision for <area: Legislating> To provide all legislative research information through both electronic and non electronic channels, available to internal and external audiences

30 Vision for <area: Representing> To create a technology enabled environment for Representatives and theirs staff that will provide electronic access to all parliamentary documentation, and therefore reduce the use of paper significantly Box 5 : Examples of Vision Statements for ICT in Parliament Defining Strategic Goals and Objectives Now that the vision statement for the parliament and the specific areas has been formulated, the visioning management workshop can move to the next stage of setting the strategic goals and objectives by institutional area Box 1. As mentioned the formulation of strategic goals and objectives should incorporate the input of the managers from the various areas, as they have a clear understanding of the services and processes. Goals Step 1 already provided insight into the mentioned areas through the process maps i.e. how services, processes and systems are currently organized. Based among others on these maps, and the new priorities and available resources, the stakeholders from the different departments, units, sections etc should now look into the future, taking into account the vision statement for the parliament and for the different areas, and formulate the goals and objectives with regard to better services, processes and systems. In doing so the central question in the discussions should be: How can the parliament, within the areas, provide better services, through more effective and efficient processes and systems? An example of a goal within the area/sub area of Constitutional function Legislating may be: Sub area: Parliamentary Research: to provide to all MP's and their staff parliamentary research services through different channels in order for them to carry out their responsibilities Another example of a goal within the area/sub area of Communication & Information Dissemination may be: Sub area: Parliamentary Reporting: to timely, accurately and effectively publish information on parliamentary proceedings through different channels ensuring that parliament provides open and transparent communication with the public Objectives As the goals for each area and sub areas are formulated, specific objectives for services, processes and systems within the areas and sub areas should also be formulated. Examples of such objectives are: >> Area: Knowledge Management >> Sub Area: Parliamentary Research

31 services: to provide on demand policy analysis to MP's and Committees through different channels (including on line channels); process: to deliver these services Research Staff should have access to research resources in electronic formats through the parliament's Intranet; systems: to support research processes making use of modern research and office productivity tools, including document repositories accessible through the Intranet Such is the type of detail of description of goals and objectives that is required. Also the hierarchy is evident in terms of areas, services, processes and systems. Successful vision is a shared vision Within the strategic planning process, establishing a shared vision with strategic goals and objectives is an important milestone, that should be concluded by a formal review. Not having a formal review means that the vision and strategic goals may not be water tight as there is no proof that it is entirely shared by all stakeholders. This could raise concerns and issues throughout the remainder of the strategic planning process and implementation stages over the next three five years. Thus, after the vision statements, strategic goals and objectives have been expressed and agreed upon by the stakeholders during the workshop, a written workshop report must be circulated among all the key stakeholders for their review. The review process should be clear: sign off dates should be set, and opportunities should be provided for allowing stakeholders to ask for clarifications. Having conducted the review, incorporating all the comments and feedback from different stakeholders the vision, strategic goals and objectives should be signed off at the highest level of the parliamentary leadership. This will mark a milestone in the strategic planning process after which Step 3 gap analysis and identifying challenges can commence. Additional resources Developing a vision: strategic planning and the library media specialist, id=xlio0a8ypbmc&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v= onepage&q=&f=false Developing Vision Statements

32 Step 3 The challenges: what do we need and what is the gap In the previous two steps we saw how to systematically establish an overview and analyse the current situation (Step 1), and how to develop and formulate a shared vision and the strategic goals and objectives for the parliament (Step 2). The results of these two steps will serve as input for Step 3 that focuses on establishing an overview of the challenges that the parliament faces in realizing its vision and achieving its goals and objectives. The challenges will depend on the existing gaps, which simply put are everything that is now missing in terms of organization, management, governance and policies, services, processes, human capacities and resources including technology and that may need to be available, or put in place over the next three five years, in order to achieve the goals and objectives within the institutional areas. This chapter presents methods and techniques for establishing such an overview of gaps and challenges. As a result of going through Step 3, Part III of the ICT strategy document The Challenges can be produced (see Box 6Box 4) PART III: THE CHALLENGES AREA gap analysis AREA.. CHALLENGES Summary of Gap analyses over all Areas Challenges Box 6 : Sample outline for Part III: the challenges ICT Gap Analysis Looking at the area (and sub area) specific strategic goals and objectives for services, process and systems as formulated in Step 2, and comparing those with the process maps from Step 1, the authors should be able to identify what is already there, and what is missing / needed. To see more on how to achieve more control and structure during the analysis Template 4 may be used for this identification and quantification of the gaps. Example 6 provides an examples of how the template is applied. AREA: Constitutional Function Legislating Sub Area: Parliamentary Research Fit (already have) Gap (not yet have) Service There are research services There are no Intranet based research services Process There are processes for on demand There are no processes for providing

