ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guidelines

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Standards, Policies and Guidelines - Malaysian Public Sector ICT Strategic Plan Guide

Version 1.0

August 2003

Standards, Policies and Guidelines – ICT Strategic Plan Guideline

File name: ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guideline Version 1.0 Page 2 of 71 Date 17/08/2003

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 Objective 5

1.2 Scope 5

2. ICT STRATEGIC PLAN OVERVIEW 7

2.1 Why do we need an ICT Strategic Plan 8

2.2 Our Approach 9

2.2.1 The Malaysian Public Sector Methodology 9

2.2.2 Resources 10

2.2.3 Fact Finding 11

2.3 Assumptions 11

3. STAGE 1: ANALYSE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 12

3.1 Phase 1: Develop Agency Overview 12

3.1.1 Task A: Understand the background of the agency 12

3.1.2 Task B: Understand agency visioning and mission statement 15

3.2 Phase 2: Review of Current Business Environment 16

3.2.1 Task C: Develop an understanding of corporate strategies 17

3.2.2 Task D: Review current issues and opportunities 18

3.2.3 Task E: Develop the first-cut vision of opportunities and directions 20

3.2.4 Task F: Determine agency value chain 21

3.3 Phase 3: Identify Areas of Potential Strategic Advantage 22

3.3.1 Task G: Understand current business trends 22

3.3.2 Task H: Identify immediate ICT implications or contributions 23

3.3.3 Task I: Consolidate findings 24

4. STAGE 2: ANALYSE ICT ENVIRONMENT 25

4.1 Phase 1: Perform ICT Assessment 26

4.1.1 Task J: Review agency’s current ICT strategy, plans and budget 27

4.1.2 Task K: Perform high-level current ICT environment review 27



4.1.3 Task L: Assess organisation and management 29

4.1.4 Task M: Assess applications and data 31

4.1.5 Task N: Assess technology infrastructure 33

4.1.6 Task O: Assess service delivery 35

4.1.7 Task P: Assess the strategic impact 37

4.2 Phase 2: Recommend Short Term Action 40

4.2.1 Task Q: Consolidate findings 41

4.2.2 Task R: Identify short-term ICT improvement projects 41

5. STAGE 3: DEVELOP ICT STRATEGY 42

5.1 Phase 1: Identify ICT Opportunities 42

5.1.1 Task S: Identify major ICT opportunities 43

5.1.2 Task T: Determine the benefits of ICT opportunities 45

5.1.3 Task U: Determine risks of ICT opportunities 46

5.2 Phase 2: Define Target Applications 47

5.2.1 Task V: Develop initial TA 47

5.2.2 Task W: Build TA overview 49

5.2.3 Task X: Prioritise TA 50

5.2.4 Task Y: Confirm TA with management 51

5.3 Phase 3: Develop Technology Strategy 52

5.3.1 Task Z: Identify technology trends 52

5.3.2 Task AA: Define principles for developing technology strategies 52

5.3.3 Task AB: Determine technology requirements 53

5.3.4 Task AC: Determine target technology architecture 53

5.3.5 Task AD: Formulate technology strategy 54

5.4 Phase 4: Develop ICT Governance Framework 55

5.4.1 Task AE: Revisit ICT organisation and management issues 56

5.4.2 Task AF: Identify ICT services and skills required 56

5.4.3 Task AG: Develop ICT governance framework 57

6. STAGE 4: DEVELOP IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 60



6.1 What is an Implementation Plan? 60

6.2 Phase 1: Develop Implementation Roadmap 61

6.2.1 Task AH: Develop and rank projects 61

6.2.2 Task AI: Prepare for transition strategy 62

6.2.3 Task AJ: Formulate implementation strategy 64

6.3 Phase 2: Estimate Financial Implications 66

6.3.1 Task AK: Estimate project costing 66

7. POSSIBLE TABLE OF CONTENT FOR ISP REPORT 68

8. ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 71



1. Introduction

The Malaysian Public Sector Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Strategic Plan Guide is prepared to assist Government agencies in developing their

ICT strategic plans.

1.1 Objective

The objective of this document is to provide a guideline that represents activities and

tasks involved in developing an ICT Strategic Plan. This guideline consists of a

methodology that follows a set of standard steps grouped in 4 major stages:

• Stage 1: Analyse Business Environment;

• Stage 2: Analyse ICT Environment;

• Stage 3: Develop ICT Strategy; and

• Stage 4: Develop Implementation Plan

1.2 Scope

An ICT Strategic Plan is a blueprint developed for an agency for the use of ICT, which

is both cost effective and aligned with prioritised management and operational needs.

This plan will lead to the identification of strategic initiatives, either new or already

underway, which can be aided by application systems, technology and governance.

An ICT Strategic Plan contains several elements that drive the development of the

plan:

• Business alignment

o Establishing a communication path, shared understanding of technology

and business domains, and integrating, to some extent, the business and

ICT planning process; and

o Clearly assessing the ICT impact of business imperatives.



• Vision

o Establishing the broad tenets and "product" set for ICT delivery today and

several years ahead.

• Allocation and Value

o Understanding the value of current spending and ICT resource allocation;

and

o Adjusting the spending according to business priorities.

• Enabling

o Identifying areas to apply emerging technologies and trends that have the

potential for competitive differentiation or operational benefit

• Governing and Capabilities

o Instituting the proper sourcing and responsibilities of ICT delivered

products to manage across organizational or ICT boundaries; and

o Identifying the competencies necessary for delivery.

• Action and Measurement

o Creating the valuation model and prioritized initiative portfolio to drive

downstream effort and execution; and

o Providing a systematic means of determining the most appropriate strategic

investments and to ensure that the government agency is prepared to

develop and implement them in the most effective and efficient way.



2. ICT Strategic Plan Overview

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an increasingly powerful tool

for improving the delivery of government services, enhancing ICT development

opportunities and participating in global markets. Like other key business resources,

the ICT applications require strategic thinking; just as individuals need financial

strategies, human resource strategies and environmental strategies. A strategy is the

pattern of missions, objectives, policies, and significant resource utilisation plans

stated in such a way as to define what business the agency is in (or is to be in) and the

kind of agency it is or is to be, therefore strategy and business visions are closely

linked. A complete statement of strategy will define:

• Service line and the customers;

• Customers segments for which services are to be designed;

• Channels through which these customers will be reached;

• The means by which the operation is to be financed;

• Service objectives; and

• The "image" which the agency will project to its customers.

An ICT strategy is intended to align the application of ICT to the organisation’s overall

business strategy. The ICT strategy is also needed to plan for critical ICT investments

in a complex and fast changing environment. It assesses strategic needs and

opportunities for ICT applications, justifies investments and plans ICT related

transitions and migrations.

Generally, the objectives of an ICT strategy are to:

• Establish a clear ICT direction based upon the business needs;

• Adjust the ICT capability and delivery to respond to the business imperatives; and

• Determine fundamental approaches and choices for applications, organisation and

infrastructure.



2.1 Why do we need an ICT Strategic Plan

The recent advances and fast pace in ICT is changing business processes and

structures, reshaping relationships with business partners and competitors, and in some

cases they even cause the transformation of an agency.

An ICT Strategic Plan will address the alignment between the strategic operational

requirements of an agency enterprise and the planned and economically justified

application of technology assets. This alignment is best achieved when ICT has been

deployed as an enabler of one or more cross-functional business processes. The basic

interplay between the business strategy area of expertise and the ICT strategy area of

expertise is the dynamic between business "requirements push" and "technology pull".

The “requirement push” is the direct specification of information and processing needs

by the business. However, true competitive advantages are very often gained through

"technology pull". This occurs when the business is made aware of opportunities

through insight and understanding of the capabilities of technology. Without this

insight there may be no customer self-service, costly information exchange, and a

disadvantage in establishing eBusiness and eCommerce.

In summary, the ICT Strategic Plan will help the agency to:

• Apply ICT creatively in order to obtain competitive advantage and support

business strategy;

• Ensure that ICT investments are cost-effective and benefits are measured against

planned goals/ budgets;

• Control ICT expenditures;

• Protect existing ICT investments;

• Resolve conflicting demands for limited ICT resources;

• Obtain joint ICT management/ user commitment; and

• Avoid ad-hoc ICT projects.



2.2 Our Approach

2.2.1 The Malaysian Public Sector Methodology

This guide was developed based on the PwC’s ascendantTM suite of implementation

methodology for strategic ICT planning which includes ICT environment assessment

and planning, systems evaluation and selection, and also programme and project

management. It integrates the business process, functional assessment and change

integration with ICT and has been tailored accordingly to suit the Public Sector needs.

The methodology adopts the 4-stage approach that answers the Why, What, How and

When questions for each activities of an ICT Strategic Plan formulation. The stages are

then broken down into phases (as shown in Figure 1) and each phase contains steps

and detailed activities.

Figure 1: ICT Strategy Approach

Develop Agency Overview

Review of Current Business

Environment

Identify Areas of Potential Strategic

Advantage

Analyse Business Environment (WHY?)

Analyse ICT Environment (WHAT?)

Develop ICT Strategy(HOW?)

Develop Implementation Plan (WHEN?)

