unit 2 – court information technology governance

Unit 2 – Court Information Technology Governance

UNIT OVERVIEW

Description of the Unit In this unit, you will learn to distinguish between technology problems and problems related to the governance of technology by organizational leaders. You also will gain an understanding of the roles of various individuals and groups in a court for managing technology. You will also explore the components of the Court Technology Framework (CTF). Finally, you will understand what court leaders must know and be able to do with respect to court technology to be effective in your current position and in future leadership roles. Unit Objectives At the conclusion of this unit, you will be able to:

• Identify IT problems that are rooted in governance

• Articulate the proper role for court leaders in technology initiatives

• Take responsibility for major IT decisions

• Explain the principles contained in the NCSC Court IT Governance Model

• Explore components of the Court Technology Framework (CTF)

Unit Topics

• How many of your IT problems are really governance issues?

• IT project success probabilities

• The management of information technology by non-technologist court leaders is a significant problem

• Governance definitions

• Court information technology environment

• The NCSC Court IT Governance Model guiding principles

• The NCSC Court IT Governance Model

• Six IT decisions that technologists should not make

• Benefits of effective governance

• Components of the Court Technology Framework

Managing Technology Projects and Technology Resources Participant Guide 2 - 1 Institute for Court Management


Activities and Exercises

• Activity 2A – What Technology Problems Do You Face? Which Problems are Directly/Indirectly Governance Issues?

• Exercise 2B – Case study to apply governance principles

• Activity 2C – Review Court Technology Framework (CTF) Checklist



UNIT 2Court Information

Technology Governance

Unit 2 - 20©2010 Institute for Court Management

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Unit 2 - 21

Learning Objectives

1. Identify IT problems that are rooted in governance

2. Recognize that court leaders are responsible for providing vision and leadership for all court initiatives, including technology

©2010 Institute for Court Management

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Unit 2 - 22

Learning Objectives

3. Understand that the responsibility for major IT decisions belongs with court leaders, not with technical staff

4. Explain the principles contained in the NCSC Court IT Governance Model


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Activity 2A

What Technology ProblemsDo You Face?

Which Problems are Directly/Indirectly

Governance Issues?


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Unit 2 - 24

Standish Group Chaos Report

• 35% projects successful

• 46% projects challenged

• 19% projects impaired


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Unit 2 - 25

Robbins-Gioia Survey (2001)

• 51% viewed their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation as unsuccessful


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Unit 2 - 26

Conference Board Survey (2001)

• 40% of projects failed to achieve their business case within one year of going live


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Unit 2 - 27

KPMG Canada Survey (1997)

• Over 61% of projects that were analyzed were deemed to have failed


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Unit 2 - 28

OASIG Study (1995)

• 7 out of 10 IT projects fail in some respect─ Significantly over budget

─ Significantly over schedule

─ Significantly under scope


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Unit 2 - 29

IT Cortex Conclusions

• An IT project is more likely to be unsuccessful than successful

• 1 in 5 likely will bring full satisfaction

• The larger or more complex the project, the more likely the failure

http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Rate.htm


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Unit 2 - 30

What Is Wrong with IT?

“… IT efforts fail to generate the intended business benefits… There must be something wrong with the IT function in our company. We have found, however, that the problem reveals that something is wrong with the way non-IT executives are managing IT-enabled change in the organization.”

HBR: “IT Governance”


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Unit 2 - 31

IT Governance

• A formal structure and a systematic methodology for managing technology, technologists, and technological change within an organization, including:


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Unit 2 - 32

IT Governance• Defining expectations

• Setting priorities for IT initiatives

• Granting authority

• Allocating resources

• Making policy decisions that affect IT

• Making policy decisions that affect the court

• Resolving problems that arise during projects

• Holding the IT organization accountable

• Terminating struggling projects


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Unit 2 - 33

Court IT Environment

The organizational structures in which courts operate and receive IT services varies significantly from state to state


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Unit 2 - 42

Court

Court IT Environment

Prosecutor Law Enforcement

Public Defender

Sheriff Clerk

IT

AOC


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Unit 2 - 43

NCSC Court IT Governance Model

• Governance principles• Structure and process


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Unit 2 - 44

Principle #1

• Decisions should be made at the appropriate level of an organization─ Policy decisions by policy leaders

─ Business decisions by business experts

─ Legal decisions by those with legal training

─ Technology decisions by technologists

─ Financial decisions by financial people


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Unit 2 - 45

The Real World

• Policy leaders disengage when meeting agendas are filled with trivial technical and business issues