33 AREA: Constitutional Function Legislating System Human Resources ICT service & support ICT governance, policies and procedures research services There are modest ICT tools, local workstations for managing documents Staff have experience with managing documents on individual workstations on line research services There are no web based / Intranet based document management systems Staff have no experience with managing documents with web based systems.. Table 6 : Fit/Gap analysis by Area and Sub Area The fit or gap descriptions should be as thorough and elaborate as possible (yet for the sake of practicality limited to a maximum of 10 sentences each) as it is important to understand the fits and gaps in their entirety. As is apparent from Table 6Example 6 gaps should not only be identified and quantified by service, process or system, but this should also be done by looking at other dimensions such as the available human resources, capacities, organizational support, governance, policies etc within the institutional areas including communication and information dissemination and information technology management. Challenges Summary of gaps As a more more complete overview of the gaps will be established (similar to Table 6Example 6 and using Template 4) the totality of all the missing elements standing in the way to achieve the strategic goals and objectives will also become clear. As such a summarizing overview can be constructed focusing on the gaps (or type of gaps) across the different institutional areas by each dimension (i.e. service, process, system, human resources, organizational services & support, governance, policies and procedures) Identifying and ranking the Challenges After establishing this summary of gaps it should be possible to distinguish the challenges. For this it is important to first understand the relation between gap and challenge. A gap may be that bit of missing human capacity or process or system within one particular institutional area (or sub area), that makes it impossible for that area to be working (as perfectly) as it should. If however a certain type of gap occurs more frequently across different areas (shown in the summary of gaps), this may indicate that there is a more structural underlying cause for these gaps to manifest themselves, and this may imply that the parliament does not have the certain abilities to address these causes. When we can confirm this (existence of inabilities) then we have a problem, and we can speak of facing the challenge to... These challenges should be seen as problems down the road. One can see the magnitude of the challenges by looking at the larger picture i.e. analysing the vision statement and the strategic goals and objectives; analysing at what is already existing and missing in terms of servicesprocess system (and more), and analysing the strengths and weaknesses.

34 Challenges, if not resolved will have a negative impact on the implementation of the strategic goals and objectives. The purpose of this particular exercise is to describe the challenges as elaborate as possible and then assess their impact (if not resolved). In addition it should be explained what the impact of each challenge, summarized by a classification of low, medium and high (L, M, H). Once all the challenges are written in full (maximum ½ page per challenge) it will be useful to summarize the challenges in a table format (see Example 7, Template 5), where they are numbered and ranked by area and impact. Nr. Institutional area Challenge Type Impact 1 Legislating Parliamentary Research 2 Legislating Parliamentary Research Staff within the research department have no experience nor skills for using digital repositories for electronic archiving The research department does not use Intranet based tools but rather systems available only in the premises of the research department itself Human resources System Table 7 : Challenges by area and type, indicating their impact L H In the Type column, a value must be chosen such as: service; process; system; human resources; ICT services & support; ICT governance; this value should correspond with the type of gap. In Example 7 the human resource challenges are ranked lower than the system related challenges, since the gap analysis already shows that the staff of the research department have some experience managing documents in electronic format, albeit not as required. Once an overview similar to Example 7 (using Template 5) has been produced the next and final Step 4 of the strategic planning process may commence, where solutions will be identified and recommendations formulated, and action plans are developed. Challenges Summary of gaps As you will be producing multiple tables similar to Error: Reference source not found and Error: Reference source not found all for each area and sub area, the totality of all the missing elements standing in the way of achieving the strategic goals and objectives by service process system level will be become clear. As such a summary needs to be made of the gap across all areas by each information system and the information or data needs identified by the different areas or sub areas with parliament. The focus is here on gaps. Addressing the Challenges Analysing the summary of the gaps, you should now be able to identify and formulate a listing of the challenges within the information and data needs and strategize ways in which to address them. It will also be easier to see how best you can identify the opportunities for optimizing more effective and efficient document and information exchange and reduce the duplication of effort across the different institutional areas leading to better coordination. This would also assist parliament in establishing more