Perform ICT Assessment

Recommend Short-term

Action

Define Target Applications

Develop Technology

Strategy

Develop ICT Governance Framework

Develop ICT Implementation

Roadmap

Estimate Financial

Implication

Identify ICT Opportunities

Develop Agency Overview

Review of Current Business

Environment

Identify Areas of Potential Strategic

Advantage

Analyse Business Environment (WHY?)

Analyse ICT Environment (WHAT?)

Develop ICT Strategy(HOW?)

Develop Implementation Plan (WHEN?)

Perform ICT Assessment

Recommend Short-term

Action

Define Target Applications

Develop Technology

Strategy

Develop ICT Governance Framework

Develop ICT Implementation

Roadmap

Estimate Financial

Implication

Identify ICT Opportunities



ICT Strategic Plan outputs are produced in every phase of this methodology. Broadly,

these output are categorised into deliverables and interim output. Deliverables are

provided to the agency for approval, usually making the completion of a stage and are

formal project documents. Interim outputs are internal project team documents that

support the mark progress toward the deliverables.

The two principle deliverables of the methodology are:

• An ICT Strategy which consists of a framework or a set of guidelines for the

development and use of ICT; and

• An ICT Strategy Implementation Plan to implement the strategy.

2.2.2 Resources

It is important to identify the key people that will be involved and the level of

participation in the ICT Strategic Plan development for each agency. This will

facilitate the planning for consultation and fact-finding. Consider the following items:

• Agency’s level – whether it is a ministry, department or unit, etc;

• Size of the agency;

• Scope of the ICT Strategic Plan (e.g. covering the Ministry and agencies or

Ministry only)

• Responsibility and main function of agency;

• Elapsed time allocated for the ICT Strategic Plan;

• Budget allocated for the ICT Strategic Plan; and

• Range of staffs involved, based on experience and skills

It is recommended that an ICT Strategic Plan project team have a common

understanding on each team member’s role and time commitment. Identify clearly the

reporting structure, (including the project steering committee) and external assistance

or contributors, if planned to have any.



2.2.3 Fact Finding

Fact-findings and consultation are done to obtain representative views and functions of

an agency. Depending on various levels of stakeholders and the objective of the

discussion, ICT Strategic Plan project team must agree on the technique that will be

involved, either an interview, survey, workshop, site visit, correspondence or

questionnaire. The team must ensure that they move along a common path towards

achieving their objectives and shared vision.

2.3 Assumptions

Completing an ICT Strategic Plan is just the beginning, not the end. An ICT Strategic

Plan should be reviewed with each major change, each time an agency reviews its

business plan, or at least annually. Every three years or so, there should be a

consideration to develop a new plan, taking comprehensive fresh look at the

department or agency, its environment and business direction.

An ICT Strategic Plan has no right or wrong answer. Those involved in an ICT

Strategic Plan development can use this guide to leverage it according to the

complexity of the project scope and choose whether to scale up or scale down. It is not

intended to be totally precise, allowing room for changes in the environment, unique

situations, or special talents of team members.

Not all the activities shown in this guide must be accomplished, but these activities

provide a guideline on the important aspects of organising an ICT Strategic Plan. Bear

in mind that judgment is an important factor in formulating a strategy, to which detail

often adds little or no advantages. The main thing is to focus on the important element

of the agency’s business and avoid drilling into unnecessary details.



3. Stage 1: Analyse Business Environment

During this stage an understanding of the background of the agency and its business

strategy is achieved at a high level. The main focus would be on the agency’s main

functions, business issues, opportunities and outcomes. The primary objectives of this

stage are to:

• Clarify and document the agency’s corporate and individual business objectives,

strategy and capabilities;

• Build and refine a strategic framework which documents and links agency

objectives, business strategies and strategic initiatives; and

• Understand the current market relevant to the agency’s nature of business

3.1 Phase 1: Develop Agency Overview

The purpose of this phase is to obtain a high-level overview of the agency, including

its mission, vision, objectives and client charter, and main business activities.

Information can be extracted from agency’s existing business strategic plan, external

databases, annual reports, and other unit planning and strategic documents that can

assist the research. If the agency already has an existing ICT Strategic Plan, it can be

used to gain an understanding of past objectives, strategies, plans and required

business and technical capabilities. Note: Do not go into unnecessary depth during this

initial review of materials and documents.

3.1.1 Task A: Understand the background of the agency

Collect and conduct a high-level review of the agency’s background and core business.

Take note of the agency’s structure, main functions of each unit, the relationship with

external agencies or suppliers and the agency’s business and technical capabilities.



Activity 1: Identify agency's business objectives (corporate and functional)

The corporate business objective is an agency mission that describes what the agency

provides as well as a description of its customers and their expectations. The business

objectives support the agency mission and represent broad statements of direction

indicating what the agency aims to achieve. An example of a business objective is "To

address citizens and businesses requests within 3 days”.

Activity 2: Understand agency roles and responsibilities

Gather the agency’s main activities and functions and understand how each goals and

objectives are in line with its sectoral plans and national plan mission statement.

Activity 3: Identify the agency’s organisation structure

• It is important to recognise not only an organisational structure, but the

functional structure as well. One of the major determinants of an application

system definition is that it covers groups of functional processes. Figure 2

documents an agency structure.

Enterprise

Business segments

Business functions

Business process

Figure 2: Enterprise Structure



The agency level defines the overall agency strategy of an agency. At this level, the

agency can be sub-divided into one or more business segment levels, each one of

which can be defined as a single business unit operating and managed as a single entry.

The business segment level is where business strategy is set and defined. The business

function level is an interdependent level derived from the business segment managed

as a single entity, such as marketing, production, finance, etc. The business process is a

subdivision of a business function that usually represents the lowest level to which a

single application system is applied in a business function.

Activity 4: Document the executive management view of the agency

Through discussions or meetings with the senior management, obtain an overall view

of the agency from their point of view. This activity could also be done at the project

initialisation stage or later in the next task (Agency visioning and mission statement).

Activity 5: Identify agency's suppliers and customers

Identify the major suppliers and customers for the agency and determine other

agencies that are also serviced by the same suppliers and customers.

Activity 6: Identify agency's strengths and weaknesses

Strengths can relate to research and development, mastery of a technological process,

manufacturing capability, distribution, customer service, or anything else that may be

an important aspect of creating, producing, or delivering products or services.

Weaknesses can relate to any issues or constraints that impedes an agency’s progress.



3.1.2 Task B: Understand agency visioning and mission statement

This task involves gathering the agency’s strategic vision and mission and targets that

are aligned with the national agenda. This task also establishes an understanding of

how ICT will be contributing to the business in the future, usually some time beyond

the time horizon of the strategic plan.

Activity 1: Understand the strategic vision and mission of agency

Review the business directions and strategies, such as its strategic positioning, targets

and timeline associated with national economic and social development. Put an

emphasis on:

• The ICT implications; and

• New business possibilities enabled by the application of ICT

Activity 2: Identify agency targets

This is an extension of the previous activity. List out all the agency’s targets that are

put forward. Identify those that contribute to the development of ICT or e-

Government.

Activity 3: Document the mission statement

There is no recipe for writing vision statements; they depend essentially upon

“strategic insight” – being able to identify the key elements of the vision with a

balance between generality and meaning. Nevertheless, some basic components can be

identified, such as headings or slogans (e.g. Virtual Library), ICT in general/ particular

applications, tools and facilities, broad business impact or outcome and business driver

or strategy involved.

Document the agency corporate mission, objectives, industry or market participation,

competitive strengths and strategies.



3.2 Phase 2: Review of Current Business Environment

The purposes of this phase are to develop an understanding of the agency’s corporate

strategy and identify current business issues and opportunities to assist in later stages.

At the end of this phase, an agency value chain will be documented to show current

process areas. This phase involves a series of interviews targeted at senior management

level (CEO, CIO, Director General, Head of Department, etc.).

The information gathered during the interview will provide an input to the “as-is”

status of the business environment. The major steps that should be undertaken in this

information gathering process are:

• Preparation – prepare a list of interview questions and identify the target

interviewees, review available information and distribute interview guides

before the real interview;

• Data Gathering – interview business leaders and other designated employees,

prepare formal record of interview and provide preliminary feedback;

• Analysis – summarise data gathered in the interviews into a business strategy

framework; and

• Validation – provide feedback of results to the leaders for review and

validation and send them back to show the team’s understanding.



3.2.1 Task C: Develop an understanding of corporate strategies

Identify the agency’s business strategies as any set of policies and plans developed to

achieve business objectives and performance targets.

Activity 1: Identify corporate business strategies

A business strategy may include various strategy types, such as:

• Investment strategy: for the investment of money or capital for profitable returns;

• Marketing strategy: for advertising, packaging, pricing, selling, and delivering

products or services to existing or potential customers;

• Operating strategy: for operating the agency; and

• Resource strategy: for the acquisition, maintenance, and management of resources

The statement of a business strategy should be identified in terms of strategy elements

such as product lines, markets, supply channels, size of agency and means of

operational financing.

Activity 2: Prepare an overview of the business strategies

Summarise and document the agency’s business strategies, present it to the

management and discuss and resolve any issues.



3.2.2 Task D: Review current issues and opportunities

A more exhaustive interview should be done to understand current issues and

constraints faced by the agency such as:

• Organisational, cultural or policy related issues which present barriers or

constraints to the formulation, review, or implementation of the ICT strategy; and

• Immediate problem areas, normally of a technical or procedural nature, which

affect the short term efficiency or effectiveness of technology

Potential opportunities should also be identified to achieve agency’s goals and targets.

