IPMA Home | IPMA News IPMA News : March 2005 Edited By Christy Ridout and Shelagh Taylor

Showcase Washington

--By Lori Bame, SWICC Coordinator, Legislative Evaluation & Accountability Program

Here's a true-or-false quiz for you:

• Overall, government doesn't do a good job of communicating the relationship between the cost and value of public services (results) in terms that are meaningful to citizens.
• Navigating through government data is frustrating, time consuming, and frequently fruitless. In other words, government is "data rich," but "information poor."
• When you do find the data you are looking for, it is often in a format that is not useable for further analysis.
• Lack of consistency and comparability of state and local data limit the ability to see "system" (cross-silo) views of government.

If you believe one or more of the above statements is true, you have something in common with the Washington Statewide Information Coordination Consortium (SWICC), and their recent project "Showcase Washington."

Introduction

Showcase Washington, is a website that provides a venue for communicating about what government does, who does it, and the cost and results of doing it. SWICC developed the prototype to:

Showcase Washington Vision

The place where people will go to search for data on government spending and results throughout Washington State.

• Improve governments' ability to respond to emerging information needs.
• Improve data consistency and timeliness.
• Demonstrate governmental accountability.
• Enhance understanding of government spending and services.
• Increase efficiencies by reducing duplication in data collection and reporting methods.

Background

Established in 2001, SWICC is a voluntary community of interest comprised of state and local government stakeholders. These enterprise-minded organizations share a vision for "better information for better decisions." Steering and executive committee leaders from the following organizations govern SWICC:

• Office of Financial Management
• Washington State Association of Counties
• Department of Information Services
• State Auditor's Office
• Washington Finance Officers Association
• Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee
• Association of Washington Cities
• Legislative Evaluation & Accountability Program Committee

Until the spring of 2004, SWICC struggled to demonstrate tangible product. However, thanks to Microsoft grants, and in-kind contributions from government stakeholders and private-sector partners, the Showcase Washington prototype became reality.

Microsoft tools, including SQL Server, SQL Reporting Services, and Visual Studio.Net, along with ESRI ArcGIS software, comprised the technology platform used to develop the Showcase Washington prototype. Further development is expected to utilize XML, web services (or similar technology), information visualization tools; and to leverage existing technology investments and knowledge bases.

The prototype now demonstrates dynamic access to state and local government information to promote a better understanding of one of eleven government priority results – "improving the safety of people and property."

See Showcase Washington at http://swicc.leg.wa.gov.

Benefits

A recently completed business case argues for investing in Showcase Washington to make cross-governmental information available across all eleven government priority results.

This goal is consistent with Governor Gregoire's Executive Order 05-02, creating the Government Management, Accountability and Performance (GMAP) program to communicate clearly to citizens about results and demonstrate how government programs contribute to the priorities that are important to citizens. Making information available across all priority result areas also supports the number one business need identified by state agencies in a recent survey conducted by the Roadmap project – to improve access to information.

Showcase Washington can support Governor Gregoire's GMAP initiative and address the Roadmap project's top business need by:

• Communicating the relationship between the cost and value of public services in terms that are meaningful to citizens;
• Build easy paths for navigating through government data;
• Formatting data in a manner that is useful for further analysis; and
• Enhancing consistency and comparability of state and local data to permit enterprise views of government.

Audience

Everyone needs to locate information quickly, without having to know how government works or having to search multiple websites; and they need to trust the answers they get. In particular:

• Legislators, policy makers and their staff need:
  • a vehicle to help them communicate with citizens
  • a place to point people to where they can find answers to frequently asked questions
  • information to help make policy decisions on statewide issues and conduct performance audits
• Analysts need:
  • access to timely and reliable data
  • more comparable sources between agencies and jurisdictions
  • the ability to more easily analyze spending and policy issues
• Citizens need:
  • a tool to better understand how government works
  • benchmarks to learn how their local government compares to others
  • an aid to decide where to live or where to locate their business

Next Steps

SWICC is seeking support and funding in the amount of $1.1 million (which includes the value of projected in-kind services) to implement Showcase Washington: Phase I over the 2005-07 biennium. SWICC will advocate the following principles for implementation of Showcase Washington:

• Build it incrementally – build the website, starting with Phase I over the 2005-07 biennium that creates a "one-inch deep" view of information across the branches, levels, and disciplines of government in Washington State. A process that ensures content is needed, available, and comes from a credible source will drive future content.
• Leverage existing efforts – work collaboratively with government stakeholders to build upon related efforts – including such efforts as Priorities of Government (POG); Government Management, Accountability and Performance (GMAP); the Roadmap Project; Enterprise Architecture; and various other enterprise focused cross-governmental efforts. The Showcase Washington initiative should also strive to complement the information resource of the state's Citizen and Business Internet portal, Access Washington; to build a common language around government through common data definitions; and to minimize duplication of effort (and information) wherever possible.
• Demonstrate ongoing value to target audiences and contributors – ensure that government and non-government stakeholders continue to derive value from improved accessibility of information made possible through Showcase Washington.
• Sustain broad, cross-governmental ownership and executive buy-in – strong executive-level governance and ownership are key to the ongoing success of any cross-governmental effort. Showcase Washington must have these as well as active involvement of data owners and business experts to ensure its sustainability.