35 comprehensive archiving and indexing standards for document production and management. Challenges if not resolved will have an impact on the implementation of the strategic goals and objectives. The purpose of this particular exercise is to describe the challenges as elaborately as is possible and then assess their impact (if not resolved). It should be explained what the impact of the challenge is if this challenge is not addressed in the solution stage. The impact of challenges can be classified as low, medium and high. In order to clearly review the institutional challenges that will impact on communication and information dissemination we shall produce a final table summarising these institutional challenges based on information collated from Once all challenges are written in full (yet maximum ½ page per challenge) it will be useful to summarize the challenges in a tabular format (see Table 8), where they are numbered and ranked by area and impact. Nr. Institutional area Challenge Type Impact 1 Legislating Parliamentary Research Staff within the research department have no experience nor skills for using digital repositories for electronic archiving Human resources L 2 Legislating Parliamentary Research The research department does not use Intranet based tools but rather systems available only in the premises of the research department itself System H 3. Legislating Parliamentary Research The research department does not coordinate its work with that of the parliamentary library System H Table 8 : Challenges by area and type, indicating their impact In the Type column, a value must be chosen such as: service; process; system; human resources; ICT services & support; ICT governance. Regarding the table above and the example given the human resource challenges are ranked lower than the system related challenges, since the gap analysis already shows that the staff of the research department have some experience managing documents in electronic format, albeit not as required. Once you have produced an overview as shown in table 7, the next and final Step 4 of the strategic planning process may commence where solutions will be identified and recommendations and activities formulated, in order to address the challenges.

36 Additional resources Service Oriented Architecture: Business requirements: doc/arch/p4/bus_scen/bus_scen.htm Fit/Gap analysis: Information Gap Analysis: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0351e/i0351e07.pdf

37 Introduction Step 4 The strategic goals and objectives: How do we get there, Developing the Plan of Actions If in Step 3 we formulated the gaps and challenges standing in the way of achieving the strategic goals and objectives, in Step 4 we will see how to arrive to recommendations and ultimately develop action plans to address these challenges. To do so the following main steps are necessary: Evaluation and selection of options (possible solutions); Formulation of recommendations (linked to challenges); Formulation of actions for each recommendation; Creation of the action plan itself. In this chapter we will look at how to develop action plans for ICT. As will become evident, developing action plans for different institutional areas requires a better understanding of the factors specific to each area. For example formulating solutions and recommendations for ICT is a multidisciplinary exercise, where the challenges must be viewed from different perspectives, including the enterprise and IT architecture, critical parliamentary processes, information management requirements, etc. Similarly when looking at Communication & Information Dissemination we must bear in mind the fact that this is cross departmental discipline and as such requires the engagement of all the stakeholders in analysing and addressing its challenges. Again critical parliamentary processes, information management requirements must be considered as well as transmission channels, recipients, feedback mechanisms, etc. In developing action plans we will also see more focus on parts of the parliamentary organisation and the issue of ownership. This is because actions can only be implemented by people: departments, offices and units (that are responsible for one or more institutional area), including the Library and Parliamentary Research Department, ICT Department, International Affairs & Relations Office and so on. In following the methods and techniques presented in this chapter the final part of the strategy document PART IV: Action Plans can be produced. Box 4 provides the complete outline of the strategy document including the final part. PART IV: ACTION PLANS RECOMMENDATIONS Overview of recommendations Mapping challenges recommendations Recommendation detail descriptions <RECOMMENDATION> <ACTIVITY> <STAKEHOLDER> ACTION PLAN Roadmap Overview activities priority stakeholder planning Activity based budget

