IT Communications and Coordination in NOAA Office of the CIO

1
IT Communications and Coordination in NOAA
Office of the CIO

• CIO Council Meeting
• Information Briefing
• Sandra Yin
• NOAA OCIO, Office of Planning, Policy, and
  Analysis
• Tuesday, October 31, 2006

2
Outline

• Purpose
• Issue
• Background Discussion
• Coordination
• Alternatives
• Recommendation
• Results
• Summary

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Purpose

• Information Briefing
• Want to Improve IT Governance in NOAA
• Assessing our performance
• Relieving the burden of DOC data calls
• Recommending Six Steps to Improvement

4
Issue

• Can we manage data calls better?
• IT Governance and Security data calls gt 100
  annually
• Can we take steps to
• Improve quality?
• Reduce labor spent on data calls?
• Work smarter?
• What are NOAA IT governance objectives?
• Respond to DOC data calls? Other?

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Coordination

• Ongoing NOAA and Line Office collaboration
• IT Governance and DOC data call support
• Exhibit 300, Exhibit 53, EA, EVM, Operational
  Analysis
• PPBES IT Planning
• CIO Council Sub-Committees
• IT Liaisons and Subject Matter Experts as LO POCs
• Discussing our IT business model with LOs
• Communications meetings
• Brainstorming with LO IT Liaisons

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Background Discussion

• The Art Science of IT management is evolving
• 10 years since Clinger-Cohen
• Sarbanes-Oxley
• Project Management Institute
• PM Body of Knowledge
• NOAA OCIO PPA has history of guidance on file
• Want to reuse previous data call guidance in
  future

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Alternatives

• (1) Status Quo
• Data calls answer the mail from DOC for IT
  programs
• No strategic planning or integration of
  cross-NOAA initiatives
• Staff resources under strain
• Add labor resources to support objectives
• Replace staff loss from attrition
• (2) Low effort, incremental improvement,
  immediate ROI
• Document business model, guidance, templates,
  data call calendar
• Establish key standards and repeatable processes
• (3) Medium effort, business model improvements
• Improve Committee framework authority,
  assignments, and tracking
• Establish IT Infrastructure Committee
• Move data call venue from email to online
  collaboration
• Make data call guidance and standards available
  online

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Recommendation

• Six Steps to Improvement
• Communications Plan
• Website for Data Call Guidance
• Guidance / Template / Example Standard
• PPA Coordination Ideas
• Project Description Proposed Standard
• CIO Council and Committee Framework

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Recommendation Six Steps to Improvement

• Step 1 Communications Plan
• Concise description of our IT business model
• Roles and responsibilities
• IT Governance calendar and deliverables cycle
• Councils, Committee, working groups
• Lists of contacts and SME by LO organization
• What is the problem we are solving?
• Explaining, clarifying and organizing what we do
• The basic framework for our online knowledge

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Recommendation Six Steps to Improvement

• Step 2 Website for Data Call Guidance
• Intranet for NOAA IT Community
• Communications Plan online
• Policy, guidance, and templates online
• Improved web presence for NOAA OCIO
• Data call responses online (longer term)
• Workflow and collaboration (longer term)
• What is the problem we are solving?
• Broader audience has access to IT knowledge
• Better version control of data calls and guidance
• Dont conduct all business in email

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Recommendation Six Steps to Improvement

• Step 3 Guidance / Template / Example Standard
• Completed Guidelines to write a policy or
  guidance and a Guidance template
• Prerequisite to build a guidance library
• Next steps are to convert existing PPA data files
  and emails to guidance
• Reuse exiting knowledge reuse across LOs
• What is the problem we are solving?
• Use PM and SDLC life cycle practices for IT
  governance
• LOs adopt common practices and standards
• Clarify policy and guidance. Improve processes
  and procedures

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Recommendation Six Steps to Improvement

• Step 4 PPA Coordination Ideas
• PPA clearinghouse for IT Governance
• Single point of contact for emailing data calls
• Single dedicated time slot for weekly meetings
• Shared by IT Planning, EA, OCIO-LO coordination
• Primary Subject Matter Experts and LO IT Liaisons
• What is the problem we are solving?
• To reduce confusion, and help search and data
  mine email
• To improve coordination, and reduce meeting time
• To develop subject matter experts and IT Liaisons

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Recommendation Six Steps to Improvement

• Step 5 Project Description Proposed Standard
• Guidance requires a Project Description when
  level of effort reaches a critical mass. When
  project has
• Technical, cross-organizational, or geographic
  complexity
• Multiple AOP milestones, or schedule longer than
  1 year
• Need for decision by CIO Council or NITRB
• Guidance provides a Project Description (Plan)
  template
• What is the problem we are solving?
• Taking a strategic step to reduce risk on
  projects
• Project Management is not only for Exhibit 300 IT
  investments
• Impacts Projects under IT Infrastructure
  umbrella

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Recommendation Six Steps to Improvement

• Step 6 CIO Council and Committee Framework
• Update CIO Council and Committee Terms of
  Reference
• Terms of Reference are dated
• Add Web Committee charter
• Update sub-Committee authority, mandate and scope
• Define, clarify responsibility of individual
  member(s)
• Create IT Infrastructure function
• Improve ability of Committees to better serve CIO
  Council
• Action Status, Tracking, and Issue Resolution and
  Escalation
• Provide for cross-Committee Coordination
• Project Management of Committees AOP initiatives
• Periodic Status Reports before CIO Council
• What is the problem we are solving?
• Conduct and complete business more efficiently

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Results

• Getting on the Right Path
• DOC data calls
• Better NOAA-wide integration and coordination
• Better program management performance
• Reducing project risk
• Managing milestone and performance goals

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Summary

• Next Steps
• Reduce risk on projects
• Support standards for IT Governance
• CIO Direction and Concurrence?
• Step 5 Project Description Guidance
• Step 6 CIO Council Committee Framework