Focus on how technology can support the opportunities and determine the relative

priorities of these opportunities. Formally document these issues and opportunities for

improvement.

Activity 1: Identify and document cultural issues and opportunities

Gather input on the good and bad elements of the current agency culture. Stay at a high

level and capture information in bullet points during the interview. During the

interview, assess the gap between what the leader perceives the culture to be and the

leader's perception of what it needs to be.

Activity 2: Identify and document skill issues and opportunities

Obtain information about management's perception of current skill levels in their units.

Some questions that can be asked are:

• What skills are required (at a high level) for the unit function to satisfy its mission,

strategies, critical success factors, and to reach targeted levels of performance?;

• Does the business unit or function have those skills at the levels required?;

• What performance measurement systems assess skill-based contributions to

performance in key areas?; and

• What additional skills are needed to support performance in key areas?



Activity 3: Identify and evaluate other external environment forces

Assess the impact of external environment forces on the attractiveness of each market;

these may include government regulation, technological changes, and environmental

factors such as social trends or conventions.

Activity 4: Determine how the agency operates under external constraints

Assess the success of the agency in achieving performance goals while meeting

external agency requirements or other external constraints.

Activity 5: Identify and document issues and opportunities associated with the

external environment forces

Identify and document the issues and opportunities relating to the efficiency and

effectiveness of communications used by the agency with the external agencies.

Activity 6: Identify and document issues and opportunities associated with suppliers

and strategic business partners

Identify and document any additional suppliers and/or strategic business partners of the

agency based on process areas (value chain), business processes and the primitive

process areas and elementary processes.

Activity 7: Determine key organisational interfaces

Determine the key organisational interfaces between the supplier and strategic business

partner and the agency internal work processes. Identify the processes and/or tasks

used to conduct that interface, and where in the agency the interfaces are managed.



3.2.3 Task E: Develop the first-cut vision of opportunities and directions

The purpose of this task is to assess and prioritise the business opportunities based on

the established evaluation criteria. A first-cut vision of business opportunities and

directions is selected and understood for further investigation in the Analysis stage.

Note: Business opportunities that do not have a significant dependence on technology

will probably have little influence on the ICT strategy. Management may wish,

however, to carry these opportunities forward for further investigation outside of the

scope of the project as a special study.

Activity 1: Establish criteria for decision-making

Establish criteria (e.g. policies, practices and cultural aspects) for evaluating options

and justifying the ICT strategy. Obtain an agreement in principle on the criteria that

management will use in making business decisions about investment in ICT.

Activity 2: Prioritise potential opportunities

Assess the merits of the potential business opportunities, focusing on the contributions

of ICT. Determine the relative priorities of the opportunities.

Activity 3: Determine issues, assumptions and constraints

Consider the areas of the business affected by the use of technology. May be

replication of previous task.

Activity 4: Select opportunities for further investigation

Select and recommend to management opportunities for further investigation. Keep the

number of opportunities relatively small. Focus on the major, high priority

opportunities. The business opportunities that do not have a significant dependence on

technology will probably have little influence on the ICT strategy. Management may

wish, however, to carry these opportunities forward for further investigation outside of

the scope of the ICT Strategic Plan development.



3.2.4 Task F: Determine agency value chain

An agency value chain (e.g. financial value chain which covers processes from

budgeting to operational expenditures) will represent the current processes of the area

of interest for the agency centred on major resources. It can be used to determine

where a company possesses strategic advantage or disadvantage.

Activity 1: Identify value chain process areas

Define functional groupings of key activities as preliminary process areas. Process

areas should be classified as either value chain process areas or support process areas.

Activity 2: Prepare an overview of the agency’s value chain

Document the agency’s value chain and support process areas that the agency

undertakes to deliver value to customers in the form of products and services. Present

the project team's understanding of the agency’s value chain to management.



3.3 Phase 3: Identify Areas of Potential Strategic Advantage

Areas of potential strategic advantage are areas within an agency, defined at high level,

where the application of ICT would provide an agency with competitive advantage.

The purpose of this phase is to identify the immediate ICT implications in each area

that contribute to successful ICT implementation based on local or international

practices.

3.3.1 Task G: Understand current business trends

Extend the research on either local or international practices to determine current

trends on similar nature of business with agency and how each can contribute to

agency specific needs, especially on the use of ICT.

Activity 1: Review local or overseas best practices or developments

Identify other Government initiatives or efforts taken locally or abroad. Sought to

understand the leading practices (or case studies) and their lessons learnt in relation to

the role of agency and the enabling environment that is required for successful ICT

implementation.

Activity 2: Determine the contribution of ICT in supporting the current agency’s

business strategies and national goals

Come up with a list of initial ICT opportunities from other agencies, local or overseas,

that can relate to the agency’s nature of business, for example, online taxation for the

Ministry of Finance.



3.3.2 Task H: Identify immediate ICT implications or contributions

Opportunities for gaining strategic advantage through the use of ICT are identified on a

preliminary basis. Insight gained as to where the ICT applications can provide

significant return on investment provides a basis for refinement of the scope and

approach for the next stages.

Activity 1: Identify what ICT can contribute based on the agency’s value chain

Based on the analysis done in Task F. Other techniques that can also be used are:

• Competitive analysis of the external environment; or

• CSF analysis; or

• Organisational impact analysis; or

• Applicability of emerging technologies.

Critical Success Factor (CSF) is closely link to the agency’s value chain. CSF refers to

the limited numbers of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful

competitive performance for the individual, department, or agency. They are the few

key areas where "things must go right" for the business to flourish and for the

manager's goals to be attained. Define the critical success factors for each of the

agency-level business objectives based on a review of background documentation,

industry research, and interviews with management.

Activity 2: Determine CSF performance measures and targets

CSFs should always be measurable. For instance, rather than having a CSF which says

"provide excellent customer service," it should be stated in specific terms such as

product quality, product delivery, product inventory, or product warranty, which are

factors that must be considered in meeting the business objective to "provide excellent

customer service". Determine one or more performance measures for each critical

success factor that can be used to assess performance (i.e., efficiency and/or

effectiveness) in achieving the critical success factor.



Determine the targets for each CSF performance measure. The performance measures

should specify what to be measured and the targets should define the acceptable range

of results for the critical success factor. For example: "Hire 100 graduates in the top

10% of their class from ... by FYE June 30, 1995," would be a performance target of

the business objective "Hire the best and brightest."

Activity 3: Link business strategies to performance targets

Link the business strategies to the CSF. The CSFs are the few key areas in which

successful performance will lead to the achievement of the agency’s business

objectives.

Activity 4: Prepare the Enterprise Performance Framework

Document the agency’s performance framework, by defining the mission, business

objectives, and critical success factors (CSFs) that apply to the agency. Ensure that the

project is focused on improving the performance of the business and that project scope

is defined to support business objectives.

3.3.3 Task I: Consolidate findings

Compile the results from the business environment assessment and prepare a list of

areas of potential strategic advantage. Determine executive management and

perception of ICT strategic importance.



4. Stage 2: Analyse ICT Environment The need to preserve and enhance current ICT investments could be a major

constraining factor in developing an agency’s ICT strategy. Information about the

current ICT environment needs to be gathered and assessed. The objectives of this

stage are to:

• Identify the agency’s current ICT readiness and potential in supporting the

government through ICT initiatives;

• Identify the current progress of these initiatives and examine their relative

strengths and importance; and

• Perform ICT assessment to measure ICT usage and effectiveness of agency

This stage involves a series of assessment on the current ICT environment that are

based on 5 major groups as shown below:

Figure 3: The 5 areas of ICT assessment

• Strategy: examines what ICT strategies are in place, how effectively they support

the business and how the business manages and controls ICT.

• Delivery: examines how resources are organised, monitored and controlled to

deliver ICT services and ICT projects.

• People: examines how ICT human resources are organised and managed in ICT

and examines the skills and attitudes of users and ICT staff.

• Technology: examines how technology trends are identified, the effectiveness of

the technology architecture and how technology is deployed.

Systems

People

Technology

Delivery

Strategy



• Systems: examines the business functions that are supported by ICT applications,

the extent of coverage, the gaps that exist in the information provided by these

systems and seeks to identify any unsatisfied demand that may exist.

For Strategy, most were covered in the earlier stage when defining the overall mission

of the agency, with respect to ICT. The focus would mainly be on the remaining 4

groups.

4.1 Phase 1: Perform ICT Assessment

An ICT assessment is a process of identifying existing applications, hardware and

other technology architecture components that exist in the ICT environment. The

purpose of this phase is to assess the key components of the current ICT environment

in determining the ICT capabilities to meet the current and future needs of the

business. This analysis will be key to identifying short term and long-term

opportunities to improve the ICT environment and used in the gap analysis and

identification of strategic initiatives.

Performing ICT assessment requires information gathering from reviewing existing

documentation, system investigation and interviewing agency’s staff at management

and operational level. Templates should be provided to obtain input from information

gathering. Various methods can be used to gather information. One of the possible

information gathering techniques is questionnaire. The response can be formed into an

application assessment spreadsheet that provides an average for each question in the

surveys. These averages are the basis for the analysis. Analyse results to look for

patterns in the responses of satisfaction or business and technical issues.