38 Box 7 : Outline Part IV: Action Plan Developing an Action Plan for ICT Reusing instead of reinventing In coming up with recommendations, instead of inventing all from scratch parliaments should go beyond their world and see how in other sectors area related solutions have been engineered, for example by looking at the local or regional e Government initiatives, where similar challenges may be faced and solutions have been developed applicable to the parliamentary context. In addition a very appropriate and highly recommended source for answers are the experiences of other parliaments: both at the regional and global level. Parliamentary knowledge networks such as the Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network ( are extremely valuable platforms where issues are discussed among ICT and Communications directors, and senior staff from other parliaments. Also centre's of excellence on parliamentary ICT should be approached that provide technical assistance and direction on best practices and guidelines, including the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament ( and UNDESA's Africa i Parliament Action Plan ( Evaluating and choosing solutions Based on the list of challenges presented at the end of Step 3 the process of addressing these challenges can begin; this is done by formulating possible solutions in response to the challenges, evaluating these and choosing among them the best suited given among others the specificity of the situation and availability of financial and human resources. This process of evaluating and choosing solutions is not a one time exercise. It may take several iterations of formulating and evaluating, considering interdependencies and investigating the constraints that may limit the feasibility of solutions. Solutions: processes & systems: in order to formulate possible solutions a good understanding of services, processes and the systems is required; for this again the process maps produced in step 1 are an excellent reference point to understand why services are carried out through certain processes and why specific systems have been deployed to support these processes. It should be clear what the role is of these systems in terms of their outputs and how they manage or add value to the processes i.e. does a system produce documents to support a process? does a system provide ways to improve and manage processes, so that they can be carried out more efficiently? This understanding is needed for finding solutions for streamlining the services, processes and systems. Streamlining means verifying whether there are redundant services, processes and systems across departments, and proposing solutions for eliminating such redundancy. Maintaining systems is expensive, and determining where systems can be made obsolete, and indicating where one system can serve more processes instead of many systems serving many processes, can provide valuable input into the streamlining exercise that will eventually feed into the Action Plan for ICT. Streamlining is not an exercise that is carried out in one go. It will take iterations of making an overview of processes and systems and determining from there what is likely to be redundant. For doing this it is very useful to look at process maps that show existing and new systems. Example 9 shows how a streamlining

39 exercise is carried out, using Template 1. Example 9 Systems should not just exist by themselves or come out of the blue. Instead the decisions to have them incorporated into processes and services must be grounded in valid reasons. To support this reasoning and demonstrate how a set of processes can be supported by a set of systems, the services process system maps can be used again. Table 9 provides an example of such mapping at the departmental level. In this table the example is shown for the Parliament's Research Department (PRD 1 ). The table shows that there are current existing systems ( ) and the new systems ( ) i.e. solutions to be implemented as part of the Action Plan for ICT. It will require the necessary experience and knowledge of parliamentary processes to validate the new configurations of processes and systems, and achieve the right overall solution. Again it will be a matter of iterative analysis and thoroughly questioning whether it makes sense for example to have process X supported by new system Y from Department A, and whether process X could maybe be supported by system W from Department B. In choosing the right solution (X, Y, A versus X, W, B) trade off's need to be made in terms of time and resources. ICT Systems ( ) Processes ( ) Office productivity tools Internet Content Management System Electronic Archiving System Library Management System Collaborative Workspaces Legislative Management Systems e-learning tools Project management tools Requirements Management tools Dissemination of Information Acquisition and Management of Research Resources Production of Research Bulletins Production of On-Demand Research Systematization of legal normative analysis Mobilizing Scientific Research 1 The PRD carries the parliamentary research function within the parliament. It has some twenty well skilled researchers and makes modest use of ICT in providing its services among others: office productivity tools, e mail and internet. The PRD has no internal or external website, nor does it have the necessary ICT infrastructures or makes use of the available ICT services within the parliament. The PRD to date does not participate actively in high level discussions regarding the development of ICT in the parliament. Its goal is to provide on line services to its clients (mainly MPs) through the Intranet and Internet.

40 ICT Systems ( ) Processes ( ) Office productivity tools Internet Content Management System Electronic Archiving System Library Management System Collaborative Workspaces Legislative Management Systems e-learning tools Project management tools Requirements Management tools Providing training to staff Development and Management of Projects : existing and operational : new systems Table 9 : Processes supported by new systems The table above is intended to support the analysis and choices and would not necessarily have to be included into the strategy document but may instead be added in its annex. Solutions: Infrastructure: After carrying out the streamlining exercise it will be clear where new systems need to be implemented, and linked to this an assessment can be made concerning the available infrastructure i.e. whether an upgraded infrastructure is required in terms of network cabling, connection points, wireless access points, data centre housing such as racks, but also hardware such as Auxiliary Power Units (APU), Personal Computers (PCs), printers and scanners etc. Also here in trying to determine infrastructural solutions, the issue of redundancy should be considered. As such questions must be asked like does a department really need its own data centre to run specific parliamentary applications, or can two departments make use of the same data centre, share resources and ultimately save costs. Solutions: Human Resources: When introducing new systems into processes, or implementing simply process improvements, the requirements for human resources also come in focus. Questions should be asked as to what type of training should be provided to staff to be able to work with the new systems or within the new processes. Say that for example a digital repository will be implemented as part of the Action Plan for ICT, then also the skill requirements need to be addressed by considering the appropriate training. Presenting the recommendations After going through the iterations of evaluating solutions, the best ones should be chosen and formulated and presented as recommendations. In the strategy document a one page overview may be produced listing these recommendations. The style of presentation should be brief and concise, in bullets or numbered and each not longer than 4 5 sentences. Example 10 shows a list of recommendations. In light of the strategic goals and objectives, and taking into account the respective challenges, the following recommendations are made for the PRD:

41 Enhance the planning and coordination of PRD's ICT initiatives at the parliamentary level through more engagement of the PRD in the Steering Committee for ICT, and formalization of inter departmental resource sharing mechanisms such as Service Level Agreements; Develop a comprehensive ICT Development Programme in collaboration with the ICT Department; Establish collaboration with the ICT Department of the Parliament to serve all divisions and working groups of the PRD as equally as possible; Develop a suitable ICT infrastructure for the PRD through intervention of the Steering Committee for ICT and in collaboration with the ICT Department; Actively participate in the development of a legislative information system, through intervention of the Steering Committee for ICT and in collaboration with other parliamentary agencies, and systems to support the PRD s comparative analysis work; Enhance the management of electronic resources and increase research productivity through the deployment of modern ICT tools; Engage in more regional and international networking to share experiences and acquire best practices on the use of ICT in the area of parliamentary research and documentation. Box 8 : Overview of recommendations Mapping strategic recommendations with challenges After the introductory overview of the recommendations a justification needs to be provided as to why specifically these recommendations address the challenges. This justification may be supported by demonstrating the link between the challenges and recommendations. Example 11 shows how this link can be highlighted using Template 8. This type of linking (or mapping) should be seen as a checkpoint in the analysis as it shows that all the challenges are covered by a recommendation. The recommendation's priority level should consistently relate to the impact level of the challenge that was also derived in Step 3. Issues and challenges Impact Strategic Recommendation Priority As the PRD will employ more ICT systems it will need to coordinate and collaborate more with other bodies to share resources and find synergies, and specifically with the ICT Department and the Library. The Steering Committee for ICT and its Technical Working Group offer suitable coordination and collaboration mechanisms, however the PRD is yet to actively participate and integrate in these mechanisms. Medium Enhance the planning and coordination of PRD s ICT initiatives at the parliamentary level through more engagement within the Steering Committee for ICT Medium The PRD does not yet have an overall action plan on how to achieve the envisioned state for the use of ICT. There is no overview of ICT projects, indicating the priorities for systems and the resources required. There are currently two ICT staff within the PRD whose roles and responsibilities High Medium Develop a comprehensive ICT Development Programme in collaboration with the ICT Department of the Parliament Acquire all technical ICT services from the ICT Department, and define clearly High Medium

42 Issues and challenges Impact Strategic Recommendation Priority are insufficiently defined. They engage in application & data management tasks on their own. the roles and responsibilities of the usersupport and administration staff within the PRD to only provide user support and system administration functions Table 10 : Mapping Recommendations and Challenges Describing recommendations in detail After presenting the recommendations and demonstrating how they address the challenges, each recommendation should be described in full detail covering: the rationale for each recommendation (why certain choices are made); the specific activities (actions) that should be undertaken for this recommendation; the specific outcomes of the activities and how they are linked to the recommendation. All of this should be written in a narrative style where each recommendation (maximum 1 1½ page) should be concluded with an overview (see Example 12, Template 9) listing the activities, key stakeholders, outcomes and priorities, all described in the narrative. Example 12 Recommendation: Services from ICT Department Action Key stakeholders Establishment of Service Level PRD, ICT Agreements with ICT Department Department, SC ICT Formulation of job description and PRD recruitment of User Support Manager Formulation of internal working PRD, ICT processes Department Outcomes Table 10: Recommendation and its activities Signed off Service Level Agreements for the provision of ICT services by ICT Department to PRD User Support manager installed at PRD Guidelines for internal working procedures Priority High Medium High Actions (or activities) are tasks within the scope of the recommendation that need to be accomplished within a defined period of time. A task in turn may consist of one or more assignments that need to be executed under the responsibility of stakeholders. Actions can be linked together to create dependencies that are important to understand and have clear, as it might influence their sequencing. Actions each need to deliver outcomes that must contribute one by one to the realization of the recommendation (that in turn address the challenges). As such outcomes must be measurable qualitatively or quantitatively e.g. implementation of a library management system, or three staff members trained in digital collection management. The actions need to be implemented with the support of stakeholders. The main stakeholder will be the ICT Department (or Centre or Unit), and others are the respective users from departments where changes will take place. Again looking at the service process system maps from step 1 will provide information on the relevant stakeholders. With regard to priority of the actions, these should correspond to the priority level of the recommendations.

