Steward of Change

Ann Steward is Australia's first federal CIO in close to a decade. She brings more than 20 years' worth of experience to the role, but will that be enough to convince Australia's independently-minded government agencies to work together? Only time will tell . . .

In the year 2000, under the leadership of Australia's new whole-of-government CIO Ann Steward, then on secondment, the UK government issued a landmark report spotlighting significant failings in the running of government IT projects. The McCartney report on IT was completed halfway through Steward's four-year stint in the UK and named after its ministerial sponsor, Ian McCartney. It noted government IT projects frequently came in late and/or over budget or simply failed to do what they were supposed to do. In the face of such failings, it called on the government to reform substantially its conduct of IT and to enlist the active involvement of top-level leadership.

Steward departed the UK in September 2002, her reputation enhanced and her recommendations having unarguably proved sound, yet as recently as July 2005 not nearly enough seemed to have changed in the UK. That was the month an influential committee of MPs - the Commons Public Accounts Committee - issued a report that found many UK government bodies were ignoring one of the main measures introduced in the wake of Steward's report to prevent IT disasters: getting their projects independently passed by the Office of Government Commerce, which set up the Gateway Reviews process to provide reality checks for risky projects. The MPs took such a dim view of the failings that they called on the Treasury to find ways of blocking funding for IT projects where departments "choose consistently to ignore stages of the Gateway process".

In their quest for IT perfection, Australian MPs have gone further, indicating in recent days their willingness to sack under-performing IT chiefs as Steward settles in to her new role. Yet the UK experience highlights not only the intractability of many government IT practices and institutions, but also the fact that even when government CIOs recognize their own and their team's weaknesses and embrace their government's imperatives, and even with the best will in the world, trying to orchestrate whole-of-government change can be incredibly difficult.

That in turn intimates that Steward - who has been armed only with carrots, not sticks, in her new role as federal CIO - now has carriage of one of the tougher IT gigs in Australia. It also suggests that the government, if it is serious about those sackings, might be aiming a tad high in its quest for IT perfection.

"The role that any whole-of-government CIO has in a federated system is extremely challenging because if anything is done across multiple agencies it has to be done by enlisting the goodwill of the individual agencies - particularly the big agencies, the gorillas," says Gartner Research VP Richard Harris. "Without the ability to direct, then it's got to be done through forming coalitions, trying to encourage individual agencies to do things that are not necessarily in the interests of their individual agencies. Every agency has its own legislative framework and so on, and there isn't a common business strategy for government like there is in a commercial organization for a whole-of-enterprise CIO, so it is about forming coalitions and working within a politicized environment. That's a big challenge."

Australian Computer Society Communications Tech Board director and Australian National University visiting fellow Tom Worthington also sees problems aplenty ahead for Steward, even apart from the usual difficulties of attempting to influence the behaviour of a group of semi-autonomous government agencies. One of her biggest challenges will be to get agencies to work together to get the benefits from networked technology. Another will be to integrate business processes with the private sector for the delivery of services, while maintaining needed privacy, accountability and the like, he says.

Nevertheless, Worthington believes, if anyone can do it, Steward can. "She has experience from both the Australian and UK governments. Ann minded the electronic document management committee I chaired while at Defence and proved very able to push us along to get things done. That work has now borne fruit with Australian Archives having the most advanced electronic archive in the world," he says.

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No Screw-Ups Allowed

As Steward draws on her lifetime of public service and project management experience to advance her mission of helping the government simplify and improve the delivery of government services to the community, she acknowledges that "ongoing reform of government back-office operations and organizational structures" is "perhaps the greatest challenge for all governments".

Steward took over as federal CIO and general manager of the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) from former CIO John Grant after working with former Centrelink CIO Jane Treadwell (now Victoria's CIO) in the role of general manager, enterprise capability, in Centrelink's Business Transformation Group. There she presided over the $312 million Project Refresh technology update.

That work was informed by the four years she spent - from July 1998 until September 2002 - as director e-Government in the UK's Cabinet Office, devising detailed policies, strategies and related funding for central and local government initiatives involving central departments and agencies, local government associations and the local authorities. Much of her time in the UK was spent completing and implementing enhanced governance arrangements to apply across the UK public sector in support of the government's online program.