4.1.1 Task J: Review agency’s current ICT strategy, plans and budget

This task will cover the Strategy dimension of the assessment. Main activities include:

• Understand the ICT and business strategy alignment;

• Understanding policies and guidelines for ICT management and implementation

that have been put in place for the agency to operate in an ICT environment;

• Reviewing past year actual budget and actual year forecast budget for ICT

infrastructure and application development. Break down by expense category,

business unit and work type. “Normalise” budget across years so that the unusual

or one-time expense (such as Y2K) are recognised; and

• Prioritising strategic initiatives and prepare high-level cost estimates for related

projects for next year and the duration of the project.

4.1.2 Task K: Perform high-level current ICT environment review

Collect relevant information about the existing ICT environment and conduct a high-

level review to identify opportunities and issues that should be considered when

defining the project scope. This review should be conducted at a high level and

judgment should be exercised to prevent delving into unnecessary detail since the

objective is to allow the project scope and boundaries to be accurately assessed.

Additional information gathered and more detailed analysis completed later. Any

information gathered should be reviewed to ensure it is current.

Activity 1: Establish relationship with information system and related departments

Organise and conduct meetings with information systems and related departments to

gain access to corporate knowledge associated with the existing ICT infrastructure and

with the legacy systems.



Activity 2: Review background documentation

Review background documents to gain an initial understanding of the project and the

current ICT infrastructure, such as:

• System abstracts (for application efforts);

• Required ICT architectures (for specific products);

• Inventories of ICT applications and data files;

• Inventories of ICT systems and technology components;

• Profiles of user and ICT organisation skills;

• Current system architecture; and

• Current system service levels (e.g. service level agreements)

This review should be conducted at a high level without going into unnecessary depth.

Obtain a clear statement of the business goals and target applications that the ICT

infrastructure design must support. It is not sufficient to only analyse technical factors.

Activity 3: Complete high-level review of existing ICT environment

Focus the review of the existing ICT environment on platforms and applications,

operations and support, ICT organisation structure and standards and pre-existing

decisions. The depth of the analysis to be completed in this step needs to be carefully

related to project scope before the work commences since it is easy to spend too much

time gathering excessive detail.

Activity 4: Understand the current ICT function

Complete a high-level assessment of the current ICT function, based on a comparison

with best practices and industry norms.

Activity 5: Identify issues and improvement goals

Identify the primary issues and opportunities for improvement based on the

preliminary review of existing ICT environment.



4.1.3 Task L: Assess organisation and management

This task will cover the People dimension of the assessment. In this task, existing skill

levels are assessed to determine the degree to which they enable and will continue to

enable the agency to reach its performance goals. The task assesses the degree to which

groups of people in the agency have attained needed levels of knowledge and skills.

The primary focus is on business units or support functions (such as financial

management, ICT management) with skill issues or questions that arose in the skill

evaluation.

Activity 1: Understand current knowledge and skills

Knowledge and skills are the "what" and "how" of work. To establish skills in an area,

an individual must know what to do and how to do it. Three important characteristics

of a skill are flexibility, effectiveness and context sensitivity. Assess the operational

skills, management and team leading skills and job task skills and identify the gaps that

currently exist.

Activity 2: Determine existing ICT organisation

Review the existing ICT organisation to identify potential transition and/or support

risks and determine the training and hiring needs. Consider the following:

• Purpose of the ICT organisation and management unit;

• Management level;

• Number of staff and skill sets (including the distribution) for users, system

analysts, application developers, data and database administrators, data security

administrators and system administrators;

• Areas of accountability and responsibility;

• Application services and practices;

• Third party roles;

• Budget, cost of budget and funding; and

• Performance measures and rewards



Activity 3: Assess communication

The communication assessment should aim to determine the following information:

• Review the effectiveness of external (e.g., with customers and suppliers) and

internal (e.g., amount individuals and business units within the agency)

communication

• Assess the appropriateness of the way people in the agency communicate;

• Focus on bottlenecks and barriers that interfere with the ability to get information

needed to make critical decisions in a well informed and timely fashion; and

• Create and deliver messages in ways that are meaningful to and preferred by the

target audience.

Activity 4: Understand integrating mechanisms (cross-functional business units)

Assess the mechanism that exists within the agency to link the activities with shared

responsibilities, for example:

• Individual cross-business roles (e.g. coordinator);

• Cross business committee or teams (e.g. sales or ICT liaison group);

• Project teams (e.g. new product launch team, relocation project team); and

• Informal mechanism (e.g. personal network, informal support group).

Activity 5: Determine organisation and management issues and opportunities

Determine and document organisation and management issues and opportunities for

improvement.



4.1.4 Tas k M: Assess applications and data

This task will cover the Systems dimension of the assessment. Assess the functionality

of the applications that supports the business function. This will provide a basis for the

definition and design of the target environment.

Activity 1: Identify ICT components supporting systems

Categorise the ICT components according to hardware, system software, data

management software, EDI software, operations support software and

telecommunication software.

Activity 2: Identify system interface

Determine the interfaces between current systems. These interfaces may be direct

interfaces through a transaction or indirect interfaces through a data set (one or more

shared data set or batch transaction).

Activity 3: Review system documentation

Identify and review the documentation for each current system, both on-line and paper-

based such as:

• Process documentation;

• Process documentation (e.g., Event Response Analysis, Process Dependency

Diagrams, Process Descriptions);

• Data documentation (e.g., Conceptual Data Model, Logical Data Model, Physical

Data Storage Characteristics, Data Dictionary);

• Test documentation (e.g., Test Plans and Test Data for system and acceptance

testing);

• Specifications (e.g., Edit/Validation Specifications, System Diagrams, Window

Layout/Definitions, Program Macro Diagrams, Report Definitions);

• Source program listings;

• Sample input forms and outputs;

• User documentation; and



• Operations manuals

Activity 4: Understand system components

Identify the software components of each current system included in the analysis.

Software components include program source code, common logic modules, job

streams (e.g., JCL, Unix scripts), DLL members and executable programs

Activity 5: Review systems support for business p rocesses and objectives

Review the support and strategic impact for the business processes by the current or

planned systems or applications.

Activity 6: Define systems scope

Determine the criteria to be used in selecting the systems or applications relevant to the

scope and objectives of the project. Achieve agreement with the executive

management, key stakeholders and the project's steering committee.

Activity 8: Determine application issues and opportunities

Determine and document application issues and opportunities for improvement.



4.1.5 Task N: Assess technology infrastructure

This task will cover the Technology dimension of the assessment. Determine the

effectiveness of the existing infrastructure and technologies to meet current and future

ICT infrastructure needs. Assess the stability and performance of the current

infrastructure and the ability to extend the reach to users. Note: The level of detail for

this task depends heavily on the project rationale and goals established for the

infrastructure development effort. Care should be taken to avoid collecting

unnecessary information.

Activity 1: Understand existing hardware and software

Determine existing hardware configurations, locations, capacity, capacity utilisation,

and age. Sources of information include the ICT department staff and users. An asset

management tool, if in use, may also be an information source.

Activity 2: Understand software development tools

Determine the software development tools in use, and the degree to which they are

used in the agency. Data collected in this task can be used to determine which tools can

be carried over into the new environment or which should be replaced.

Activity 3: Understand networking and communication components

Understand current configuration and available capacities for areas on LAN and WAN,

communications software and middleware, protocols, hardware (e.g. cabling, bridges,

routers and gateways), telecommunications and voice conferencing and mail systems.

Activity 4: Understand operation and management tools

Understand the operation and management tools to administer the ability to the health

and welfare of ICT infrastructure, which includes:

• Performance and capacity management;

• Service level analysis and reporting;

• Network management;



• Scheduling;

• Disaster recovery and automated back-up; and

• Security.

Activity 5: Determine system usage of ICT infrastructures

Determine the systems that operate on each ICT infrastructure.

Activity 6: Determine operational or facilities capabilities and issues

Determine operational/facilities issues that may hinder or facilitate the use of certain

technologies. Space of operations, power, cooling, cabling, building conditions, and

location of facilities may affect the choice of technology. The information gathered

will be used for gap analysis, capacity analysis, and presentations.

Activity 7: Review existing interface and standards

Review existing interface and standards and determine overall high-level processing

volume (or data interchange rates), required hardware and software and networking

components as well as technical standards (technology vendors and platforms (e.g.,

hardware and software), development and productivity tools, methodologies, network

and communications and support standards) that are currently used in the ICT

environment.

Activity 8: Understand existing business and management requirements and

constraints for ICT infrastructure

Understand and determine the business and technology requirements and constraints

for the distribution, growth, and standards of the ICT infrastructure. This includes

corporate standards, current organisation, investment and budget constraints, risk

profile and other ICT infrastructure constraints.



Activity 9: Review disaster contingency planning

Review the adequacy of disaster contingency planning for the current facility,

equipment, and ICT infrastructures of the in-scope business units. First identify the

risks associated with the current infrastructure, and then review the current disaster

contingency plan (if one exists) to determine whether it appropriately addresses the

identified infrastructure risks.

Activity 10: Review the technology policies, standards and methods

Review and understand existing technology policies, standards and methods for

existing ICT environment.

Activity 11: Determine ICT infrastructure issues and opportunities

Determine and document infrastructure issues and opportunities for improvement.

4.1.6 Task O: Assess service delivery

This task will cover the Delivery dimension of the assessment that includes the

management and organisation on ICT services and resources.

