B. Pursuing the vision: Seven Key Initiatives
Based on the conclusions of the workshop and as subsequently refined in discussions with the principal IT advisory groups, the Commonwealth IT community has identified seven key initiatives that must be pursued to build the technology foundation for the future, which is a prerequisite for later projects that can help us to realize the vision. The key initiatives fall into three foundational "building block" categories:
· Robust, agile enterprise IT infrastructure. The IT infrastructure comprises the basic technical underpinnings upon which rest the business services and applications that, in turn, support government functions.
· Shared services and applications. These are the systems and services that perform vital government business functions. Some of these systems, or parts of them, perform functions that are useful across multiple agencies.
· Common, effective management practices. These are the policies, procedures, and practices necessary for efficient, transparent management of IT systems, operations, and services. Generally, these practices should be adopted uniformly across state agencies.
The following diagram shows how the key initiatives fall into these three foundational building blocks. Please note that there are numerous other elements that make up the foundational building blocks, many of which are in place today. Some of them may require renewal or upgrade over time. In addition there are four supporting initiatives described in Section IV.C that are underway now and that will also contribute to building the foundation.
Figure 4. Seven Key Initiatives to Realize the Vision
Although they will be challenging and complex to implement, completing these seven initiatives will have an enormous impact on the Commonwealth's ability to build efficient and effective systems in the future.
Robust, agile enterprise IT infrastructure
| 1. Secretariat Consolidation |
| Description | Plan and implement initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of IT services across agencies for each Secretariat within the Executive Department. |
| Goals | - Align Secretaries' IT resources with their business strategies and priorities
- Rationalize and standardize IT resources available to agencies
- Create efficiencies and maximize resources
- Align Secretariat IT plans with the Commonwealth IT Strategic Plan
|
| Major Components | - Establish Secretariat Chief Information Officer (SCIO) for each Secretariat
- Develop standard approach/best practices
- Identify enabling fiscal and legal foundation
- Develop consolidation plans
|
| 2. Shared service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure |
| Description | Work collaboratively to develop shared infrastructure services that can be used by multiple agencies to support Service Oriented Architecture applications |
| Goals | - Achieve efficiencies through reuse
- Enable appropriate data sharing across agencies
- Facilitate the implementation of modular system development
- Develop agile, flexible infrastructure and systems
- Implement effective cross-agency governance for shared infrastructure
|
| Major Components | - Establish an SOA outreach, evangelism, education program
- Build organizational competency to support SOA infrastructure
- Implement key infrastructure components in a phased approach
- Establish integration specifications and federation requirements
- Define governance and repeatable processes for use of shared infrastructure
|
| 3. Network Architecture |
| Description | Develop an enterprise network architecture plan that addresses voice/data convergence, reduces duplication and redundancy, and accommodates scalability for future needs |
| Goals | - Implement a coherent network architecture for the Commonwealth
- Increase overall efficiency of Commonwealth networks
- Ensure the scalability of Commonwealth networks
|
| Major Components | - Establish collaborative planning process
- Inventory current state and identify future needs
- Identify network requirements and document target architecture
- Develop roadmap and resource requirements
|
| 4. Enterprise security plan |
| Description | Develop an enterprise-wide IT Security Plan consistent with established best practices |
| Goals | - Improve education and awareness of cyber security
- Ensure critical systems are well secured
- Improve responsiveness to security incidents
|
| Major Components | - Establish work group
- Identify audience, scope and content
- Develop plan
- Implement plan and monitor effectiveness
|
Shared services and applications
| 5. Civic engagement strategy |
| Description | Develop a strategy to ensure that IT investments are designed to promote civic engagement with the aim of increasing state government transparency and access |
| Goals | - Improve transparency of and engagement with government processes
- Promote accessibility and usability of government applications and services
- Leverage expertise of private sector (academia, corporations, non-profits)
|
| Major Components | - Include public comments as part of IT planning
- Promote engagement in design of applications (usability testing, focus groups)
- Elicit continuous input into effectiveness and ease of use of applications
- Identify best practices, tools to promote civic engagement
- Leverage the Mass.gov portal as a vehicle for engagement
|
| 6. Identity Management |
| Description | Develop an enterprise identity management framework for Commonwealth employees, business partners and citizens |
| Goals | - Ensure public confidence in the security of Commonwealth systems and data
- Enable secure, reliable, simplified sign-on for access to government transactions and information
- Build on/re-use current agency implementations to speed enterprise adoption
|
| Major Components | - Coordinate an Identity Management Summit to share history and current capabilities
- Analyze current implementations to determine expandability
- Identify known business requirements, including security and privacy requirements
- Plan and implement enterprise identity management for Commonwealth employees as a first phase
|
Common, effective management practices
| 7. Enhanced procurement processes |
| Description | Coordinate IT procurement efforts across entities of the Commonwealth to leverage our purchasing power for best price and optimal services |
| Goals | - Lower licensing and maintenance costs for individual agencies and the Commonwealth as a whole by taking advantage of volume discounts
- Achieve consistency of vendor support and services across agencies
- Reduce costs and delays for IT projects by simplifying complex, paper intensive procurement processes and leveraging automation wherever possible
- Align Commonwealth procurement rules and practices for IT goods and services with the imperatives of the industry (i.e. shorter product cycles, frequency of business consolidation, etc.)
|
| Major Components | - Negotiate Commonwealth enterprise licenses for highly utilized vendors
- Coordinate vendor management issues across agencies
- Project future needs for major vendor products and aggregate purchases to maximize volume discounts
- Streamline procurement processes within existing regulations
- Work with OSD to identify opportunities for improvement of current regulations governing IT procurement
|
Created 12/1/08: Information provided by ITD's Planning & Strategy Office