• Technical initiatives flounder when policy decisions cannot be made

• Technical staff can’t get or won’t ask for help in understanding business operations


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Unit 2 - 46

The Real World

• Policy and business leaders make technology decisions without consulting technologists or just “follow the money”

• Legal issues paralyze progress on technology design

• Technology design fails to consider legal issues


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Unit 2 - 47

Principle #2

• Almost every major technology decision has policy, business, and technical facets, so a team approach to decision-making is required


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Unit 2 - 48

Principle #3

• Every decision should consider the interests of every group that may be affected


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Unit 2 - 49

Principle #4

• The structure, authority, responsibility, expectations, and operating rules of a governing group should be formally articulated and communicated throughout the organization


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Unit 2 - 50

NCSC Court IT Governance Model

• Three-tiered governance structure─ Policy─ Business─ Technology─ Overlap

• Charter• Role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO)

or Chief Technology Officer (CTO)©2010 Institute for Court Management

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Unit 2 - 51

Three-Tiered Governance Model

Policy Group• Composed of court policy leaders

─ Provides vision and strategic direction─ Sets priorities─ Says NO!─ Overall budget allocations─ Financial oversight─ Strategic planning─ Project oversight


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Unit 2 - 52

Business Perspective

“Some of the most ineffective governance we have observed was the result of conflicting goals. This problem was often observed in the government sector, where directives come from many agencies. The result was confusion, complexity, and mixed messages, so the governance was ignored.



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Unit 2 - 53

Business Perspective (cont.)

The unmanageable number of goals typically arose from not making strategic business choices and had nothing to do with IT. We observed that good managers trying diligently to meet all these goals became frustrated and ineffective.”



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Unit 2 - 54


Business Group• Composed of business experts

─ Defines and analyzes business problems─ Manages business processes─ Implements policy directives─ Manages projects─ Assists in design of solutions─ Develops plans, budgets, issues papers, etc. ─ Focuses on solving business problems


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Unit 2 - 55


Technical Group• Composed primarily of technologists

─ Develops architecture

─ Oversees development of the infrastructure

─ Creates, procures, implements, and operates applications and interfaces


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Unit 2 - 56


Overlap• Most court IT issues have policy, business,

and technical implications

• Each group should include a representative of each of the other two

• The CIO could be a member of all three groups


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Unit 2 - 57


The court CIO:─ Key contact between court and technology

─ Must speak both languages

─ Educates court leaders in technology

─ Educates technologists in court environment

─ Watches for technology ‘opportunities’


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Unit 2 - 58


The court CIO:─ Should report to court administrator

─ Manages technology staff and other resources

─ System development and acquisition

─ Technical operations and production activities

─ User support, including problem management


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Unit 2 - 59


• Large or complex systems may have additional, more specialized components─ Integrated justice systems

─ Drug court case management systems


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Unit 2 - 60

Six IT Decisions thatIT Staff Should Not Make

1. How much should we spend on IT?2. Which business processes should receive our

IT dollars?3. Which IT capabilities should be court-wide?4. How good do our IT services need to be?5. What security and privacy risks will we

accept?6. Whom do we blame if an initiative fails?


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Unit 2 - 61

Benefits of Effective Governance

• Work together to achieve common goals• Single set of priorities• Focus resources on highest priorities• Forum for resolving problems in a thorough,

systematic way• Better expectation management, lower level of

frustration• Conflicts are resolved before working

relationships are damaged©2010 Institute for Court Management

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Unit 2 - 62

Benefits of Effective Governance

• Technology staff will receive clear, unambiguous direction

• Solutions will be business-driven, rather than technology-driven


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Unit 2 - 63

Business Perspective• IT Governance

─ Harvard Business Review─ Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross─ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4241.html

• Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn’t Make─ Harvard Business Review─ Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross─ http://www.qualified-audit-

partners.be/user_files/ITforBoards/GVIT_Harvard_Business_Review-Ross_Jeane___Weill_Peter_Six_IT_Decsions_Your_IT_People_Shouldnt_Make_2002.pdf


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Unit 2 - 64

Summary of Governance Principles

• #1 – Make decisions at appropriate level of organization

• #2 – Decisions have policy, business and technical facets, requiring teaming

• #3 – Decisions should consider interests of every group affected

• #4 – Formally communicate structure, authority, responsibility, expectations and operating rules


