Framework to Create an Information System Strategic Plan (ISSP)
Framework to Create an Information System Strategic Plan (ISSP)
This web blog framework is intended for those who will be facilitating the creation of an ISSP plan for their Ministry. The following was used for local government in the Philippines and it has been edited for use in the Public Sector of Suriname.
Background
The Local Government Unit (LGU) ISSP template has been supplied as a model that you can follow (reference 1 below). It is not a strategic planning document. If you filled in the 'blanks' then you could replicate the plan but it will not be a 'sustainable' plan for your organization to implement. For those of you that are interested, NCC (National Computer Center of the Philippines) developed that template for National government departments to apply for IT equipment (refernce 2). It was not designed for LGUs. A new template for LGUs was promised over 3 years ago and it has not materialized yet. Consequently I recommend some changes to make it a more strategic planning document.
Types of Plan
There are many types of plans used in human service organizations. While the essence of all plans are the same – answering questions such as where are we going and how are we going to get there – we give them different names depending on what the plan is for.
There are strategic, service, financial, project, operational, evaluation, team, client, etc. The ISSP will be a plan which integrates many of the above into one sustainable plan for the organization.
Some of the characteristics of the ISSP are that it:
deals with fundamental questions like: who are the client? Who should be the client?
provides a framework for day to day planning;
typically involves a time frame of 3 to 5 years;
is an activity that must involve all levels of management in the organization.
There are many strategic planning models. The proposed model follows ten steps, however the weighting may vary depending on the nature of the organization and its needs.
Define the purpose and mission of the organization.
Identify current aims, objectives and strategy of the organization
Environment analysis.
Resource analysis.
Stakeholder analysis.
Identification of strategic opportunities and threats (SWOT).
Identifying strategic choices.
Strategic decision making.
Implementation.
Evaluation.
The following strategic planning exercise should be undertaken with all the department managers of the organization. You can get the Vision and Mission statements of the organization as a starting discussion point.
Tools: can use manila paper (flip charts), masking tape and markers to write on.
Define the purpose and mission of the organization
First break out session of the department managers: form 2 to 3 groups to create an ICT Mission statement in the context of the organization’s vision and mission.
The objective is to identify what will happen if the organization has few or no computers. If they are already automated then need to identify what is actually happening at the moment. Could use the “Guide to Finding the appropriate Model” table in page 7 of the “Guide on Model ICT Organizational Structures for Local Governments” as a starting point and have the groups determine where they think their organization fits on the table.
Objectives are statements of what the organization intends to achieve. The strategy is how the objectives are going to be achieved. For example if the are a Model B organization and they want to reach D, then we need to discuss what steps need to be taken to get there.
Once they position themselves as a Model A, B, or C the you can use that as a starting point to help them move to E.
Environment Analysis
The
purpose of this is to identify the way changes in the environment can
influence the organization. A detailed environment diagram from
Lubao LGU is provided above for discussion purposes.
Resource Analysis
This would be an assessment of the existing infrastructure, hardware, software and human resources within the organization to implement the ISSP. What additional resources will be needed to be purchased and staff hired. This generally includes an analysis of the organizations strengths and weaknesses.
The ICT Unit should have a list of computers together with their properties on file. If they do not then they should compile one for the ISSP. An example is shown at the end of the tables below with computers allocated by units within the ministry. Additional columns such as (i) number that need to be replaced immediately, (ii) number of new computers that are needed, (iii) operating system such as Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11. With input from the planning team a priority ranking of the units or individuals should be added as well. This would determine the priority distribution of the new equipment as funding becomes available.
This can be compiled by the organization with your help. You could use the hardware and software inventory as the starting point to identify staff requirements, etc. Any gaps could be added by the management team as part of a planned strategy session, maybe in conjunction with the stakeholder analysis below.
Sample output from planning session:
The inventory session is then added to working spreadsheets for analysis.