Activity 1: Profile current and under development systems

Identify and analyse the major information systems currently being used and under

development by the in-scope business units. This will provide a basis for the definition

and design of the target environment. Each system (existing and under development) is

described and analysed, including its development details, business unit ownership,

development, maintenance and operational details, skill requirements, interfaces to

other information systems, quality and importance to the business.

Activity 2: Review current data security

Conduct a high-level review to provide a relevant context for defining the agency's

data security requirements in areas such as:



• Existence and adequacy of a Data Resource Management (DRM) organisation

(including data administration, database administration, and data security

administration functions) for the development, management, and control of the

agency's data resources;

• Existence and adequacy of a corporate security policy to ensure that the agency's

data is secure from destruction, corruption, unauthorised access, and breach of

confidentiality - whether accidental or deliberate;

• Management review and enforcement of the data security requirements;

• Scope and terms of reference of internal audit in the context of data security;

• Management of compliance with industry and statutory data needs/statutes (e.g.,

privacy acts);

• Existence and adequacy of disaster contingency/recovery plans and whether they

are updated and tested regularly; and

• Existence of a security awareness program for staff

Activity 3: Understand the project management policy, including standards and

methods

Define procedures, standards and methods for supporting the ‘to be’ technical

infrastructure which includes back up and recovery, defining necessary skill sets and

departmental responsibility for supporting the technical environment. Service level

agreements, tools for performance tuning, source code management, editors, etc. are

also defined here.

Activity 4: Determine service delivery issues and opportunities

Determine and document service delivery issues and opportunities for improvement.



4.1.7 Task P: Assess the strategic impact

Identify the direction for ICT strategy development that will eventually lead to a list of

ICT opportunities. To do so, two techniques are involved: ICT Strategic Grid and the

Systems Audit Grid. The ICT Strategic Grid will be referenced in the method to

determine ICT organisation strategies and to assess the appropriateness of the degrees

of risk of the information system development portfolio and the implementation

projects portfolio. The Systems Audit Grid will determine whether the existing

applications should be retained, enhanced or replaced in the new target ICT

environment.

Determine the strategic nature of the agency (or business unit's) ICT environment

based on the assessed strategic impact of the current systems and the systems under

development based on four different ICT environment defined in the ICT Strategic

Grid.

Activity 1: Conduct the ICT Strategic Grid analysis to assess the nature of the ICT

environment

The ICT Strategic Grid below is defined based on the following two dimensions:

• The strategic impact of current systems, that is, the level of dependence on

existing systems, (e.g., how critical is it that existing systems run in a reliable,

cost-effective fashion 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year?); and

• The strategic impact of the planned systems including those under development

(e.g., how critical are the new systems and electronic support that are going to be

developed over the next few years?).



Figure 4: ICT Strategic Grid

Depending on the assessed values along these two dimensions (i.e., high or low), four

different ICT environments can be identified as follows:

• Strategic: Smooth functioning of the ICT activity critical to the firm's operation

on a daily basis; applications under development critical for future competitive

success.

• Turnaround: Uninterrupted cost-effective functioning of ICT operational

support not absolutely vital to achieving short-term or long-term objectives;

applications under development critical for achieving strategic objectives.

• Factory: Cost-effective and reliable ICT operational support vital for the smooth

functioning of the firm; applications portfolio, dominated by maintenance work,

not fundamental to the firm's ability to compete.

• Support: ICT operational support not critical to smooth functioning of the

agency; applications portfolio not strategically important.

Activity 2: Prepare the ICT Strategic Grid

Discuss and agree on the assessed strategic values of the current application systems

and application development projects as reflected in the Current ICT Strategic Grid.

Modify the findings as appropriate.



Activity 3: Conduct the Systems Audit Grid analysis to assess the technical and

business value of each major application

Assess the technical and business value of each major application supporting the business

units to form a basis in determining whether it should be retained, enhanced, or replaced in

the target environment. Categorise the current application into classes of potential

disposition in the target environment based on their assessed business and technical values

using the Systems Audit Grid framework.

Figure 5: Systems Audit Grid

Plot the agency’s applications according to their business and technical values and

categorise application into one of four groups, depending on its placement:

• Eliminate (low in both business value and technical value) - Applications in this

category are candidates for elimination from the target environment. They may

never have been necessary or they may have become obsolete because of the

business segments they support may have changed;

• Reassess (high technical value but low business value) - Applications in this

category may be the technician's products looking for applications or applications

which the users have failed to support and use or applications which were in

advance of the business needs. They should be reassessed to determine if they

should be eliminated or if they could be enhanced to add business value;



• Renew/Replace (high business value but low technical value) – Applications in

this category represent potential business exposures. If they fail, business

operation or management capability will suffer. ICT opportunities are likely to be

identified from these applications; and

• Maintain/Enhance (high in both business value and technical value).

Applications in this category should be given priority for any maintenance or

enhancement to sustain any benefits or competitive advantages from these

applications. Failure to adequately maintain these applications may cause them to

become business exposures.

Activity 4: Prepare the Systems Audit Grid

Discuss and agree on the assessed business and technical values of the current

applications as reflected in the Systems Audit Grid. Modify the findings as

appropriate.

4.2 Phase 2: Recommend Short Term Action

It is important that all those involved with an ICT strategy understand the business and

ICT issues to plan ICT development, deployment, and operations in a manner that best

meets agency’s needs both now and into the future. An agency should plan

strategically to meet its needs in the long term (4 years and beyond) and in the short

term (12-18 months). Due to the nature and complexity of the ICT projects, it is

suggested that the ICT Strategic Plan team identify early opportunities to demonstrate

tangible benefits of the development project; an interim (short-term) solution while

working towards achieving a complete ICT target environment. The purpose of this

stage is to identify a list of short-term ICT projects based on evaluation of the

government's existing ICT environment and actions for obtaining early benefits.

Proceed with the recommending short-term ICT projects before obtaining approval

from the senior management.



4.2.1 Task Q: Consolidat e findings

Compile all the findings from the previous tasks and compile the results of the ICT

assessment. Determine the short-term ICT opportunities.

Activity 1: Develop an overview of the current ICT environment

Include the agency’s ICT heritage, senior management's perception of ICT strategic

importance, and findings gathered from a high-level review of the ICT environment

and assessment of the ICT function. Also to include is the strengths and weaknesses of

the current ICT environment.

Activity 2: Compile the results of ICT assessment

Review all the findings for overall consistency and completeness. Summarise key

findings related to major current applications, data files, ICT technology environment

and ICT management organisations.

4.2.2 Task R: Identify short-term ICT improvement projects

Activity 1: Recommend short term actions

Identify any short-term improvement project, taking advantage of the short-lived

opportunity that are necessary to support the ICT environment until the ICT strategy is

sufficiently implemented.



5. Stage 3: Develop ICT Strategy In this stage, new applications and their functionality processing requirements that will

have strategic impact on the current ICT environment are identified and a set of

prioritised application for the target environment are defined. The objectives of this

stage are to:

• Identify the ICT opportunities to better support the business strategy; and

• Design the target ICT environment, covering prioritised target applications,

technology architecture and ICT governance.

This stage also suggests the target applications and implementation options, the

technology architecture and profile of the ICT organisation.

5.1 Phase 1: Identify ICT Opportunities

The purpose of this phase is to generate ideas and identify opportunities enabled by

new applications or current applications not presently in use within the agency. These

opportunities should also cover the business process operations and operating

decisions that can be improved through extension of applications support. An ICT

opportunity may cover the following aspect:

• New information (e.g., customer preference and quality rating);

• New information relationships (e.g., sales by product group and receipts by

supplier);

• Physical changes (e.g., more timely, more accurate, and better format);

• Business opportunities (e.g., organisational changes and business process

transformation); and

• Lower computing hardware costs (e.g., down sizing from a mainframe to

workstations connected by a LAN).



The approaches that can be taken to identifying ICT opportunities are as follows:

• Brainstorming;

• Cross-fertilization (between business and system personnel);

• Reviewing system development projects (for new ideas in further enhancing

products and/or services);

• Conducting market research and competitor analysis;

• Benchmarking (finding out what and how other companies including competitors

in the same or similar industries are doing in applying IS to gain competitive

advantage);

• Reviewing in-place technology (for new ways in using existing resources);

• Analysing existing products (for ideas of products complementing or adding value

to existing products); and

• Engaging in new technology ventures.

The objective of this phase is not to define the functional processing requirements of

each application. Hence, defining functional processing requirements is an

implementation activity that is performed in the requirement definition phase of a

system development project.

5.1.1 Task S: Identify major ICT opportunities

When identifying major ICT opportunities for improvement, always examine ICT

technologies as a means for an agency to create competitive advantage or improve

operation performance. Therefore strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of

an agency should always be determined initially. Depending on the specific project

circumstances, various techniques may be used to generate ideas for ICT opportunities.

Major techniques that can assist in this analysis are:

• Competitive analysis of the external environment;

• Value chain analysis;

• CSF analysis;

• Organisational impact analysis; and



• Applicability of emerging technologies.

Activity 1: Leverage on the value chain analysis

Value is identified by defining high priority activities that are performed by an agency.

Value chain analysis is used to model an organisation’s internal business environment.

It identifies the value brought to the marketplace. It is based on the premise that

competitive advantage is best understood by looking at the firm as a system of discrete

but interdependent processes.