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Unit 2 - 65

Summary of Governance Model• Tier 1 – Policy Group

─ Composed of court policy leaders

• Tier 2 – Business Group

─ Composed of business experts

• Tier 3 – Technical Group

─ Composed primarily of technologists

• Overlap


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Unit 2 - 66

Exercise 2BCase Study to Apply

Governance Principles

• Develop a proposal for a new technology governance structure and process, as defined in the case study, consistent with the four principles


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Court TechnologyFramework (CTF)

• CTF is intended to align court technology capabilities to court business goals and act as a strategic enabler of the court mission

• Is a concept currently under development with the Joint Technology Committee (JTC) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC)


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CTF Goals & Objectives• Provide an organized view of the complex

landscape of court technology solutions

• Promote alignment of IT initiatives with business goals

• Define standard set of components/interfaces that make up a comprehensive court IT environment

• Help courts identify opportunities for improved efficiency and/or cost savings through the use of technology


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Court Technology Framework Model

http://goo.gl/xQrQw Unit 2 - 69©2010 Institute for Court Management

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CTF Layer & Category Definitions

• Business Layer – Defines how the court achieves its purposes through organization, operations, services, functionality, and continuity─ Strategy

─ Governance

─ Capability

─ Culture

─ PerformanceUnit 2 - 70©2010 Institute for Court Management

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• Application Layer – Defines software applications to support business functions and manage data, including standards nd best practices relating to application design and information sharing─ Component Design

─ Internal Data Sharing

─ External Data Sharing


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• Data Management Layer – Defines the development and execution of architectures, policies, practices and procedures that properly manage the full data lifecycle─ Logical Data Model

─ Categorization

─ Access/Sharing

─ Quality/Integrity


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• Technology Infrastructure Layer – Defines the technologies designed by a court to support the business functions. This includes hardware, software and network standards, as well as considerations for security, facilities management, and disaster recovery─ Hardware

─ Systems Software

─ Network

─ Facilities


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Activity 2C

Review the Court Technology Framework Checklist

How Does Your Court Score?• Business• Applications• Data Management• Technology Infrastructure


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EXERCISE 2B

Case Study – Justiceburg Municipal Court

The Justiceburg Municipal Court is a court of limited jurisdiction, with responsibility for parking, traffic, state class C misdemeanors, and municipal ordinances. The court consists of 22 judges, 12 of whom are part-time, and three of whom are magistrates. The court has 214 staff divided into three divisions, court administration, adjudication, and court services. Last year, 381,447 traffic cases were filed, of which 102,715 were parking. A total of 23,614 criminal cases were filed, along with 16,690 municipal ordinance matters.

The court operates on a homegrown, mainframe-based case management system that was developed in the late 1980s, and which is obsolete and must be replaced. Staff must enter a significant amount of data into the system, and then support redundant calendaring and document generation business processes. The current system has links to the city police, city prosecutor, and city financial department. The assistant court administrator saw a new system at the last NACM conference and thinks that it would be a perfect fit for the court.

The new presiding judge has directed the court administrator to replace the case management system before the end of the year, despite the fact that no funding is available at this time. He believes that city council would make several hundred thousand dollars available, if he asked. He would like the new system to include digital documents and electronic filing. He also would like to eliminate the analog cassette recorders in the courtroom and install new digital audio systems, which also should be integrated with the case management system. Funding for the new recording system was included in this year’s budget.

The state court administrator would like the court to report standard statistical information electronically, but the court does not organize its work consistently with the state format.

Drug court staff also would like electronic linkages with treatment providers. At present, the drug court uses a generic Microsoft Access system, acquired at no charge and modified with grant funds. Only one of the six current treatment providers is automated.

The county is pursuing an integrated justice initiative and would like the court to participate.

The court’s Chief Technology Officer retired last month, and the court is currently recruiting a replacement. One of the magistrates is lobbying the judges to hire his brother, who has been doing IT in health care for more than twenty years. The city IT director did not talk to the retired court CTO for more than two years because they had a falling out over the court’s decision to use WordPerfect, instead of Microsoft Word, which is used by the rest of city organizations.

Managing Technology Projects and Technology Resources Participant Guide R2 - 1 Institute for Court Management


Many IT services are provided by the City of Justiceburg. They have three programmers allocated to support the court case management system, but these individuals often are pulled away when a crisis arises in another department. The waiting list for system modifications has over two hundred items, and is not well managed. It typically takes two to two and a half years for an item on the list to be addressed. Often staff finds that a change is made that they no longer need, and no one is sure what items are on the list, since any court staff member can e-mail a request to any programmer.

