Strategic IT Planning and Management Resources

Guidelines to Baseline the Existing IT

Synopsis

This references a set of guidance and checklists to help record and organize information on current IT assets and their qualities. This information is one part of understanding the current situation and analyzing of the gap between the existing IT infrastructure and the HS Agency vision. Available checklists are:

The following section provides general guidelines that apply across the checklists.

General Guidelines

	Individuals collecting information about the current IT inventory or its use should be under the direction of either the Strategy Team or the Architecture Team. This helps ensure that the appropriate information and detail is collected for these teams to use.
	Individuals collecting the data should be familiar with the systems being inventoried to ensure that the data is correctly interpreted.
	The data collection can be initiated once the scope for IT strategic planning is established.
	Prioritize collecting information that is important in making decisions on what must be included in the Technical Architecture to ensure interoperability and integration; determine IT strategies; and establish ballpark costs, resources, and time frames.
	The emphasis should be to create a representative picture of the state of IT as cost-effectively as possible. Focus on accuracy and speed of collection (e.g., a quick look) rather than a lot of precise, detailed information. This data will enable the HS Agency Decision Makers, the Strategy Team, and the Architecture Development Teams to make informed decisions about the future IT with reasonable risk. Detailed data can be added later to address specific issues.
	Show any significant uncertainty in the data collected, such as generalizing the number or type of applications in use without specifically listing each one. Provide notes to help assess the impact that generalizations may have on any decision making, when necessary.
	Attempt to provide minimal processing or interpretation of the source data when collecting it. The data should reflect, with reasonable fidelity, the state of the use of IT in the environments within the scope at a point in time. Note all sources necessary to validate the data collected and obtain more detailed information later, if needed (such as configuration management records).
	Much of the information needed may be available from design/development documentation or models. However, when dealing with systems that are well established and have a long maintenance history, that documentation may not accurately reflect what is actually in use or the way it is used.
	Possible sources of data include: Interviews Design documents/product descriptions/specifications/automated tools Change, maintenance requests, configuration management records, system development library, or problem tracking systems HS Agency strategy documents Reports generated by the system(s) User manuals Organizational policies, procedures, or standards
	Organize the data so it is traceable to the applications or systems an HS Agency function uses. You may wish to organize the information by location if this represents major implications to the IT strategy, e.g., many sites dispersed across the State.
	A tool such as a database or spreadsheet is useful to collect and analyze the data.
	Consider not only the differences, but also the similarities between the systems and their usage across the HS Agency. This may help with planning the development of common applications, entities, or features across HS Agency functions.
	Be sensitive to the difficulties that the Team has in collecting reliable data on the state of the infrastructure. This may be an area for later improvement to the fabrication, deployment, and operations processes (e.g., noneffective configuration management records or problem reports)
	Refresh the inventory periodically because the summary is only a snapshot in time.