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The Value of Best Practices from Communities of Practice to the

Federal CIO CouncilBrand L. Niemann (US EPA)

Secretariat, Best Practices Committee (BPC), Federal CIO Council

July 12, 2007

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Preface

• The CIO Council is working on changes to:– Comply with FACA;

• http://www.gsa.gov/faca

– Eliminate the “cottage industries” that have sprung up around activities like Enterprise Architecture; and

– Align activities with the new Strategic Plan for FY 2007-2009:

• http://www.cio.gov/documents/CIOCouncilStrategicPlan2007-2009.pdf

– Note: CoPs wrote the Strategic Plan!

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Communities of Practice• What's the purpose?

– To develop members' capabilities; to build and exchange knowledge.

• Who belongs?– Members who select themselves.

• What holds it together?– Passion, commitment, and identification with the

group's expertise.

• How long does it last?– As long as there is an interest in maintaining the

group.William Snyder, Building Communities of Practice. Excerpted from the article "Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier" in the Harvard Business Review, January-February 2000. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/1317.html

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Communities of Practice

• The BPC has five Communities of Practice that support CoPs mentioned in the following:– CIO Strategic Plan FY 2007-2009 (See slide 2).– Federal Transition Framework:

• http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-2-EAFTF.html– Data Reference Model 2.0:

• http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-2-EAFTF.html– Leadership for a Networked World: The Next Frontier of Shared

Services in the Public Sector, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, May 29–31, 2007:

• http://www.lnwprogram.org/file-storage/view/Shared_Services_Agenda.pdf

– Getting Started in Cross-Boundary Collaboration: What State CIOs Need to Know (NASCIO):

• http://www.nascio.org/publications/documents/NASCIO-CrossBoundaryCollaboration.pdf

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Purpose

• The BPC Leadership has requested we summarize the value of best practices from Communities of Practice for the CIO Council’s Executive Committee as follows:– Clay Johnson requested the BPC both identify and

develop new “best practices” at the CIOC Meeting, January 17, 2007.

– BPC Co-Chair, George Strawn, proposed a new “best practices process” at the BPC Meeting, March 19, 2007 (see next slide).

– BPC Secretariat, Brand Niemann, successfully piloted this new “best practices process” at the SICoP Special Conference, February 6, 2007.

• See http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SICoPSpecialConference_2007_02_06

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“Best Practices Process”

• 1. Request for Best Practices: A way for CIOs and their friends to ask for help from other agencies (and others) as to what are best practices in a given activity.

• 2. Requests for Best Practicers: Present to the Best Practice Committee (as we have been doing).

• 3. Capture These Presentations: The audio/video as well as the materials that we already capture and make available over the Wiki.

• 4. Facilitate Access to and Awareness of These Materials: RSS and perhaps other techniques.

Suggestion by BPC Co-Chair, George Strawn on a "Best Practices" Process, March 19, 2007: http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?BestPracticesCommittee_2007_03_19#nid3F4N

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Examples

• March 19, 2007, BPC Meeting, Steps Toward a Science of Service Systems, Jim Spohrer, et al, IBM Almaden Research Center, IEEE, January 2007, pp. 71-77:– Invited to participate in the Service Research and Innovation

Initiative (SRII):• http://www.thesrii.org

– Invited to provide a Case Study on the Federal CIO Council for SRII’s Technology Services Research & Innovation Symposium, May 30th, Santa Clara Convention Center, California:

• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/BPC/2007-05-30/BNiemannSSRI05262007.doc

– Participating in “becoming a service system” in our monthly BPC meetings:

• http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?BestPracticesCommittee_2007_07_16

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Example

• April 17, 2007, Collaborative Expedition Workshop #60, at NSF (Organized Jointly by the AIC & BPC):– A collaborative discussion on: The Process Enterprise; Best

Practice and Standards; Management Change and Culture; Process Improvement and Enterprise Architecture:

• Linking Process to Enterprise Goals - Ken Orr (The Ken Orr Institute)

• Standards and Best Practices for Process Improvement - Francois Coallier (Professor and International Chairman of the Joint ISO and IEC Subcommittee)

• Cultural and Management Issues - George Strawn (NSF CIO)• Tying Enterprise Architecture and Process Improvement - Dick Burk

(OMB Chief Architect)• Enterprise Architecture on the Fault Line - Tom Koulopoulos

(Author, Futurist, Leader)• Break-Out Sessions - Organizing for Creativity, Credible

Agreements, and Joint Actionhttp://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ExpeditionWorkshop/Achieving_High_Enterprise_Performance_By_Connecting_ProcessImprovement_KM_And_EA

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Examples

• May 6-8, 2007, Spring Government CIO Summit:– Invited by Paul Mc Closkey (FCW) to help organize

the conference.– Presentations:

• Government by Wiki: A Guided Tour (Brand Niemann)• From Stovepipes to Wind Chimes: Linking Intergovernmental

Communities (Susan Turnbull)

– Created Demonstration Wiki Page for Conference:• http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?GovernmentCIOSummit_

2007_05_0608

– Assisting Canadian Government with implementing these “best practices”.