This is a simple result with priority ranking by Department. Based on the output costs could be estimated for the additional hardware requirements as follows:
The following is software training costs:
Computers allocated by unit within the ministry
Prior to this you should collect an inventory of all the hardware and software used by the departments. This can be listed on the flipcharts and used as a basis of discussion. The question that could be asked is what equipment do you have? Are they enough? Do you need more? Are there applications that you would like to improve your efficiency?, etc.
You can have them break out to discuss or hold a general discussion per department. Output would be the future ICT needs of each department that needs to be achieved.
The how? Or strategy is to discuss the need for life-cycle-costing. Most organizations treat computerization as a project staged over three years. In addition most are focused on FMIS (Financial MIS). Non-financial systems are neglected or omitted. These include human resource, civil registry, social services, agriculture, health databases, and so on. A true ISSP needs to include the automation of the entire organization including non-finance related departments.
Who are the stakeholders? What are their needs? Wants? Expectations? Key stakeholders include funding bodies (mayor and council), clients, staff, management committee and volunteers. Their views and needs will have an influence on the plans that are developed.
If you are running short on time this may not need much discussion since it is pretty clear who the stakeholders are in an public organization.
Identification of strategic opportunities and threats (SWOT)
These are the opportunities and threats that arise outside the organization. Undertake a SWOT analysis.
This is similar to the previous item. FMIS will provide additional revenue generation at least to the extent that it will increase collection and identify omissions and delinquents.
Identify Strategic Choices
In general the choices have been made, in local government, to implement Open Source FMIS of eBPLS, eRPTS and eTOMS. The other would be commercial vendors. Other decisions are to develop in-house programming staff to develop non-revenue generating database applications or outsourcing. Since outsourcing is more expensive it is not likely to be a choice made by most public organizations.
However, you should point out that there is no free lunch. Picking Open Source and Linux has its drawback as is in-house development. It would take time, expertise and comittment.
Strategic Decision Making
The NCC ISSP template just lists the computers and applications that form the wish list and a costing and distribution over three years. LGUs treat this as part of their project funding. They need to consider long term sustainability and include ICT as part of their budget or operations and management. In other words they need to institutionalize ICT and allocate it as a line item in their annual budget. The same would apply to any public organization.
Since there are not many options you need to initiate discussion of life-cycle-costing and sustainability here. Need to emphasize that computers need to be replaced after 4 or more years consequently it does not finish after the plan is implemented. There is a need to include ICT as a budget item and provide it with an annual budget of 1 to 2 per cent depending on the ambitions of the organization. Obviously it may take a larger per cent of a 3rd class versus 1st class LGU.
It is more important to prioritize and spread out the automation if less budget is allocated than to get a large one time approval which will not be renewed in the future. Important to get mayor buy-in.
You will need to get the organization counterpart to provide you with local hardware costs and training costs as part of financial requirements. For example in the Philippines typically a PC Workstation is around Peso 25,000 and one week training is about 30,000 assuming institute group training and per diem costs for the staff, etc. Get specific detailed breakdown for your organization.
Implementation
A champion needs to be identified to head up the ICT team and push for the plan implementation. This needs to be a person from senior management. In addition an ICT committee could be recommended that would provide more lobbying power for the plan implementation.
You can try and identify such a person and recommend to the organization executive. In municipalities generally it could be the Treasurer, Accountant, Assessor or Municipal Planner in that order. Of course if the Vice-Mayor and Municipal Administrator also be considered.
In addition to the champion an ICT Unit or Division needs to be formally established and agreed upon by the executive. This is added to the plan.
Depending on the situation an ICT Committee of management stakeholders could be formed to push the implementation. This is key especially if the champion needs support.
Evaluation
Recommend the ICT Manager or ICT Committee evaluate the level of success of the plan and adjust as required annually.
I hope this short write-up will help those involved with the development of an ISSP that have not undertaken strategic planning exercises before. For those that have you may want to use your own template.
The information collected can then be put into an ISSP for implementation.
I will try to forward a copy of a pilot ISSP plan for Suriname once it is completed.
Augusto Ribeiro
Catalyste+ Advisor
CCEDM
2024.11.12
References
2. NCC ISP Document Format Ver 1.3
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