Scan IT Division Environment
By analyzing the IT Division, its obligations and responsibilities, as well as the current IT inventory, the Strategy Team develops insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the HS IT Division and IT deployment.
| Introduction |
| Activities |
Introduction
These activities deal with the world inside the HS IT Division and its relationship to the entities within the HS Agency, as well as those in the HS Agency's external environment. The focus is on the IT Division's current and planned responsibilities, obligations, and key interfaces within the HS Agency and other external entities. This analysis generates an understanding of the HS IT Division's competencies, which affect its ability to rapidly and effectively respond to the changing needs of the HS Agency.
Scanning the environment of the IT Division includes compiling an inventory of the technology either currently deployed or under development and preparing an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the IT Division. The Strategy Team should also determine the strengths and weaknesses of the key interfaces. This is the IT baseline.
At the end of this process, the Strategy Team understands the current technology baseline, and how the IT Division operates and how it interacts with the other internal or external entities.
Activities
To scan the IT Division's environment, the Strategy Team performs the following activities:
1. Plan Collection of IT Division Internal Environment Data
Purpose:
Formulate a plan to collect the following data:
- HS IT Division's internal environment, such as organizational structures, roles, responsibilities, obligations, and interfaces
- IT baseline and its general qualities
Document this information in the IT Division Data Collection Plan Worksheet. This plan will guide the two subsequent activities collection and base-lining activities.
Description:
This activity focuses on developing a plan for of the IT Division's internal environment and its responsibilities, obligations, and interfaces with other entities. It is necessary to determine the types of information is needed and whether the Strategy Team has access to the information.
Characterizing the current state of the IT Division requires establishing sub-teams of the Strategy Team. These sub-teams compile information on the major technology elements and their overall qualities. This includes investigating the HS programs and other organizational entities, applications used, data sources and platforms used, and network structure.
In addition, the baseline activities may include collecting and organizing information about security/integrity, legal issues, privacy, system development, vendor support, outsourcing, or other issues critical to the HS Agency mission and its use of technology.
Once the Strategy Team determines what is needed, they complete the following actions:
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Identifies all of the key stakeholders (those who can provide reliable information on the current and future state of the IT Division)
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Schedules interview meetings with the key stakeholders
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Requests that stakeholders provide any readily available documentation for the Strategy Team to review prior to the meeting
2. Collect and Analyze the IT Division's Environment Information
Purpose:
The purpose of this activity is to collect, categorize, and analyze the data according to the collection plan created in the activity above, revising the plan as necessary. Prioritize any conclusions and, when appropriate, communicate them to the HS Agency Decision Makers and IT Decision Makers through briefings or other means. The Technology Trends Scanning Worksheet provides insight into collecting, organizing, and analyzing this information.
Description:
HS programs require a number of interface entities to work together in partnership to promote the economic self-sufficiency and security of their clients. In order to meet current and expanded needs of the agency, the Strategy Team needs to categorize and assess the various types of interfaces. The Interface Type Worksheet provides insight into collecting and analyzing this information.
While assessing the interfaces, the Strategy Team needs to determine which interfaces are missing or collect inaccurate information. The Reporting Worksheet provides a document to determine which interfaces need updating or replacing.
The IT Division may have unique factors that may impact the HS Agency's interfaces. The Unique and Critical Factors Worksheet serves as a tool to collect this information.
Identify and prioritize the primary duties and obligations to support the HS Agency's mission and vision. Note dependencies between the IT Division and entities in the HS Agency or its external environment. This includes Federal or State lawmakers, elected officials, HS programs, regulators, and other HS Agency internal and external stakeholders (for example, all reporting obligations related to programs and Federal Agencies). The Strategy Team looks for discontinuities or misalignments between responsibilities, obligations, and current IT Division capabilities.
The IT Division may have unique characteristics that affect the IT delivery processes, which should be noted. This includes processes to develop and deploy the technology elements (e.g., applications, platforms, networking, and data sources), as well as processes used to operate these elements once they are deployed (e.g., network, security, data or user administration, and help desk). In addition, organizational structure, decision making, staffing profiles, resources (e.g., development platforms and tools) should also should be examined. The following factors representing the HS Agency need to be considered:
- HS operations. This assessment determines whether the IT staff operating and maintaining the HS program systems is able to perform its responsibilities effectively and efficiently and whether IT enhancements could dramatically increase the overall productivity of the HS Agency.