The court has four IT positions (in addition to the CTO) to support desktop computers, the court web site, the internal network, and domain, e-mail, file, and print servers.

A team of three judges is planning to attend the next national court technology conference.

In the past, the presiding judge has expressed concern about involving external organizations in court business in any way, citing the independence of the judiciary. He believes that the court has inherent authority to order executive branch agencies to provide information in any format desired by the court.

The presiding judge recognizes that the situation in the court is a mess. He has proposed establishing a technology committee composed of four judges. The court administrator requested the opportunity to prepare an alternative proposal, and has pulled your group together to prepare a charter for a new governance organization that will address as many of the problems that the court is facing as possible.

Please prepare an outline for this charter that defines the structure, membership, mission, authority, and rules of operation for your proposed new governance group.

Managing Technology Projects and Technology Resources Participant Guide R2 - 2 Institute for Court Management

Activity 2C: Review Court Technology Framework (CTF) Checklist

DIRECTIONS: Review the questions outlined for business, applications, data management and technology infrastructure to determine how well your court is doing in these areas.

Businessstrategy governance capabilities culture performance

1. Strategy - Does the court have a strategic business plan that provides direction and guides business decisions?

a. Does the court have a formalized strategic business planning process? b. Does the court governance committee review plan progress as an agenda item regularly

or at least annually? 2. Governance - Is there a formal Information Technology (aka IT, MIS or IS) Governance

committee that approves and sets the priorities for IT? a. Is this committee made up of stakeholders such as administrators, department heads,

clerk of the court, judges and other system users? b. Does this committee hold regularly scheduled meetings, known to the court and

stakeholders? c. Can anyone by-pass or change the priorities set by this committee? d. Do the priorities established through IT Governance align with court priorities?

3. Governance - Is the Chief Information Officer (person responsible for court technology) a member of the Senior Management Team?

4. Governance – Is there a continuity of operations plan (COOP) for the court to hold court and operations in another location if necessary?

a. Is there a COOP contact and staffing plan setting forth responsibilities of each member of the COOP Team?

b. Is the CIO a member of that Team? c. Has the CIO created a continuity of operations plan (COOP) for technology operations

and infrastructure? 5. Capabilities - Does the court have a project management office that implements and enforces

project management standards and processes in addition to technology standards? 6. Capabilities – Are there sufficient IT resources to:

a. support operations, and; b. assign resources to strategic business plan priorities?

7. Performance - Does the court have methods of measuring organizational performance, business unit performance, project performance and individual performance that tie back to the court’s mission, goals and objectives identified in the planning process?

Managing Technology Projects and Technology Resources Participant Guide Institute for Court Management

R2 - 3

8. Culture – Does the court instill its mission, goals, objectives, values, policies and standards in all judges and court personnel as a part of orientation and on-going training?

Applicationscomponent design internal data sharing external data sharing

9. Component Design - Are applications acquired and/or developed in accordance with the priorities established by the governance committees?

10. Component Design - Are software solutions acquired and/or developed through participation of end users including justice system partners?

11. Component Design - Are users adequately trained in the use and capabilities of applications? 12. Internal Data Sharing - Do software applications produce the operations and performance

information required for managers and governance? 13. Internal Data Sharing - Are application components acquired and/or developed according to

standards to achieve data sharing among those components, reducing data entry, redundancy and error?

14. External Data Sharing - Are application components acquired and/or developed according to standards to achieve data sharing between and among external systems?

Data Managementlogical data model categorization access / sharing quality / integrity

15. Logical Data Model - Has the data in your system been mapped to individual business functions creating a logical data model in accordance with generally accepted IT practices?

16. Categorization - Has the data been categorized according to its value and frequency of access? 17. Access/Sharing - Has the data been classified in terms of sharing, public access, privacy and

associated with access rights? 18. Data Quality and Integrity - Have methods been developed to validate the data, judge its

consistency, timeliness, integrity and verify appropriateness for specific uses?

Technology Infrastructurehardware systems software network facilities

19. Hardware – Do you have a hardware refresh cycle for all hardware (computers, servers, networking hardware, etc.) whereby each unit is replaced in less than six years?

20. Systems Software - Are all of system software requirements identified and documented? a. Application code is documented and archived, and; b. Licensing documentation maintained.


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21. Network - Are network requirements documented (including network performance requirements such as bandwidth)?

22. Facilities - Are facility requirements necessary to support the technology infrastructure documented?


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unit 2 – court information technology governance

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