DAMA International

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DAMA International Australia Conference
2005
Old Parliament House, Canberra, 19-21 October
Data Management in the 21st Century
Laying foundations for the next wave of G2G and
G2B data interoperability
DAMA Australia
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Connecting Government A Case Study

• Fran Parker Phil Morgan
• Australian Government Indigenous
• Management Information System (AGIMIS) Project
• OIPC
• DAMA Conference
• October 2005

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Agenda

• PART 1 ESTABLISHING
• BACKGROUND new arrangements, drivers, whole
  picture
• PROJECT objective, stages, governance
• GUIDING SCOPE reporting cycle, reporting
  principles, criteria
• PART 2 REPORTING AND DATA
• REPORTING against reporting cycle by dimensions
• DATA min data set, extended, contextual
• LEARNING FROM THE CASE STUDY

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New Arrangements in Indigenous Affairs from 2004

• The Governments Indigenous programs are now
  administered by mainstream agencies, under a
  whole of government approach.
• A Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs
  provides leadership and strategic direction at
  the national level, advised by the Secretaries
  Group on Indigenous Affairs and the National
  Indigenous Council.
• Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination (OIPC)
  established.
• Multi-agency Indigenous Coordination Centre
  (ICCs) have been established to coordinate the
  regional service delivery.

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Need for Better Reporting and Data Arrangements

• New arrangements will partly rely on accurate and
  timely information exchange between agencies, and
  reporting capabilities at all levels of
  operation.
• Ideally, adequate and comparable information on
  Indigenous services should be available to
•    support policy the whole of government focus
  on service delivery, minimisation of the
  administrative impost on communities, and future
  government decision making
•    support program implementation, including
  both national program requirements and
  co-ordination and co-operation at a regional
  level and
•     provide program performance monitoring and
  reporting on a whole of government basis.
• enhance the quality of the information to
  Government on where and how money is spent, on
  whom, and who benefits.

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Whole of Government Drivers

• In establishing the new approach to the delivery
  of Indigenous services, the government has
  committed to Improved accountability,
  performance monitoring and reporting are built
  into the new arrangements1.
•   
• In launching Connecting Government 2 Dr Peter
  Shergold expressed the view that a whole of
  government approach was one which can inspire
  innovative national approaches to the delivery of
  services to Indigenous Australians and further,
  in discussing whole of government policy that a
  Government has a right to know the whole picture
  a public service has the responsibility to
  provide it.
• 1 Five Principles - The new approach to
  Indigenous Affairs, Principle 4 - Accountability,
  OIPC Website 2005
• 2 Speech to Launch Connecting Government
  Whole of Government Responses to Australias
  Priority Challenges, Dr Peter Shergold, April
  2004.

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Conceptually The Whole Picture
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AGIMIS Project

• Develop an Indigenous management information
  system to support the long term policy, program
  implementation and reporting requirements of the
  joined-up, whole of government approach to
  Indigenous funding, program performance
  monitoring and reporting

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Governance Structures
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Initial Reporting Needs

• Consultation with stakeholders led to four
  questions
• 1. What are government intentions in relation to
  Indigenous people and communities as expressed by
  policies, outcomes/outputs and priorities?
• 2. What is the effort government is making to
  address those expressed policies,
  outcomes/outputs and priorities?
• 3. What evidence is there that the effort of
  government is effective in bringing about the
  expressed outcomes and/or addressing the priority
  areas?
• 4. What contextual data would enhance the
  reporting environment?

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Government Services Life Cycle
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AGIMIS Reporting Principles - based on GRI
                                                 
       
 
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Success Criteria adopted UK FABRIC

• Focused on the organisations aims and
  objectives.
• Appropriate to, and useful for, stakeholders who
  are likely to use it.
• Balanced giving a picture of what the
  organisation is doing, covering all significant
  areas of work.
• Robust in order to withstand organisational
  changes or individuals leaving.
• Integrated into the organisation, being part of
  the business planning and management processes.
• Cost-effective balancing the benefits of the
  information against the costs
• 1 Choosing the Right FABRIC A Framework for
  Performance Information, HM Treasury, Audit
  Comm., Cabinet Office, National Statistics,
  National Audit Office, March 2001

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Determining AGIMIS Scope
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Scope of Reporting and Data
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Preliminary Scope of Reports Required

• Using the reporting cycle various reporting needs
  were identified from direction setting thru
  service delivery and performance management to
  needs/issues.
• Information needs to be presented from a range of
  perspectives
• Functional Sector
• Region/location
• Time
• Organisation
• Approx 50 reports identified and captured in
  AGIMIS Catalog of Reporting Requirements.

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Data Sets

• Minimum Data set
• Developed thru IRG and RD Working Group
• Data known to be available. Initial spec and
  collection in July 05 and confirmation in Nov
  2005
• Incorporates data on agency outcome/outputs, AGIE
  Programs, expenditure estimates various
  reporting categories such as government purpose,
  target recipients and intended locations
• Extended Data Set
• Being developed thru IRG and RD Working Group
• Data known to be not fully available. Collection
  in 2006
• Incorporates data on service delivery,
  expenditure, performance information and
  agreements
• Contextual Data
• Demographics, census data, reporting
  classifications, geography
• Historical Data
• Program/service delivery data prior to 2005 on
  case-by-case basis

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Learning from the Case Study (1)

• Focus of Information Needs
• Identifying the wealth of data available is
  relatively easy.
• Identifying the variety of information needs of a
  very diverse set of stakeholders is difficult.
• Approached this by presenting prototype reports
  to show what is possible and help tease out
  information needs rather than data needs. We
  have complemented this by a data availability
  survey
• Data, data everywhere be judicious
• Wealth of information around. But much of the
  data is isolated.
• The challenge to identify that data which can be
  integrated and which adds value. Also harvest a
  variety of contextual data.
• Just because it exists doesnt mean it should be
  included in AGIMIS. Apply the FABRIC criteria to
  prioritise the data.

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Learning from the Case Study (2)

• A wealth of good practices exist - reuse dont
  reinvent
• Team has gone to lengths to reuse good practices,
  including those by agencies such the ABS, AIHW
  and Geoscience Australia
• Adopted international approaches such as the UK
  Government and the United Nations. Used
  standards such as ISO/IEC 11179 and frameworks
  such as FABRIC and GRI.
• Take a risk put up a strawman model
• The team did not wait to establish a national
  data agreement before defining a minium set of
  data could have taken years.
• Instead, presented strawman information model
  based on generic concepts covering government
  service planning delivery.
• Accounting for data availability, consulting with
  IRG and RDWG developed Indigenous Services
  National Minimum Data Set.

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Learning from the Case Study (3)

• Connecting Government is much more than
  technology
• The current challenge for AGIMIS is not
  technological. Team has adopted a low-key
  approach to technology this may change as the
  scope and volume of data and information needs
  increase
• Overall, the key focus of the team is on
  stakeholder engagement this is seen as
  fundamental to Connecting Government
• High level government commitment makes for good
  cooperation
• Team has received outstanding cooperation and
  support from stakeholder agencies
• The high level commitment of Government to
  Indigenous Affairs with the Ministerial Taskforce
  and Secretaries Group has provided necessary
  leadership
• But it is the ongoing commitment of stakeholders
  at all levels that will pave the way for
  Connecting Government

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More Information

• www.oipc.gov.au/agimis