43 Formulating the Action Plan Roadmap Strategic goals, priorities and dependencies Having described the recommendations with the related actions, priorities, outcomes and key stakeholders, and having justified how these will address the challenges, the action plan can next be drawn up. The action plan needs to provide an overview of how the actions will be planned over the next three five years. It is recommended to start formulating the action plan using Template 10. To see how the template is used see Example 13, that shows an action plan for three years (for a strategy plan of five years that is subject to a mid term review halfway) Again there is no straightforward formula for getting the planning completely right; it is a matter of iterative analysis, considering and reconsidering activities and questioning their benefits in the grand scheme of trying to close gaps, and so to reach the strategic goals and objectives. The presentation of the Action Plan, in the strategy document, should be accompanied with a complete narrative that thoroughly explains why activity X is scheduled before activity Y, at the beginning of year 1 and not at the end of year 1 etc. Action Stakeholders Resources / Inputs Needed Priority Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Quarter Quarter Quarter Recommendation: ICT Planning and Coordination PRD to become more engaged in the Steering Committee for ICT PRD, Steering Committee for ICT (SC ICT) Medium X PRD to seek representation in the Technical Working Group of the Steering Committee for ICT PRD, ICT Department, SC ICT Medium X Introduction and formalization of Service Level Agreements PRD, ICT Department, SC ICT Medium X X Recommendation: ICT Development Programme Formulation of ICT Development Programme PRD, ICT Department, SC ICT External technical assistance in guiding the process of formulating and planning the ICT Development Programme High X Planning and implementation of PRD PRD, ICT Department High X X

44 Action Stakeholders Resources / Inputs Needed Priority Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Quarter Quarter Quarter portal Planning and implementation of digital repository PRD, ICT Department ICT Expertise from other parliament High X X X X X X X X Establishment of Project Implementation Board PRD, ICT Department Medium X Recommendation: ICT Services Establishment of Service Level Agreements with ICT Department PRD, ICT Department, SC ICT High X X Job description & recruitment of User Support Manager PRD High Medium X Formulation of internal working processes PRD, ICT Department ICT Expertise from other parliament Medium X X Table 11: Action Plan for ICT In the two outer left columns the actions and stakeholders are listed per strategic recommendation. The third column resources required (from the left) may provide information on important prerequisites for an activity. Sometimes resources are not yet in place and might have to be produced by other activities. As such the resources required column might reveal interdependencies among activities. The fourth column priority reflects the priority level of the action. The columns with the years and quarters are indicative of when an activity would have to be executed. Determining the quarter in which an activity needs to happen is the result of a thorough analysis of the priorities and dependencies of actions.

45 : existing and operational : new systems Table 11 : Processes supported by new systems T Solutions: Infrastructure: New systems and processes may require additional if required to support departmental processes might also require new or upgraded infrastructure in terms of network cabling, connection points, wireless access points, data centre housing such as racks, but also hardware such as Auxiliary Power Units (APU), Personal Computers (PCs), printers and scanners etc. Here once again in trying to find infrastructural solutions for example questions must be asked like does a department really need its own data centre to run specific parliamentary applications, or can two departments make use of the same data centre, share resources and ultimately save costs. Solutions: Human Resources: When introducing new systems into processes or just improving processes alone the impact on human resources should also be resolved i.e. what type of training should be provided to staff to be able to work with the new systems within the new processes. For example, say that a digital repository will be implemented as part of the Action Plan for ICT, then also the appropriate training should be planned for establishing related skills.