More Information

Want to get involved in this project? Want to know more about it? For additional information on the Showcase Washington project or SWICC, please contact: Lori Bame, SWICC Coordinator at (360) 786-6115 or bame.lori@leg.wa.gov.

View the Showcase Washington prototype at: http://swicc.leg.wa.gov.

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Shelagh Taylor retires March 31

After 30 years of service to the state of Washington, Shelagh Taylor will retire on March 31. Shelagh has been L&I's Chief Information Officer and Assistant Director of Information Services since 1992.

Shelagh was born in Vancouver, B.C., and immigrated to the United States in 1972 following her marriage to Lyle Quasim. Shelagh began her career in March 1975 when she accepted a position as a Programmer 1 with the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1978 she accepted a Computer Systems Analyst 2 position at L&I but left in 1981 to accept an exempt Senior Systems Programmer/Analyst 2 position at the Office of the Administrator for the Courts. Shelagh returned to L&I in 1984 as a Computer Systems Analyst 4. In 1984 Shelagh also graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a degree in Business Administration. Between 1984 and 1992 Shelagh held various positions, including Information Systems Assistant Manager 1, 2, and 3, Information Systems Project Manager 1 and 2, and Information Systems Manager 5. In 1992, Shelagh was appointed Assistant Director of Information Services.

Judy Schurke, Deputy Director of Operations, said "With Shelagh's retirement, the agency is not only losing a recognized leader in technology management, but someone whose vision has laid the groundwork to transform the way we're doing business today. For years to come, L and I will be able to trace its successes to the strategic decisions Shelagh has made for us over the past thirteen years. This agency has one of the best reputations for using technology in the state of Washington and much of this is due to Shelagh's leadership, her vision, and her integrity."

When asked what she is most proud of, Shelagh says she is most proud of the dedicated employees that make up the Information Services Division and their reputation for being at the forefront of using technology to improve government services. Shelagh added, "No matter what the challenge, the employees of this division are up to the task. I will miss them." And we will miss her, too! Those of us who have had the privilege of working closely with Shelagh over the years will miss her leadership, integrity, generosity, compassion, and love for life.

You might be wondering what Shelagh's immediate plans are. The first thing she's going to do is make a list of everything she wants to do! No doubt, the list will be long—including tending her flower gardens at her homes in Puyallup and Furry Creek, B.C., spending more time with family and friends, and lots of traveling, including a trip to South Africa with husband Lyle at the end of the year. Shelagh also plans to continue volunteer Board positions with the Tacoma Audubon Society and the Information Processing Management Association.

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Lessons Learned

In May 2004 the Health Care Authority (HCA) cancelled a contract with a vendor to provide a commercial off-the-shelf system to replace the agency's Insurance System. In January 2005 the ISB received reports from DIS staff, an oversight consultant, and the HCA on the post-project review. The major lessons learned reported by HCA were as follows:

• Vendor and Contract Management
  • The contract did not reinforce the intent of using a COTS product
  • The contract did not clearly establish criteria, expectations and deliverables
  • Incremental milestones and delivery dates were not well established
  • The vendor had no experience in the governmental setting
• Leadership
  • Frequent changes in agency key executives throughout the course of the project
  • Lack of project oversight and governance at the executive level
  • Lack of organizational readiness
• Project Management Practices
  • Project plan, management, organization and practices were not sufficiently comprehensive
  • Self-imposed time constraints resulted in poor, hastily-considered decisions
  • The agency did not actively engage the stakeholder advisory group to provide direction and feedback
  • Insufficient quality assurance and lack of independent reporting to executive management
• Requirements Definition and Scope Management
  • The project was initiated with a set of COTS feature-set requirements from the RFP.
  • The scope of the project transitioned from a simple COTS implementation to a complex development effort
  • Business use case and function requirements were not clearly defined for a complex development effort
  • The scope included development of both BH and PEBB systems
  • Many agency staff perceived an attempt to merge BH and PEBB operations through a technology implementation rather than organizational change management

See the ISB Briefing Book for the presentations by DIS, the oversight consultant, and HCA.

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News from the Past

5 Years Ago -- March 2000 IPMA Newsletter

10 Years Ago -- March 1995 IPMA Newsletter

15 Years Ago -- March 1990 IPMA Newsletter (not available at this time)

20 Years Ago -- March 1985 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter  (not available at this time)

25 Years Ago -- March 1980 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter

30 Years Ago -- March 1975 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter  (not available at this time)

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Summary of February 10, 2005 IPMA Board Meeting

Members Present: Mary Ellen Bradley, Thomas Bynum, Phil Grigg, Sheryl Hall, Dennis Jones, Dennis Laine, Andy Marcelia, Christy Ridout, Darrel Riffe, Allen Schmidt and Shelagh Taylor. Phil Coates, CFO, and Jim Andersen, Forum Events Manager, were also present.

