Transforming resource management The document discusses challenges with government IT projects, including underfunding, lack of skills, and applications that are too complicated. It notes impatience from the industry due to consistent failures to deliver on time and budget. The document outlines what the Ministry of Justice is doing to address these issues, including assessing skills, reducing reliance on contractors, and taking a systematic approach to skills management. The key is balancing skills within project teams and improving communication between IT professionals and practitioners.

1. Transforming resource
management
Opening up the profession to the concept of
p g p p p
“DELIVERY”
Andrew Gay
4th December, 2008

2. ICT to Government – squeezing the funding lemon!
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury
should be refilled, public debt should be reduced,
refilled reduced
the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
a d co t o ed, a d t e ass sta ce
and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands
o e g a ds
should be curtailed lest the country become
bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead
of living on public assistance."
Cicero 55BC
Government ICT has always been underfunded in
hardware and in skills and overinvested in Applications
too complicated for users and too expensive to be
t li t d f dt i t b
affordable

3. We are complex ministry – newly formed
80,000 employees
2721 buildings
£9.2 billion budget
650 courts
139 prisons
42 local Criminal Justice Boards
42 probation areas
28 central government tribunals
g
3 crown Dependencies
All underinvested in IT
d i t di

4. The ‘Offending Business
Offending Business’
53,700,000
11,300,000
11 300 000
1,100,000
24%%
280,000
82,000 ++
Early release programme
15,000 additional places – Rival Olympics!!
£60,000,000,000
£60 000 000 000
70%/70%/70%
All requiring shared data

5. Agenda
The increasing impatience in the industry because of a
consistent failing to deliver to time and budget.
The skill in identifying the underlying customer who reaps the
operating benefit – ‘The Practitioner’.
The overriding need for more professional and focussed
project management skills.
Skill and resource balancing.
What we are trying to do in the MoJ.

6. Impatience Lack of Training
Speed of improvement
p p Failed implementations
Legacy failure ICT Language
Lack of business Lack of Lack of business
engagement Professional knowledge
Skills
Budget restrictions Information assurance
Practitioner buy in Drop out of key staff
Drop out of systems

7. Chicago break out session
The ‘Project from Hell’
e oject o e
One person’s fruitless crusade against lies,
deceit, d
d it deception and t
ti d treachery.
h
A project managers story.
j t t
It is all about the people, their skills, their focus, their
professionalism and their leadership
AND HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER (EQ)

8. Why do we have these failures?
False economies
o Quality is expensive and hard to get – Most key roles across my
ICT landscape are self-employed contractors.
o Of the FTEs >90% earn in the lower quartile of IT income.
q
o Man marking of the premiership stars by under 12s!
o Failure to work out poor performers (1.7%).
o Failure to recognise, train, mentor and develop key talent early..
Unrecognised shortages and shortfalls in project
management.
Poor leadership from businesses.
Failure to develop a service culture.

9. The Blue Planet
Zone of
oxygen and
light
Middle management Professional skills gap
Zone of the
unknown
and weird
and
wonderful

10. Identifying and improving the customer interface
ICT has the habit of not identifying the ‘intelligent’ customer.
The skill is in isolating the user – the ‘practitioner’ – and
practitioner
identifying the detail of the tasks that make him or her perform
to a higher level – what makes a difference to their tasks.
The ICT professional has an obligation to ration functionality
to the lowest common denominator and resist scope creep.
This means reducing interfaces and understanding the nature
of the task by performing that task – in person.
In practice we do not develop a communication with the
practitioner and a divide appears – another form of skill gap.
We need to train our professionals to communicate in
p
common language based on functional requirements.

11. Project management
Every procurement, installation, configuration, system
integration, software/hardware purchase, transformation or
transition is a project.
We need to balance resources to deliver what our
practitioner wants to improve productivity or quality of output.

12. The Challenge – San Francisco 1998
In the future business will succeed on the basis of supply
chain management
- Strategic Alliances
- Partnerships/Partnering/outsourcing
- Differentiation
Differentiation.
Partnering in the Service Sector will require delivery of more
and more for less and less for ever more demanding Clients
g
who will expect DELIVERY not EXCUSES.
Measurable business benefits will be what drives IT – ease
of access, security and t i i f use will b th main
f it d training for ill be the i
criteria for success.
To deliver for this future Project Management will be
the most critical skill of all in IT.

13. In 1996
$82 Billion was wasted on
IT Projects in the USA
that were never ever
implemented
i l t d
A total failure to deliver any
benefits

14. PM is about
getting everyone
in the team to
‘buy in’
They must see
clear objectives
all the time
ll th ti

15. But we usually confuse the background
Underinvestment
Head count reductions
Missing pieces in
infrastructure
Confusion on the org
structures
Suppliers unclear on task
Lack of business
leadership
Lack of budget
Uncertainty at board
Poor project
management
Wrong technology
Poor procurement
Conflicting platforms
SRO issues (ownership)

16. Do we have the resources to succeed?
The right price/budget.
The right team with the right skills.
The right relationship (or the ability to get it) with the
business or SRO
b i SRO.
The right supply chain.
The i ht
Th right contract documentation – was procurement flexible
t td t ti t fl ibl
enough to allow progress and VfM?

17. Balancing skills within the team
Commercial TDA/ Live service Leadership
skills Architecture • Desk top • Team
• Procurement • Assurance support Leading
• Negotiation and ISO • Apps. • Strategy
• Commercial accreditation Support • Customer
negotiations • Information • Supplier requirements
• Settlements Assurance interface and and
and dispute • Security management relationship –
resolution • Managing • Audit the value
• Payment interfaces • Asset proposition
• Cash • Service management
g • Outsourcingg
management architecture • Hosting • Vfm
• Budget • Help Desk • Programmes
management
g • DR and projects
p j
• Resilience (PM)

18. What we are doing now through the MoJ
Capability building through skill assessment.
Geared to improving Civil Service capability and reducing
reliance on expensive contractors – except in key skill areas
and mainly on fixed contracts on Programme management
and implementation.
Reducing contractor numbers by 50% over 12 months and
saving over £5m per annum
annum.
This is only possible by a systematic approach (SFIA 3 on
present skills assessment but moving to SFIA 4)

19. This requires
The businesses we serve must define needs and demands
more closely – a ‘Dragons Den’ review.
A determination not to compromise on p
p poor p
performers.
A revised pay structure specific to ICT and allowing sensible
internal promotions.
Stronger customer interfaces and better communication.
Much clear focus to requirements when recruiting.
Should lead to more secondments to and from long term
supplier partnerships – has been successful in the past.

20. Skills Management Methodology – 7 steps
Skills directory – what do we think we have
Analyse Job roles and functions
Set new and appropriate organisational structure
Assess skills
Confirm skill requirements
Set objectives
Analyse new skill needs against criteria

21. Remember
I think that is an immutable
law in business that
words are words,
explanations are explanations
promises are promises
- but only
performance is reality
Harold Geneen
Former chief executive of IT&T 1985
Achievement of delivery is only possible with
the right skills and the right motivation and
with shared goals and objectives

22. Thank you