Steward has another big tick against her resume: Her more than 20 years' public sector experience in Australia and the UK, covering policy and operational leadership responsibilities, have given her extensive senior level contacts across the public sector worldwide, and she has led or participated in key G8 and OECD programs driving change in the application of IT for business transformation and integrated electronic service delivery.

"I've been fortunate in being able to have not only the policy experience but the line administration and technology implementation experience, so I think those three elements coupled together certainly provide me with a good opportunity to be able to work with my colleagues across government, and in particular within my office here, in taking forward the government's agenda," she tells CIO magazine.

Observers took the announcement of Steward's appointment in June as a signal the Howard government was finally ready to move ahead with its plans for electronic service delivery, after more than a year of inaction following the April 2004 launch of Connecting Government: Whole-of-Government Responses to Australia's Priority Challenges. That report, prepared by public service mandarin Peter Shergold, was intended to offer a blueprint for improving and integrating service delivery while cutting costs in the public service. Announcing Steward's appointment, Special Minister of State Eric Abetz conceded the introduction of the program had been frustrated by delays in appointing a permanent CIO.

He also said while individual departments like Centrelink and the Tax Office had made good progress on developing e-service platforms, Steward's top priority would be better coordination of departments. Noting that the federal government spends $5 billion a year on information technology, of which about $1 billion goes to new projects, Senator Abetz said: "If we can get a good strategic approach in place, we might be able to save a few hundred million dollars here and there".

He foreshadowed a dramatic shake-up of internal IT strategy, with plans to implement an ambitious reform program by the end of the year that will embrace identity management, tougher contracts for vendors, better real-time notification of services and an IT skills program, among other initiatives. Senator Abetz said the new initiative set "ambitious goals" for the bureaucracy that acknowledged that ultimately, e-government is about reforming government to best serve its citizens.

The overriding goal is to bring public sector IT into line with the government's aggressive fourth-term agenda. In pursuit of that agenda senior ministers in the Howard government have flagged a determination to ensure upcoming major policy initiatives in industrial relations (IR), health and welfare are not frustrated by siloed IT infrastructure or uncooperative public servants. In April, Human Services Minister Joe Hockey pledged to sack public servants responsible for IT failures.

Hockey also explicitly warned government CIOs and IT managers that embarrassing blowouts and botched implementations will be ruthlessly penalized, pointing as an example to the combined Centrelink and Department of Family and Community Services' $64 million transactional software development write-off known as "Edge". He had earlier effectively sacked the boards of both Centrelink and the Health Insurance Commission to take direct control of their unwieldy bureaucracies.

Yet in announcing Steward's appointment, Senator Abetz conceded she would have no power to force departments to follow recommendations from AGIMO, while insisting the task she was being given was not impossible. He said Steward would influence departments by encouraging policy rather than mandating it, while returning AGIMO to the Department of Finance - with its mandate to scrutinize the financing of technology projects - would give her some leverage.

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Play Nice

In her first public speech after her appointment, Steward told a Canberra conference that government CIOs and IT managers must clean up their own backyards and learn to share infrastructure with their peers without quarrelling. She identified an "urgent need for more consistency and interoperation across systems, agencies, sectors and jurisdictions", and announced her intention to foster an "integrated approach" to government IT strategy and preclude "unnecessary duplication in ICT infrastructure, thus improving the return on the Australian government's investment in technology".

Steward also identified the development of an IT project management framework and a comprehensive methodology for mapping government business processes, intended to assist departments in re-engineering and simplifying the operation of multi-agency projects, as top priorities.

Whatever the difficulties highlighted by the UK Commons Public Accounts Committee in enforcing the use of the instruments she set up to help UK government agencies to deliver projects successfully, Steward remains convinced of the high value of such an approach. She says the "independent review points" she established there were intended to help project managers ensure the success of their deployments and to give them a high level of confidence in their ability to achieve their aims.

"That was done in conjunction with the Office of Government Commerce over there and establishing the new approach to improved project management is continuing. I think [such an approach] is highly valuable, particularly in being able to have somebody else come in and then in a constructive and independent way be able to look at the work being undertaken and be able to either highlight areas where further attention needs to be given quickly or areas where things are working well so that you can continue to do good.

"There may be some slight adjustments for our own environment, but we're working in conjunction with our colleagues across government on that. It's early days yet but really it will mean looking at the ways in which we can provide additional guidance or support or other activities for our department in ensuring that they do have good sound projects under way and in taking that forward with them over the next little while," she says.