46 Presenting the recommendations After choosing the best solutions from the entire menu of solutions, these can then be formulated in narrative as recommendations. In the strategy document a one page overview may be produced listing these recommendations as shown in Box 9 (PRD example) Please note the brief and concise style in writing; the recommendations are best listed as bullets, each not longer than 4 5 sentences. In light of the strategic goals and objectives, and taking into account the respective challenges, the following recommendations could be made for the PRD: Enhance the planning and coordination of PRD's communication and information dissemination initiatives at the parliamentary level through representation of the PRD on the Steering Committee for Communication and Information Dissemination, and formalization of inter departmental resource sharing mechanisms such as Service Level Agreements; Include key staff from the PRD in a comprehensive communication skills and information management development programme within parliament; Provide training in the use of ICTs for enhanced communication and to strengthen the research and information management capabilities of the PRD Establish collaboration with the key information management departments of the Parliament to serve all divisions and working groups of the PRD as equitably as possible; Actively participate in the development of a legislative information system, through intervention of the Steering Committee for ICT and in collaboration with other parliamentary agencies, and systems to support the PRD s comparative analysis work; Enhance the management of electronic resources and increase research productivity through the deployment of modern ICT tools; Engage in more regional and international networking to share experiences and acquire best practices on the use of ICT in the area of parliamentary research and documentation. Box 9 : Overview of communication and information dissemination recommendations Mapping strategic recommendations with challenges After the introductory overview of the recommendations a justification may be provided as to why they address the challenges. This justification may be supported by demonstrating the link between the challenges and recommendations using table 16 (still using the PRD example). Issues and challenges Impact Strategic Recommendation Priority High Provide training in the use of ICTs for enhanced communication and to strengthen the research and information management capabilities of the PRD High As the PRD will employ more ICT systems it will need to coordinate and collaborate more with other bodies to Medium Enhance the planning and coordination of PRD s ICT initiatives at the parliamentary level through more Medium

47 Issues and challenges Impact Strategic Recommendation Priority share resources and find synergies, and specifically with the ICT Department and the Library. The Steering Committee for ICT and its Technical Working Group offer suitable coordination and collaboration mechanisms, however the PRD is yet to actively participate and integrate in these mechanisms. engagement within the Steering Committee for ICT Table 12 : Mapping Communication and Information Dissemination Recommendations and Challenges This type of mapping should be seen as a checkpoint in the analysis as it shows that all the challenges are covered by a recommendation. The recommendation's priority level should consistently relate to the impact level of the challenge that was also derived in Step 3. Describing recommendations in detail After presenting the recommendations and demonstrating how they address the challenges, each recommendation should be presented in full detail i.e.: the rationale for the recommendations should be provided (why certain choices are made); what activities (actions) should be undertaken for their implementation; what the specific outcomes will be; All of this should be written in a narrative style where each recommendation (maximum 1 1½ page) should be concluded with a table (see below PRD example) listing the activities, key stakeholders, outcomes and priorities, all described in the narrative. Recommendation: Communication and Information Dissemination Services from Research and Information or Library and Information Departments Action Key stakeholders Outcomes Priority Review and integration of departmental information management policies (including issues of confidentiality etc.) Analysis of ICT skills for communication and information management tools in PRD PRD, Communication and Information Dissemination Committee PRD, Communication and Information Dissemination Committee Table 10: Recommendation and its activities Agreements for the provision of information by PRDwithin the framework of the PRD policies on information dissemination Training schedule prepared for PRD staff in the effective use of communication and information management tools High Medium Actions (or activities) are tasks within the scope of the recommendation that need to be accomplished within a defined period of time. A task in turn may consist of one or more assignments that need to be executed under the responsibility of stakeholders. Actions can be linked together to create dependencies that are important to understand and have clear, as it might influence their sequencing.

48 Actions each need to deliver outcomes that must contribute one by one to the realization of the recommendation (that in turn address the challenges). As such outcomes must be measurable qualitatively or quantitatively e.g. implementation of a library management system, or three staff members trained in digital collection management. The actions need to be implemented with the support of stakeholders. In the case of ICT related capacity building or infrastructure review, the main stakeholder will be the ICT Department (or Centre or Unit), and others are the respective users from departments where changes will take place. Again looking at the service process system maps from step 1 will provide information on the relevant stakeholders. With regard to priority of the actions, these should correspond to the priority level of the recommendations. Formulating the Action Plan Roadmap Strategic goals, priorities and dependencies Having worked through describing the recommendations, the related actions, key stakeholders outcomes and priorities, and having justified how these will address the challenges, the action plan can next be drawn up. The action plan needs to make clear how the actions will be planned over the next three five years. It is recommended to start formulating the action plan using Table 13(see below PRD example); in this particular example the action plan is made for three years (for a strategy plan of five years) Action Stakeholders Resources / Inputs Needed Priority Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Recommendation: Communication and Information Dissemination Planning and Coordination Quarter Quarter Quarter PRD to be represented on the communication and information dissemination Committee PRD, Communication and Information Dissemination Committee (CIDC) Medium X Recommendation: Communication and Information Dissemination Planning Development Programme Formulation of ICT Training and Development Programme for PRD PRD, ICT Department, CIDC External technical assistance in guiding the process of formulating and planning the High X

