IT services review

Our proposed plan for the review has now been submitted. In general it consists of the following plan.

 Stage 1. Vision

This stage involves getting all key stakeholders together with an external facilitator to brainstorm what we want from our ICT environment. This is much wider than a list of services, and at a much higher level than a Service Catalogue. When I think of this stage, I think of words like 

• flexible
• responsive
• agile
• standards-based
• customer focused
• consultative
• transparent
• accountable
• efficient
• well resourced

I’m sure I’ll think of many more. If possible, the group would also attempt to develop a vision and mission statement, or at least some alternatives. These will then be made available online for a defined short period of time for discussion by any member of staff. Once time’s up, the Project Team will incorporate that feedback and develop a final vision and mission statement for submission to the Steering Committee.

Stage 2. Model development

Literature review/environmental scan for best practice. Okay, I’m a librarian, I can’t help it. We need to do some research to find examples of models that work and why. I’m particularly interested in federated models, and there is a great reference that I can’t locate right now but will add later.

Then we get the group together again to brainstorm possible models – no judgements, no analysis at this stage. Anything goes. Then we go through the list and consider the possibilities of each one. The result of that should be some alternatives that could work for our environment. Then we need to consider those and develop pros and cons of each. Hopefully we have a small list of possibilities, and they would then go online for more discussion by all staff (for a short time). The Project Team then puts together a final proposed model, and again invites short feedback. Once feedback is incorporated, the proposed model goes to the Steering Committee.  One of the factors during the deliberations would be funding options as this would be integral to the model.

Sounds easy doesn’t it? I’m not that silly – this will be really tough. But it seems a simple process, which involves full consultation with everyone who wants to have a say. It doesn’t try to deal with implementation issues, as they involve a whole different set of people, and that would follow on with a new plan. I am now waiting to see if this will be accepted, and who is going to lead the review.