Steward says when it comes to project management, a key lesson she has learned over many years is the importance of dividing projects into "bite-size chunks or modules". Another is both the importance of risk management and the "balancing" of risk management. ("If we over risk manage then we probably limit some of the opportunities," she says).

An additional major focus will be on finding ways to open up services to the public while ensuring all data is highly secured and privacy well protected.

While her predecessor John Grant maintained a relatively low profile in the position, Steward says her profile will be "whatever it needs to be" to ensure AGIMO can take its agenda forward. That does not necessarily mean being the "front headline" in any environment, but will mean above all, working collaboratively with her peers.

"In terms of the agenda that the government has provided for us, it really is to ensure that we look carefully at the way in which we can support the increased service delivery for our government services - that is, examine how we can best utilize the efficient and very effective application of ICT to do that. There may be some timing issues that some of the agencies will have discussion points with me on, but I think overall it's not my agenda, it is our agenda," she says.

She also claims to have had excellent interactions with state and territory CIOs, and will work with them in pursuit of the government's aims, she says.

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No Silver Bullet

Steward says one major issue for governments at all levels is to avoid the tendency to see ICT as the solution to every problem. "It's a really hard one because it seems a natural solution when in fact we can really only deliver the benefits when we have the associated business processes occurring alongside it," she says. "And that, I think, is going to be one of the hardest challenges that we will have, and not just in the individual jurisdictions but when we are trying to do our whole-of-government one."

Immediacy is also a particular issue for government she says.

"With ICT you can't just implement tomorrow and therefore everything will be a whole heap better the moment after it has been introduced. The capability needs to be designed well, constructed well, and it takes time for that to occur. But it can't be without good project management and good MIS management, so I think they are focus areas that you will see and hear from CIOs on, whether they are within government or outside government in the commercial environment."

Yet another major focus will be on reuse of processes, implementations and applications, particularly across departments and government partners, in order to streamline and to optimize investments in new development activities.

This is a particularly difficult issue for government, Steward concedes, because the various programs have their own time frames for delivery. The "trick" in working with departments on identifying opportunities for reuse will be for AGIMO to "have that overview and an understanding of those time frames and be able to pinpoint the opportunities to do that". She says the UK government during her time there was also looking at this issue and has been working to progress matters since her departure.

"Another area that will also be really, really interesting for us is to take forward further work on the benefit realizations and that will really help again I think in being able to show where the departments and agencies have done very good work; and here are the benefits that have been realized not just for the service in all business but also in their own high-quality implementations."

Steward says while she has not thought that priority through thoroughly yet, it may involve AGIMO taking a role in highlighting case studies of successful implementations, and will be coupled with the focus on project management. "That would be really good and I'm sure agencies as they take forward successful projects will be keen to be able to demonstrate those, and case studies may be a good way to do that," she says.

Yet another emphasis will be on providing a space where CIOs can exchange ideas and get a sense of relevant developments in other agencies. AGIMO has a role to play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and information to help departments more efficiently and effectively apply ICT, Steward says. She also hopes to play a role in helping identify the skills required by government departments now and into the future, and in finding ways to harness and retain corporate knowledge.

"The government environment I think continues to be recognized as an excellent training ground and we give [our people] some enormous opportunities [to use] that corporate knowledge. We can of course use our technology to help to retain corporate knowledge with some of our information management systems and our knowledge management systems, and there is again quite a lot of work that has been done, but it doesn't necessarily transplant the individuals.

"While we continue to enable our key people - both technologists and those ICT workers who work alongside them - to gain experience in the broad raft of activities that we have in any ICT arena, that's where we'll get some of that skill transfer as well as the broader corporate transfer of knowledge," she says.

Steward says she will be trying hard to balance the work she is trying to do in forging an overarching view of the utilization of technology with recognizing and respecting the day-to-day pressures on each of the individual CIOs in their own departments or agencies.

"I have certainly had discussions with my minister and he of course is very keen to see Australia continue on its good leadership program that we have for ICT, to be able to focus attention as we have been on ensuring that our services are easy to access, at as high a level of personalization as we can make available to our citizens while of course ensuring that we preserve the privacy of all of our clients in that regard.

