The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) is piloting an in-house-developed Master Systems Plan (MSP) methodology to be used in government departments and the private sector as MSP-in-a-Box. The software is currently being piloted at five government sites.
SITA's General Manager for Research and Development, Dr McKay Motshabi said the MSP methodology will be given to external consultants to conduct evaluations and assessments. "It is aimed at providing a level of standardisation in terms of evaluating ICT within government and provide better uniformity and control in terms of the results produced," he explained.
"Until now, different methodologies have been used, depending on the private sector's preferences or on specific government departments. The result has been a lack of cohesion and comparable results. The aim is therefore to create a standard methodology that can be used by industry and SITA alike, producing output that can be evaluated on an equal basis," he explained.
Overall, MSP-in-a-Box is aimed at facilitating a government-wide standardised and integrated IT architecture framework.
"MSP-in-a-Box will assist government in standardising on specific hardware and software architectures, as well as upgrading and replicating solutions across different departments," explained Dr Motshabi.
The aim is to ensure uniform output of evaluation results which will then be deposited into a single repository, further adding to the level of standardisation and to the ease of implementation.
The MSP covers the following areas:
* Business processes analysis
* Production of an inventory of government information systems
* Analysis of skills gaps
* Reverse engineering or application metadata extraction
* The implementation of the MSP-in-a-Box methodology
Firstly, business process analysis will look at the existing business processes within departments and evaluate areas of improvement.
Secondly, while inventories of government information systems were previously done manually, this is now being done electronically. The MSP will evaluate the installed hardware, applications, ongoing projects and intentions of IT department in terms of future IT implementations.
"Thirdly, as part of the overall analysis, it is important to evaluate the skills gap. The MSP will identify training needs and resources that are in short supply," explained Dr Motshabi.
Although not applicable to all departments, the fourth component, reverse engineering, otherwise known as application metadata extraction, is the process by which applications can be redeveloped to enhance functionality. Examples of these are the Department of Home Affairs in terms of population registry and the Department of Social Development, which is involved in social pensions and the flagship welfare grant system.
Reverse engineering will cover the interoperability between government systems and the integration of, for example, the Department of Social Development and the population registry. Integration between these two systems will add enormous benefits to citizens and government as a whole.
"Overall, we believe MSP-in-a-Box as a methodology will provide the necessary tools to evaluate systems, propose solutions and assist in their implementation on behalf of SITA and outside companies. Currently, MSP pilot sites cover three projects at national level and two at provincial level. We are now also planning one at local level," says Dr Motshabi.
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