Analysis of the value chain should look at how well the agency actually puts its

strategies into practice and identify the information content of each value activity and

its linkages. The potential opportunities can be derived from the value chain in terms

of:

• Automating the physical tasks in a value activity;

• Physically connecting or controlling activities across linkages;

• Improving management and control of value activities; and

• Optimising or coordinating value activities across linkages.

Activity 2: Perform gap analysis

Identifying the gap in performance between current ICT environment and target ICT

environment. Identify potential areas of operation that require improvement by

collecting information which was not currently recorded and applying the current

recorded information in various new ways. The use of strategic assessments and best

practices can also help identify potential solutions.



Activity 3: Derive appropriate ICT opportunities

When completing the competitiveness analysis, value chain analysis, organisational

restructuring, or other opportunity analyses, the target opportunities should be matched

with the appropriate choices of technologies.

Activity 4: Identifying risks associated with ICT opportunities

Identify the risks associated with new and unproven technologies before considering

the ICT opportunities based on emerging technology. Examine factors that could

threaten any planned project actions from being carried out successfully, prevent any

milestones from being achieved, or otherwise represent a risk such as time and ease or

difficulty of catching up with the emerging technology.

5.1.2 Task T: Determine the benefits of ICT opportunities

Activity 1: Agree on high-level benefits on ICT opportunities

Identify and determine the benefits, both quantifiable and unquantifiable, for each ICT

strategy option based on information derived from the definition of the respective

strategy components. Examples of the types of benefits of an ICT opportunity include

the following:

• Information formerly unavailable;

• Information more complete, more accurate, and/or more timely;

• More effective management control;

• Reduction of clerical workload;

• Reduction of supervision time;

• Equipment/space reduction; and

• ICT personnel reduction



5.1.3 Task U: Determine risks of ICT opportunities

Activity 1: Associate potential risks with the identified ICT opportunities

Assess the overall risk associated with each ICT strategy option based on a review of

the risk assessment of the following areas completed during the definition of the

respective strategy components:

• ICT opportunities;

• Target applications;

• Implementation options; and

• Technology and organisational infrastructures.

Assign levels of risk expressed as the probability of occurrence to each of the

identified risks. Examples of potential risk are:

• Market concept risk (as judged by customer acceptance and continued use);

• Technology risk (in terms of proven capabilities and performance);

• Implementation risk (as related to problems impeding turning the idea into a

reliable product or service, such as problems in system development and supplier

delivery);

• Economic risk (as determined by the likelihood that the expected outcomes or

benefits of the ICT opportunities cannot be achieved);

• Organisational risk (as determined based on the assessed degree of support

provided by the agency’s organisational infrastructure, such as its culture,

management processes, and human resources, for successful implementation); and

• Regulatory risk (in terms of possible changes of governmental policy or social

interest groups).



5.2 Phase 2: Define Target Applications

The objectives of this phase are to define the target applications (TA) that should be

included in the target ICT environment and to summarise the significant features of the

target applications that will influence implementation and operation. At the end of this

phase, it is recommended that a workshop be held with the project team to share the

analysis and findings on the ICT opportunities and identify the major TA.

5.2.1 Tas k V: Develop initial TA

This task involves the envisioning of initial TA, including a preliminary definition of

the functional requirements of these applications. The approach taken to develop an

initial TA framework is to revisit information system opportunities for improvement

and develop initial TA architecture based on ICT opportunities identified previously.

The earlier assessment of current applications using the Systems Audit Grid (Task P)

will be used as reference.

Activity 1: Identify current applications to be retained, enhanced or replaced

Compare the initial business system architecture to current applications to identify the

current applications to be retained, enhanced, or replaced in the target environment by

doing the following:

• Match the initial business systems with current applications which support the

same business processes and/or use the same data entities;

• Examine and compare the characteristics of the matched target and current

applications, focusing on their functional descriptions, and their data usage

characteristics (type of usage such as create, use, or modify; type of data used

such as global, local or personal); and

• Identify current applications that should be retained (those having the same

functional and data usage characteristics as the initial business systems), enhanced

or renewed (those having a majority of common functional and data usage



characteristics), or replaced (those having few common functional and data usage

characteristics).

Activity 2: Revise the scope of certain target applications so that related current

applications might be retained

If further assessment is required, be sure to consider the following characteristics for

migration into the target environment:

• Critical to other portions of the business environment that may not have been

included within the scope of the planning study;

• Having significant interfaces with other applications;

• Representing a recent significant investment of development resources; and

• Providing major operational or tactical support that cannot be replaced within a

short time (e.g., within six months).

Activity 3: Define new TA

Examine the initial business systems that have not been mapped to any current

applications and determine the ones that corresponds to applications under

development, the ones that should require new applications and the ones that are

should subject to further review in the target environment.

Address the following when defining new applications:

• Assessed business opportunities;

• Required resources to develop and support the new applications;

• Architectural impact of required system interfaces; and

• Assessed risk and return.



Activity 4: Categorise the TA

Categorise the TAs based on the nature of the application systems (office automation,

end-user computing, operations support, decision support, management information,

and real-time processing and control) and the nature of the business applications they

support (mandatory applications, strategic applications, traditional applications,

infrastructure applications). The different types of applications as shown in the figure 6

below will have different implications on the appropriate techniques to use in

determining the benefits of the applications.

5.2.2 Task W: Build TA overview

Determine the overview of each TA for major data inputs and outputs and process

descriptions. Additional fact-finding may sometimes be required.

Figure 6: Target Application Portfolio (example)



Activity 1: Summarise the key processing characteristics of the TA

Define high-level functional requirements for the information processes envisioned for

each of the TA based on the relevant results of process analysis, data analysis, and

process envisioning tasks. Prepare a preliminary functional requirement lists to

document the following items:

• Functional Requirement: grouping of related key requirements in a structured,

hierarchical manner (i.e., by business process by elementary process);

• Comments: where appropriate, documenting any additional information whic h

explains the requirement in more detail; and

• Desirability: indicating whether the requirement is mandatory, highly desirable, or

desirable

Activity 2: Develop a management overview TA diagram

Develop a diagram that provides management with an overview of the TAs. The

diagram should include linkages between TAs (if any).

5.2.3 Task X: Prioritise TA

Activity 1: Agree on prioritisation area

Prioritise the TA systems based on their expected benefits and the assessed strategic

and operational importance. Based on their potential impact on business segment

CSF’s, assign target application to priority groups.

Activity 2: Determine the priorities of the target applications

The factors in determining the priorities of the TA:

• Overall business impact - high, medium, low;

• Return on investment: immediate, short-term, long-term (not applicable for

current applications without modifications);



• Implementation complexity: high, medium, low, and not applicable (n/a). This

rating of expected complexity takes into consideration such items as conversion,

migration, and development;

• Dependencies: high, medium, low. This is the degree to which this application

depends upon other applications in terms of items such as system interfaces or

shared data; and

• Overall priority group: high priority, medium priority and low priority. Assign an

overall priority grouping to the TAs based on their relative importance within the

business unit. In some instances, it may be appropriate to consider prioritising the

TA on an organisation-wide basis, possibly in the case of limited funds

Identify two to four "high priority" TA as pivotal applications, having the most impact

on the agency's business based on the strategic values of the business objectives and

CSFs they support. These pivotal TA will have a major impact in formulating the

skeleton ICT strategies.

5.2.4 Task Y: Confirm TA with management

Activity 1: Conduct workshop to present findings, analysis and recommendations

Conduct a workshop to present findings, analysis and recommendations to the team

members and Steering Committee. Recap on the business segment strategies, business

and ICT environment summary, TA and known ICT strategy assumptions and

constraints. Arrange for an off-site location and a facilitator to ensure participant’s

focus and involvement. Generate solutions, ideas and alternatives during brainstorming

sessions and discussions and agree on the priorities of the target applications.

Activity 2: Obtain approval and feedback of the deliverable and authorisation to

proceed

Be sure to include all the project team members to approve of the prioritised list of

target applications. Once finalised, gain approval and authorisation to proceed to the

next phase.



5.3 Phase 3: Develop Technology Strategy

The objective of this phase is to identify a set of technology components to support the

TA. A technology design/architecture will be developed to capture various components

(e.g. communication, database, server and client system software, security and control,

etc).

5.3.1 Task Z: Identify technology trends

Activity 1: Perform research on the latest technology trends

Conduct a research on best practice surveys/benchmarking, best practice visits (within

and outside the industry), technology trends, or industry standards. Source of

information on technology trends can be obtain through seminars, journals,

publications and subject matter expert. This technology strategy must be positioned to

meet the current and anticipated business needs in response to technological changes.

Activity 2: Determine its implications on the agency’s environment

If a technology trend could increase the growth requirements of the ICT infrastructure,

determine this potential impact in the growth forecast. For example, a technology trend

is the use of a corporate intranet. In developing an agency’s ICT infrastructure,

examine the opportunities and risks (both business and technical) of an intranet policy.

5.3.2 Task AA: Define principles for developing technology strategies

Activity 1: Revisit high-level technology issues

Revisit the high-level technology issues (e.g. the limitations, maturity, feasibility in the

current environment) and consider their present and likely future relevance within the

agency.



Activity 2: Determine its implications on the agency’s environment

Translate the outcome of the analysis of technology issues into simple and direct

statement governing the development of the technology strategy.