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Examples

• April 16, 2007, BPC Meeting, Summary of March 14-15, 2007, Conference on Best Practices for Open Source, Open Standards, and Open Architecture in Government by the Organizers:– Based on DoD Open Technology Development

Program. Introduction by the Association for Enterprise Integration.

– Related to December 12, 2006, Collaborative Expedition Workshop #56, Toward a Transparent Acquisition Marketplace for Increased Mission Agility with Open Technology Development.

– Piloted New WebCast Technology:• See use at DoD EA Conference at http://

www.kzowebcasting.com/dodea/

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Examples

• June 18, 2007, Request to contribute to article for Federal Computer Week about the best practices in the Federal IT community (Chris Dorobek, Editor):– Would like Best Practices Committee input for

a story we are doing on… well, best practices. It seems like it is an opportunity for the CIO Council to talk about the work it is doing in this area.

• See next two slides for questions.

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Examples

• June 18, 2007, Request to contribute to article for Federal Computer Week about the best practices in the Federal IT community (Chris Dorobek, Editor) (continued):– 1. What do people think is wrong/right with the best practices

concept?– 2. Can best practices transfer from one situation/agency to

another?– 3. Are communities of practice reviving and improving the best

practices concept?– 4. Is better sharing of best practices occurring through wikis?– 5. Are there certain problem areas in which the federal IT

community is especially interested in formulating best practices?

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Examples

• June 18, 2007, Request to contribute to article for Federal Computer Week about the best practices in the Federal IT community (Chris Dorobek, Editor) (continued):– 6. Why isn't the Information Technology Infrastructure Library

(ITIL) framework of best practice approaches for delivering high-quality information technology services more of a factor than it is in the federal government?

• For example see Best-Management-Practice Website Created by the British Government (Office of Government Commerce):

– http://www.best-management-practice.com/– 7. Should adherence to best practices be mandatory if best

practices exist? Should they be built into contracts?– 8. Should agencies be liable for not following best practices if

best practices in a certain area are well known?

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Examples

• June 18-19, 2007, Toward More Transparent Government, Workshop on eGovernment and the Web, United States National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, USA:– Invited by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to

help organize the conference.– Keynote by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.– Sessions on SICoP and SOA CoP work.– Follow on Workshop on “RDF Access to Relational

Databases” (October 25-26, 2007) relates to improving access to “deep web” government information and piloting the FFATA.

• See http://www.usa.gov/images/fgbuzz/ffata-memo-2007.pdf

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Examples

• IT Performance Management CoP (ITPM):– Pat Plunkett has served as co-chairman since its inception in

August 2000 as a subcommittee under the Capital Planning Committee with many accomplishments!

– Value to the Federal CIO Council (see slide 16):• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/BPC/2007-07-16/

PPlunkett07112007.doc

• Capital Planning & Investment Control/Portfolio Management CoP (CPIC/PM):– Recommendations to OMB on improvements that would

strengthen the A-11 IT sections (May 14, 2007):• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/BPC/2007-05-14/

CPIC_PMCConsensusimprovementstoA11.doc– Value to the Federal CIO Council (see slide 17):

• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/BPC/2007-07-16/SSimon07122007.doc

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How the IT PM CoP Creates Value

PerformanceManagement

CoP

ConductMeetings

Post toWiki page

ShareKnowledge

• Development and use of performance measures• Managing performance• Align IT to Mission Results

More useful PerformanceMeasures

Better AgencyBusiness Cases

Business & IT Strategy Aligned

Greater AgencyResults

ImprovedIT Mgmt

Knowledge ofManagers & Staff Increase

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How the CPIC/PM CoP Creates Value

CPIC/PMCoP

ConductMeetings

Post toWiki page

ShareKnowledge

• Develop and use more effective CPIC practices• Manage investment• Align portfolio to optimize Mission Results

Greater AgencyResults

Knowledge ofManagers & Staff Increase

Better AgencyBusiness Cases

Business & IT Strategy Aligned

ImprovedIT Mgmt

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Examples

• Spatial Ontology CoP (SOCoP):– Supports Geospatial Line of Business with use of ontologies for

distributed data models and applications (e.g. Google Earth).– Presentation at June 18-19th W3C Workshop Toward More

Transparent Government Workshop on eGovernment and the Web explains SOCoP activities and its use of a Semantic Wiki:

• http://www.w3.org/2007/06/eGov-dc/presentations/gbc_geowiki• http://www.visualknowledge.com/wiki/socop

– Pursuing liaison with ISO TC 211 on a new work item - 2162 Geographic information: Ontology (stage 0) - led by Dr. Jean Brodeur of Canada.

– Supporting the NIST Sensor Standards Harmonization Work Group (SSHWG) with geospatial ontologies in cooperation with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).