"All of our CIOs are very well aware of the directions that the government wants us to take in terms of our use of technology and supporting improved services," she says.

SIdebar: Predictors of Success

History never repeats - unless you're talking about the skills government CIOs need to succeed

As Gartner Research noted in an April 2004 report, it is possible to draw on historical patterns to more or less reliably predict and improve the conditions that will enable a government CIO to succeed, with leadership, culture and management all playing a role.

Gartner points out that the success of a government CIO depends not only on understanding the variables embedded in the organization, but also on his or her ability to influence those variables. The alignment of enterprise expectations and the resources of the CIO can determine the appropriateness both of the current role and whether the IS organization is prepared to evolve to another stage.

"The position of government CIO has been held by individuals with divergent skills and backgrounds. In some cases, extraordinarily talented individuals have been failures in the position; in other cases, individuals of modest talent have been able to achieve significant successes. Clearly, the skills of the individual CIO are important, but they are not the only - or even the best - predictors of success," Gartner said.

"In many cases, it is possible to predict whether a person has a chance of succeeding as a CIO - even before he or she has started in the job. For the purposes of this discussion, 'success' is defined as the effective achievement of the organization's policy objectives by using the appropriate support, enablement and innovation of technology. This means that the CIO's success is integral to the success of the enterprise. Furthermore, as a key player in the enterprise, the CIO cannot be successful if the organization fails to achieve its objectives."

Among the criteria for success is cultural acceptance of the CIO: whether the operating agencies within the enterprise come to accept the role that the CIO plays in the enterprise and embrace the CIO's support role.

In that regard, given that she will have no powers to mandate change, Gartner Research VP Richard Harris discerns potential hazards ahead for whole-of-government CIO Ann Steward, with IT not necessarily considered "high enough in the pecking order of big issues to deal with".

"Now, with the federal government starting to put in place a pretty heavy reform agenda, particularly now with control of the Senate, then it's really the extent to which the CIO role is seen as essential as an underpinning for some of those reform agenda items [that will determine Steward's ability to succeed]," Harris says. He notes major agencies like the ATO and Defence, which are "big and ugly enough" to enjoy major economies of scale, have already begun significant reform programs that have seen them start to deal with some of the issues under Steward's demesne.

This had the potential to limit these agencies' flexibility in responding to Steward's calls, Harris says. "The fundamental bit [is] that unless the interests in common are sufficient across different agencies, such that they will take on things that don't necessarily fit in with what they see as the prime interests of their single agency, then the only way that you can take things forward is to have something that is mandated centrally, and that really is very rare to see across central governments."

What will most determine Steward's ability to succeed will be the extent of her ability to "hitch AGIMO's coat-tails" onto the ICT dimension within the government reform agenda. In other words, Harris says, it will depend on how effectively she can secure recognition of ICT as part of the change agenda.

However, he also says that although Steward is right in trying to knit together a coalition of major agencies to forward the government's agenda, it is the mid-sized and smaller agencies that are likely to be most amenable to the kinds of advice, input and strategy assistance AGIMO can offer, particularly around infrastructure, interoperability and shared services, since they lack the resources to do much themselves.

He praised Steward's announced intention to have a focus around enterprise architecture, an area that had enjoyed relatively little attention until now.

Gartner Research director Steve Bittinger sees the decision to move AGIMO to Treasury as a positive step, which will give the office more traction. "There's this concept that you need to align yourself at a higher level in the decision-making hierarchy, for your leverage, and that's the way that it has been promoted. It's still pretty early days to see how that will work but ideally it is a place to put more leverage," he says.

Bittinger notes in the US, the Federal Enterprise Architecture initiative works closely with the General Accounting Office and other similar organizations that are trying to align the budgeting process and the way money is handed out with how well aligned individual agency initiatives are with the enterprise architecture. The effect is that the US Treasury automatically looks with more favour on requests for budget funding of joint initiatives between several agencies than it does on initiatives that are not aligned with other agencies or that are seen to duplicate the work of another agency within that architecture.

"In Ann's speech she mentioned frameworks many times," Bittinger says, "and I can see that within the kind of parliamentary system that we have, and this federated style of governance that goes on among all the major federal government agencies in Australia, 'frameworks' is the way to go about building those relationships and so on . . . It's a long-term initiative, there's no doubt about it.

"Given the political realities, those are all promising things," Bittinger says.