49 Action Stakeholders Resources / Inputs Needed Priority Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Quarter Quarter Quarter ICT Development Programme Planning and implementation of PRD portal PRD, CIDC, ICT Department High X X Planning and implementation of digital repository PRD, CIDC, ICT Department CIDC, ICT Expertise from other parliament High X X X X X X X X Recommendation: Communication and Information Dissemination Planning Services Formulation of internal information management and communication processes PRD, CIDC Information management and communication expertise from other parliament Medium X X Job description & recruitment of communication and information dissemination focal point/ Support Manager PRD High Medium X Table 13 : Action Plan for Communication and Information Dissemination In the two outer left columns the actions and stakeholders are listed per strategic recommendation. The third column resources required (from the left) may provide information on important prerequisites for an activity. Sometimes resources are not yet in place and might have to be produced by other activities. As such the resources required column might reveal interdependencies among activities. The fourth column priority reflects the priority level of the action. The columns with the years and quarters are indicative of when an activity would have to be executed. Determining the quarter in which an activity needs to happen is the result of a thorough analysis of the priorities and dependencies of actions. While there is no straightforward formula for getting the planning completely right; it is a matter of iterative analysis, considering and reconsidering activities and questioning their benefits in the grand scheme of trying to close gaps, and so to reach the strategic goals and objectives. The presentation of the Action Plan, in the strategy document, should be accompanied with a complete narrative that thoroughly explains why activity X is scheduled before activity Y, at the

50 beginning of year 1 and not at the end of year 1 etc. Budgeting In combination with formulating the Action Plan also a budget needs to be produced. In the end it will be about the availability of time and resources versus priorities that determine whether the leadership will commit itself to the action plan. Each parliament may have its own methods for financial accounting and calculating the cost of activities. As such the financial manager or accountant of the parliament should also be consulted in producing the budget of the action plan. A methods that is worth considering is Activity Based Costing, especially since it departs from activities (actions), and would thus complement the action plan. Besides this method is also frequently used for presenting budgets within the international donor community. The method for activity based costing is simple: Form cost pools: where cost pools are groups or categories of individual expense items; the parliament's financial accounting may categorise expenses by spending code such as: salaries, fringe benefits, utilities, travel, communication etc; Identify activities: we already have a comprehensive overview of actions through the Action Plan; Map resource costs to activities: for each activity should be looked at what are the ingredients that are needed e.g. a workshop might need: location, meals, travel etc; Define activity cost drivers: i.e. indicate how much of each ingredient will be required for such an activity (action); Calculate cost: which is the sum of all ingredients times their unit cost. In presenting the budget of the action plan overviews may be created: by recommendation and activity by year by category of expenses per year Review Once all is on paper, the action plan would have to be submitted for review to the same group of stakeholders who initially provided its inputs through the strategic goals and objectives in Step 2. It would be up to them to request for reconsideration or clarification of actions to be carried out, costing and other planning and resources issues. Finally after this review and subsequent revisions it would be up to the highest parliamentary leadership to sign off the action plan. In the next chapter we will discuss more in detail the considerations and tools for executing, overseeing and evaluating the action plan.

51 Additional resources IT Systems Processes streamlining: e government.html es_e.pdf Service Oriented Architecture: Action planning: Activity Based Costing: based_costing

52 The Strategy and action plan: implementation & evaluation After the strategy document and the action plan have been reviewed and signed off it is time to look at the implementation considerations. In this chapter we specifically look at the pre requisites for implementing action plans, including oversight and management mechanisms that must be in place both at the strategic and project level. In this context we look at how the political and administrative leadership of the parliament can exercise control over the implementation through specialized bodies and specific project management tools for among others carrying out project evaluation exercises and consolidating lessons learned. Concerning the specific implementation of technology we look at the available tools, including the enterprise architecture that can be used as a reference for further developing the parliamentary ICT architecture while adhering to technological choices that ensure interoperability and a lower total cost of ownership. To conclude the chapter we look at how to evaluate the strategy through the mid term review, in terms of preparation and execution. The cycle of strategic planning Strategic planning is not a one time single document or product. Instead it is a holistic process that provides for the review, revision, and updating of plans on a continuing basis as goals, objectives, technologies, projects, and resources change. It is a means for ensuring that parliamentary strengthening initiatives remain focused on the goals of the parliament, and that they occur on an appropriate schedule and with the appropriate resources 2. Fig. 1: The cycle of strategic planning: strategy plan, mid term review and action plans 2 World e Parliament Report 2008