- Technology development and deployment. This assessment determines whether the IT group is able to perform its responsibilities effectively and efficiently. This includes the ability to develop and deploy applications that meet HS Agency needs when the HS Agency needs them, in a cost-effective manner (e.g., on time, within cost, and with the desired functionality).
Many of the critical responsibilities of technology may be mandated by either Federal or State requirements. The plans and aspirations of elected officials in the State or other political concerns may have a direct impact on the HS IT Division. Some States have centralized Chief Information Offices that serve to standardize and constrain Agencies within their responsibilities. These constraints should be considered.
The items collected and analyzed establish the list of IT Division responsibilities and obligations and their relative priorities.
3. Baseline and Assess the IT Inventory
Purpose:
Collect, categorize, and assess an inventory of the IT assets (products or process), creating a baseline. Prioritize any conclusions and, when appropriate, communicate them to the HS Agency Decision Makers and IT Decision Makers through briefings or other means. The Guidelines to Baseline the IT and Guidelines to Assess Current IT Qualities provide additional insight into collecting, organizing, and analyzing this information.
Description:
These activities may begin once the scope for the Analyze the Situation activities is determined. Sub-teams to the Strategy Team may be formed to collect and compile the information. One way to obtain information is to survey key stakeholders throughout or external to the HS Agency. To ensure that individuals respond and provide this information in a timely fashion, it is helpful if the sub-teams receive public support from the Strategy Team, the IT Decision Makers, and the HS Agency Decision Makers.
The information collected should be at a summary level, sufficient to contrast the current state of the HS Agency technology with immediate- and long-term needs. This is intended to be a quick-look, detailed information can be added later.
Two types of IT base-lining and assessment activities are performed:
- Inventory Activities
These activities collect and organize data about the HS Agency and its business functions, the work that is performed, the applications that support this work, and the technology in use (e.g., applications, platforms, networking, and data sources). The checklists noted in Guidelines to Baseline the IT can guide this effort.
The emphasis is on speed and accuracy versus precision or completeness. The characterization should reflect the general state of the HS Agency IT Division, allowing for a more detailed understanding later if necessary. If the organization has recently undergone a Y2K review and assessment, some of this information may be readily available. It should be reviewed and updated as appropriate to ensure its accuracy.
Possible sources of technology inventory information are the AIS configuration management records, purchasing / procurement, and other facility inventory lists. This may help identify the IT resources that are in use, where they reside, and their maintenance histories. Because the HS Agency environment is constantly changing, it is important for the Strategy Team to record not only what is installed but also what will be installed or retired.
Estimates or actual costs for infrastructure required to support an application may be broken down into categories such as miscellaneous equipment, platform infrastructure, applications, and maintenance. Units may be normalized to full-time equivalent staff rather than dollars. Licensing and other agreements necessary to support the platform should be included.- Assessment Activities
As the data is collected, it can be analyzed to determine how well the existing business processes, information, and technology infrastructure work together. This helps to determine which parts are worth building on and which parts should be retired. This analysis may take the form of matrices and general heuristics, such as using values of low/high or useful/not useful. The focus of the analysis is to highlight the most pressing concerns to ensure that any migration planning will address the areas needing improvement. Not every system in the Enterprise may have to be migrated, and not every system will be migrated at the same time.
Surveys of individuals that interact with the technology can be used, as noted in the Guidelines to Assess Current IT Qualities. Three general sub-environments can be assessed:
- Business use. This includes individuals who represent the use of the IT to deliver HS Agency services (e.g., management, end users, and clients)
- Developer use. This includes individuals who represent the developers of the technology, such as programmers, analysts, technical management, quality assurance, testing, or configuration management functions.
- Operation use. This includes individuals who operate and administer the technology in the operational environment, such as computer operators, data, user, security, and network administrators.
The inventory and assessment information can be summarized and relayed to the HS Agency Decision Makers and IT Decision Makers through briefings or other means.