Thomas Bynum, IPMA Chair, opened the February 10, 2005, meeting of the IPMA Board of Directors at 7:40 a.m.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the January 2005 Board Planning Retreat were approved.

SECRETARY/TREASURER'S REPORT: The Board approved the January 2005 financial status and activities reports.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Forum 2005: Jim Andersen presented the monthly status report for Forum 2005.

1. Keynote Speakers: The committee is in contact with the Governor's Office for the first day keynote speaker. The second day speaker will probably be Peter Penfield, from Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group. It was decided that Neal Whitten would not be secured for this year's Forum.
2. Vendors: Of the 47 vendor booths available
   • 15 have been sold. By March 1st of the last two years, 29 booths had been sold. Sales appear to be a little behind schedule.
   • DOP has accepted the free booth that was offered them.
   • GA or DRS have not responded to the offer of discounted booths.
3. Corporate Sponsors:
   • Commitments from 23 of 26 returning sponsors.
   • Milestone will be replaced by SAS this year.
   • Three vendors, Danube Technologies, Juniper and Eclipse, have expressed interest in becoming sponsors.
4. Forum Committee: The next meeting is noon today. The five subject areas being considered for the breakout sessions are: Security, IT Management, Applications Development, Project Management and Enterprise Architecture. The schedule should be finalized at today's meeting.
5. Theme: The Theme for the 2005 Forum is "Delivering the Integrated Enterprise - Practice not Promise."
6. Forum flyer: An overview of the five Forum subject areas is being developed and will be used to design a Forum flyer. The plan is to have a flyer for distribution by the end of February.
7. Executive Lunch: The Executive Lunch will be held Tuesday, May 17th. The committee is considering Rob McKenna, the new state Attorney General, as a possible speaker.
8. Forum Marketing Plan: The first draft of the Forum marketing plan has been completed.
9. Vendor contracts: Started a draft of participation agreement for Forum vendors. Some trade shows charge a penalty fee for those vendors who leave early. They ask each vendor to provide a credit card number and charge $200 for leaving early.
10. Corporate Sponsor Donations: No action on this item.

Communications: Christy Ridout reported that she and Shelagh met with Mary Ellen to transition the leadership of the committee. They will distribute the schedule for board member articles for the IPMA News at the March board meeting. Phil Grigg's article is due soon for the February issue.

The committee suggested that any decision to add new members to the board, as a result of the discussion at the board retreat, should be delayed until the marketing plan is completed and approved.

Professional Development: Sheryl Hall presented the Professional Development report.

1. Planning for the March and April events is on track
2. Marketing materials for Neal Whitten event on August 23, 2005, are being developed.
3. Registration for the August event will be discussed at a meeting with Pam Rupert of DOP and Bob Monn, IPMA's web-master.
4. A fee of $65 per person for the August event is being recommended by the committee.
5. It has come to the committees attention that Neal Whitten will be in Bellevue in March, for a full day seminar earlier in August. He has been scheduled by the Seattle chapter of PMI and their event will cost $165 for a full day seminar, same agenda and same book. This could impact our attendance.
6. The committee suggested that the Forum, Professional Development and IT Leadership Program committees meet after this year's Forum and plan future directions and opportunities.
7. The committee also suggested that the IPMA Program Events calendar on the website be expanded and that the various program chairs be responsible for keeping the calendar up to date. The idea is to have a calendar that is current all the time and could be printed out and distributed at any event for advertising and marketing.

Executive Seminar 2005: Darrel has been unable to make contact with his Skamania Lodge liaison person regarding reservations for 2006 & 2007. He will have the necessary information for the March board meeting.

IT Leadership Development Program: Dennis Jones reported that not much has changed since the board planning meeting. He is attempting to make contact with a representative from South Puget Sound Community College to get their input on the proposed program.

Business Planning: Vice-Chair Andy Marcelia distributed a draft Corporate Sponsorship Participation Agreement and has asked for board comments by February 17th. The Agreement will be discussed further at the March board meeting.

Phil Coates stated that he would take the budget information that was presented today and update the proposed budget accordingly. The final draft of the budget will be distributed to board members prior to the March board meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS:

2004 Annual Report: Thomas stated that the annual report will be completed and ready for posting on the web by March 10th. He thanked those who have already submitted their input and implored those who haven't to get it to him as soon as possible.

LCD Projector: Jim Andersen distributed a document to the board that summarized his research into available LCD projectors. The board had asked Jim to explore options as a result of a proposal by the Professional Development committee at the board planning meeting. Jim presented four options and recommended the purchase of an Optima model EP759.The board approved Jim's recommendation and directed him to proceed with the purchase.

Next Meeting will be Thursday, March 10, 2005, at the Shipwreck Café.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 a.m.

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