5.3.3 Task AB: Determine technology requirements

Activity 1: Identify the technology components determinants

The technology components are identified in this step on a preliminary basis to

supplement the definition, understand the associated preliminary system development

option, and estimate the implementation efforts and durations. The components

provide the input to defining the first-cut list of ICT components and infrastructures

during ICT infrastructure definition. Such components include main hardware,

operating systems, telecommunication and supporting tools. Determine the high-level

requirements of these components.

Activity 2: Identify high-level requirements of these components

5.3.4 Task AC: Determine target technology architecture

This task involves considering key business and technical drivers and high-level

processing paradigms to form the basic choices for initial architecture decisions.

Activity 1: Consider key business and technical drivers and high-level processing

requirements

Review the technology architecture, considering all components in the context of the

following factors - Required use of specific vendors/products, required use of legacy

system components, application software package constraints, required interfaces,

required technologies and standards.



Activity 2: Derive high-level technology architecture

Consider multiple alternatives, and demonstrate that the fundamental options have

been considered by applying knowledge of existing ICT environment, drivers

identified previously, system distribution options, target applications and technology

requirements. Some factors to be considered are:

• Integration with existing systems;

• Placement of data closer to its source;

• Ease of user growth, performance, data integrity and consistency of distributed

databases;

• Security, volume and transaction requirement;

• Location of users; and

• Skill set of support staff.

5.3.5 Task AD: Formulate technology strategy

Activity 1: Consolidate the findings and recommendations

Prepare a Technology Strategy Abstract that represent the technology design and

contain the following suggested information:

• High-level requirements;

• Summary of current technology architecture shortfalls;

• Proposed technology design, illustrating how the design satisfies requirements,

including (where applicable):

o Communication;

o Database;

o Server and client;

o System software;

o Security and control;

o Outsourcing;

o Tools (e.g. network management, operation management, end user, etc);

and

o Support and management;



• Expansion, redundancy, and recoverability approach.

5.4 Phase 4: Develop ICT Governance Framework

The purpose of this phase is to define and recommend to senior management the ICT

governance framework, which is the process of how ICT policy, resources and systems

are established, deployed, managed, amended and enforced.

In summary, ICT Governance is:

• The body of rules, agreements and standards that defines the basis for

interaction between different people, departments, roles and functions within

the agency;

• The principles that determine the way decisions are made and conflicts

resolved at all levels;

• An explicit statement of when and under what conditions ICT decisions fall

within the authority of ICT governance; and

• The distribution of accountabilities and responsibilities.

A strong ICT governance structure is essential to the development and implementation

of the e-government initiatives. An ICT governance framework should contain the

following criteria:

• Promote and support collaborative approach to ICT;

• Increase cooperation between agencies, resolving hard issues;

• Inform debate at senior agency levels on achieving strategic outcomes;

• Recognise the opportunities to accommodate the extensive investment required

for integrated service delivery; and

• Enable agencies to continue to manage their own ICT strategy, development,

implementation and support.



5.4.1 Task AE: Revisit ICT organisation and management issues

Revisit and obtain an oversight on the on-going ICT environment to understand the

how an ICT lifecycle is being planned, managed and delivered. Review deliverables

from the previous stages, if preferred. Understand the strategic priorities that reflect

government’s commitment to continue to embrace the opportunities offered by the

advancement of ICT.

Activity 1: Understand the agency’s culture

Activity 2: Determine its impact on the ICT strategies

Consider the following factors and how they affect the agency’s business and ICT

strategy:

• Characteristics of the agency;

• Agency’s strategic importance;

• Impact of ICT on the business of the agency;

• Agency’s high level ICT organisation; and

• Management issues

From the observations, identify the gaps that exist in the ICT leadership and

coordination that are required to lead and support successful ICT initiatives

implementations.

5.4.2 Task AF: Identify ICT services and skills required

Activity 1: Determine the required management, technical and functional skills and

services

Determine the required management, technical and functional skills and services to

support the target applications in business and industry knowledge, application specific

knowledge, system development, operation management, network management,

technical support and end user support. Review the processing distribution and



locations where end-users of the target applications reside to identify where ICT

management skills and services must be provided. Therefore the characteristics of the

agency’s overall organisational structure and their implications must be considered.

5.4.3 Task AG: Develop ICT governance framework

Determine the approach to be used in defining ICT governance for the specific agency.

The framework is should support the entire life cycle of ICT. This lifecycle covers

three main functions that are, planning, managing and delivering.

Activity 1: Identify and resolve differences between current and target ICT

organisation/ management

Compare the current and target ICT management organisation to identify the

inconsistencies and gaps in the support for business processes by TA. Recognise the

planned use for new technologies in the target environment, view the similarities and

differences between the current and target environment and decide on how to leverage

on the corporate culture by weighing its strategic importance to be in the agency, both

for now and in the future.

For example, analyse the major inconsistencies on management issues, such as the

need for specialised skills to handle the TA, which would affect the ICT strategy.

Estimate the number of staffs by location and determine the means of acquiring

additional skills, considering such options as utilising and enhancing the available

skills within the current ICT environment. Identify and analyse alternative solutions.

Resolve the issues, through discussions with the Steering Committee and senior

management.

Activity 2: Identify necessary supporting organisation and management practices

Redesign the organisational structure and identify the distribution of ICT technical

support and management personnel throughout the agency, such as:

• Planning and management control;



• Project management;

• System development;

• End user support;

• Technical support;

• Database administration;

• Operations management;

• Network management; and

• Security management

The distribution of the above must be considered in terms of the need to support the

target applications and in terms of on-going ICT staff retention and training.

Activity 3: Compile the ICT governance framework

Summarise the overall components for the ICT governance and highlight the key

observations and gaps identified in the existing ICT governance environment by

grouping them under three functions mentioned earlier.

Suggest the agency’s governance role according to the two following functions:

• Coordination Function – To provide the central drive and management of ICT

programmes; and

• Relationship Management Function – To manage relationship and communication

with internal and external parties.

An example of a coordination function is for the areas of planning and standards,

portfolio management and monitoring. An example of a relationship management

function is for user and vendor management. Some challenges that should be

considered when developing an ICT governance framework:

• Governance arrangements: where does shared infrastructure stop and the front

door of an agency starts?;

• Funding, investment and financial accountability for joint ventures;

• Measuring return on investment;



• Existing legislation: E-Government tests the boundaries; and

• Overcoming departmental silo cultures.

Refine, as appropriate the strategies based on the knowledge gain during this phase.



6. Stage 4: Develop Implementation Plan Based on the tasks and activities carried out in previous stages, this final stage defines

the major projects that are required to implement and execute the strategy selected and

schedule the costs and technology resources required. The objectives of this stage are

to:

• Develop a roadmap that highlights the major projects required to implement the

recommended strategy; and

• Estimate the investment required to implement the recommended ICT

environment

The major projects to be implemented are defined by milestones or phases of

development. They are identified after a review of their underlying technology and

ICT infrastructure management. The effort to implement each project is then

estimated.

6.1 What is an Implementation Plan?

An Implementation Plan can be defined as an action plan that determines how to

transform an agency’s strategy into reality. A more simplistic view is to sequence the

ICT opportunities defined earlier and perform necessary analysis to determine the

milestones, timeframe and resources required to implement them. A number of

business considerations should be addressed when developing an Implementation Plan,

such as:

• What is the business case for change?

• When and how will the benefits be realised?

• What is the complexity of the implementation and development?

• How will the project be managed?

• Are there any technical constraints?

• Does it require any complementary business or HR initiatives?

• What are the risks associated with the implementation?

• What are the resources required and how are we going to get it?



An implementation roadmap represents the actions required to change opportunity into

realised benefits.

6.2 Phase 1: Develop Implementation Roadmap

The objectives of this phase are to:

• Identify primary development projects that determine the major milestones and

phases;

• Define the supporting projects which serve to implement the selected ICT strategy

including target applications, organisational unit and structure, policies,

procedures, equipment and system software;

• Identify strategy to move from current to target environment; and

• Develop the plan and implement the ICT strategy

6.2.1 Task AH: Develop and rank projects

Review the implementation efforts and identify those of primary importance, the

accomplishment of which can serve as major milestones for phases of implementation.

Identify these major efforts as the primary projects.

Activity 1: Identify projects, which define major milestones

Review the target application profiles and technology architecture. Develop a broad

timeline for major implementation. Projects are prioritised by their relationship to the

target environment. Individual projects are grouped to present a high-level overview of

each project's prerequisites, dependencies, time-frame, barriers, enablers, and resources

requirements.

Activity 2: Identify and resolve migration issues

Address major implementation issues that must be resolved to ensure successful

transition to the target environment. Example: Redefine the disposition of current

equipment configurations and applications during migration, the role of ICT



management during migration and the policies and procedures for procurement of

staff, equipment, software, etc.

Activity 3: Identify project barriers and enablers

Identify the barriers and enablers especially the ones that involve stakeholders and

determine their relevance for each project.

Activity 4: Define project dependencies

Review the primary projects and identify possible dependencies between projects such

as:

• Implementation date;

• Project date;

• Test start date;

• Prototyping start date; and

• Development start date.

Activity 5: Rank the project

Perform sequencing of projects based on ranking of the applications and precedence

relationship with other projects.

6.2.2 Task AI: Prepare for transition strategy

A transition strategy is based on a review of the implementation approaches and

implementation sequences developed for the target applications. Assess the impact of

the strategy on the project efforts, including the additional resources and skills

required. Use the following discussion points to determine how the system transition

strategy can fit into and support the selected implementation approaches:

• What are the top priority projects?

• What are the project dependencies?

• What is required to provide on-going operational support of needed business

systems?



• Are interfaces between legacy systems and target systems in development

required during the transition?

• What strategy is appropriate to ensure the successful co-existence of current and

target environment components?

• What are the implications of attempts in the target environment design to

leverage legacy systems? (These implications may vary depending on whether

the legacy system is to be migrated, enhanced, retired, or left unchanged).

Activity 1: Evaluate and select transition approach

Evaluate and select the following transition approach:

• Enterprise-wide simultaneous cutover to target environment elements;

• Pilot implementations to test and refine target environment elements;

• Phased implementation of target environment elements over time;

• Direct, one-time implementation;

• Parallel operation of both the existing systems and the proposed systems for a

period of time;

• Implementation of the proposed systems at a pilot location; and

• Staged implementation, such as by location, division, department, company,

store, or product.

Activity 2: Agree on transition approach

Facilitate a discussion to select and reach consensus on a transition approach that

addresses each of the following, as applicable:

• Overall approach (i.e., cutover, pilot, phased, or a combination);

• Continuation of day-to-day work in the current environment during cutover

preparation, pilot, and/or phased transition activities;

• Resource availability;

• Training;

• Integration and sequencing of transition activities;

• Design and implementation of transitional organisational structures, systems,

and/or facilities as stopgap measures during the transition (necessary when the



required change exceeds the agency’s capacity for adjusting to and accepting

change);

• Transitional funding mechanisms and budgeting procedures;

• Start and end dates; and

• Linkage of transition approach to the business case for change.

6.2.3 Task AJ: Formulate implementation strategy

Coordinate with application teams to complete the implementation strategy for each

ICT environment, considering items such as:

• Which infrastructure components (e.g., network, servers, mainframe regions,

database instances) will be included the particular environments? Are there

opportunities to consolidate functions on the same components?

• What is the impact of network availability and performance (e.g., service levels)

on daily business operations (e.g., hours of operation, transaction volumes)?

• How will applications and data be migrated between the environments?

• How will environments be affected by sharing infrastructure components?

• Which environments can and should exist/operate in parallel, and which ones

must maintain isolation?

• How will infrastructure components such as servers, mass storage, and

mainframe regions transition between environments through the progression of

the project?

• How will the new ICT environments exist with and/or transition from any

existing ICT environments?

• What specific availability or other service level requirements exist for each

proposed environment?

• How flexible will the environments be to changes in the overall project scope, or

changes in the overall project implementation strategy?



These environment implementation considerations directly impact the schedule and

cost of the infrastructure. Incorporate within the implementation schedule the

dependencies these considerations imply.

Determine the implementation strategy for each environment. Consider the life span of

these environments if they are to be combined with or expanded into other

environments. Also consider whether the environments are to continue once the system

has commenced production. For those environments that will cease to exist, indicate

how and when this will be affected.

Activity 1: Determine the principal for implementation

Define the adopted strategy to implement the ICT strategic plan by:

• Determining all of the tasks and work elements that are necessary to realise the

new processes and ways of working, and their interactions and interdependencies;

• Determining the delivery milestones associated with each task and work element;

and

• Identifying the resources required for implementation and the associated costs,

skills required, people who will be used, when they will be used.

Activity 2: Estimate implementation effort and duration

Consider the implementation approach and nature of the project while estimating the

effort and duration required for implementation. Estimate the start date and end date,

and calculate the duration (in days) required to complete each project based on an

understanding of the project priorities, change action dependencies, resource

requirements/availability, and skill requirements/availability.

Activity 3: Determine the implementation sequence and recommended ICT

environment

Prepare time-phased schedules for the overall project implementation roadmap.



6.3 Phase 2: Estimate Financial Implications

The purpose of this phase is to develop estimates for implementation of the

recommendations. As any estimate will be based on some degree of assumption, it is

important that all these assumptions are documented and contingency included are

allowed for variance in the assumptions.

6.3.1 Task AK: Estimate project costing

Costs are easier to identify than benefits in terms of their classification (e.g.,

development costs and operating costs). However, the quantification of each category

of costs can be somewhat more difficult. The following factors should be addressed

before assessing the costs of a project:

• Estimating guidelines: If the agency has particular cost estimating guidelines or

metrics, use of these should be considered; they should of course be reviewed for

completeness and relevance before usage;

• Source of costs: It is preferable to use "real" sources for costs rather than using

estimates;

• Uncertainty: In many cases there will be uncertainty in cost estimation. Use cost

ranges to identify uncertainty and quote maximum cost figures in headline or

management summaries;

• Sensitivity analysis: Establish the key cost drivers (the parameters which lead to

significant overall cost differences) and complete sensitivity analysis to

determine cost range figures; and

• The "do nothing" option: Ensure that the baseline (or "do nothing") option is

included in costing alternative courses of action (e.g., the costs of lost market

share if nothing is done). Also ensure that the full costs of the baseline option are

taken into consideration (e.g., maintenance and repair charges and the effects of

downtime as a result of failure).



Activity 1: Identify project which cost can be estimated

Determine project cost estimates based on the business areas, applications, ICT

infrastructure components, production site types, and the implementation and support

strategies determined in the previous steps.

This is an important part of finalising the project scope because, if the costs are more

substantial than expected, it may be necessary to remove certain project items

(infrastructure or application) from scope or look for other cost reduction options.

Activity 2: Develop high-level requirements and project costing estimation

Develop a high-level requirement of a project, considering all major costs associated

such as hardware, software (both system software and application software) and data

resources and estimate the project costing for every item.

Activity 4: Summarise overall financial cost

Summarise overall financial cost of implementation based on the resource assignments

and schedule and consider the relevance of the following cost categories:

• Workforce adjustment;

• Personnel;

• Materials and equipment;

• Facilities;

• Marketing; and

• Training



7. Possible Table of Content for ISP Report

As outlined earlier, the two principle deliverables of the methodology are:

• An ICT Strategy which consists of a framework or a set of guidelines for the

development and use of ICT; and

• An ICT Strategy Implementation Plan to implement the strategy.

In addition to describing the processes involved in the development of ISPs (Sections

2-6), we have also outlined below a possible table of content for an ISP report for

reference purposes.

Suggested Topics

Remarks

Introduction

This section provides an overview of the document that includes items such as purpose of document, the target audience, version control, data gathering mechanism and interview list.

Current Business Environment

This section describes an understanding of the agency’s background and its business strategy. Some of the topics that can be included here are agency’s vision, mission, corporate objectives, business strategies, core businesses, client charter, main business activities, organisational structure and main functions, organisation value chain, major processes, roles and responsibilities, relationships with external parties/agencies, local or overseas leading practices, as well as existing ISP (if any). This section should also include a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses and business opportunities of the agency’s business environment.



Suggested Topics

Remarks

Current ICT Environment

This section outlines an understanding of the agency’s ICT environment. Some of the topics that can be included here are the agency’s ICT readiness and potential in supporting the new ICT initiatives and progress of existing initiatives. In addition to the above, an ICT assessment on the ICT usage and effectiveness involving identifying existing applications, hardware, network, interfaces and other technology components that exist in the ICT environment systems such as strategy, delivery, technology and people (users and ICT management). The strengths and weaknesses (and action steps to maintain, enhance, replace, etc) of the agency’s ICT environment for the components highlighted above should also be included.

ICT Opportunities

At the conclusion of the Business and ICT Environment assessments, a list of possible new applications and their processing requirements or functionalities that will have strategic impact on the current ICT environment can be identified. These are opportunities that can be leverage of for strategic advantage through the use of ICT. The list of possible opportunities will then need to prioritised using a set of criteria. This section should also indicate ICT opportunities according to their priorities.



Suggested Topics

Remarks

Develop ICT Strategy Upon the identification and prioritisation of the ICT opportunities, descriptions of the opportunities will need to be developed to transform the opportunities into target applications. In describing the target applications, it would also be useful to leverage of work done during the technology or leading practices scan. Based on these target applications, the ICT strategy covering target applications, technology architecture, network infrastructure, interfaces, ICT governance, implementation / migration / realignment options, as well as profile of the ICT management organisation will also need to be agreed and documented.

Develop implementation plan This section will lay down the roadmap for the implementation of the prioritised applications. High-level cost estimates of the initiatives identified will also need to be included here.



8. Abbreviations and Acronyms

List of abbreviations and acronyms used in this Guide for easy reference.

Abbreviations and Acronyms used in ICT Strategic Plan Guide CEO Chief Executive Officer

CIO Chief Information Officer CSF Critical Success Factor

DLL Dynamic Link Library EPU Economic Planning Unit

HR Human Resource

ICT Information and Communication Technology

IS Information Systems IT Information Technology

JCL Job Control Language LAN Local Area Network

MAMPU Malaysian Administrative Modernisation & Management Planning Unit

TA Target Applications Y2K Year 2000

n/a not applicable

ICT Strategic Plan (ISP) Guidelines

Documents

ict strategic

ict strategic

critical success

systems audit

potential

analyse ict

existing ict

ict strategic