Education Ministry mulls software as a service

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Ministry of Education has issued a request for information for a SaaS-based project

By Stephen Bell | Wellington | Tuesday, 14 August, 2012 | 19 Comments

The Ministry of Education is building a business case for a software-as-a-service approach to project management tools.

It has issued a request for information (RFI) “to seek general and overview information (utility and budget / cost information) on software as a service-based project and portfolio management (PPM) software with the following functionality modules: project, programme and portfolio management, project, programme and portfolio reporting [and] portfolio product management.”

In the language of the discipline, a programme typically incorporates several projects and a portfolio may include several programmes and projects. This hierarchical structure is reflected in sample display and report formats appended to the RFI.

However, the ministry is still in the process of building the business case, says spokeswoman Emma Peel. She was therefore unable to answer Computerworld's questions about the reason for the SaaS orientation and what any new PPM service is intended to replace.

Since the business case is not yet finalised, Peel says, the Ministry is not saying at this stage that it definitely will adopt a new SaaS PPM suite.

“In order to protect the RFI process and to ensure we do not pre-empt the outcome of the business case, the Ministry does not have any further information at this stage other than that which is contained in the RFI,” she says.

Project management tools should be based on the Prince2 methodology and programme management on MSP (Managing Successful Programmes), a guide developed by the UK government’s Office of Government Commerce, the RFI says.

Closing date for replies to the RFI is Wednesday August 15.

Comments

DIA Hoover Its ok, the AoG cloud programme will just come along and hoover up their chosen offerings after the fact and then chuck them in the AoG Appstore. Common capability. Done. Really its a better outcome than DIA trying to procure everything centrally.
Posted by Anonymous at 23:05:52 on August 14, 2012

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DIA Hoover Sure... But I suspect that long term that AoG Appstore, won't be anything to do with DIA...

Anyway, MoE seem to have forgotten to talk to others on the face of it.

http://gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk/cloudstore/
Posted by Anonymous at 9:20:52 on August 15, 2012

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Hmmm Interesting comments.

Having worked for MoE I'd suggest that they haven't done this deliberately, that is, they don't necessarily know about the All of Government, IaaS, and host of other projects DIA are running.

We are talking about an agency that is persisting on INSOURCING their payroll, how is that multi-million dollar progam going?

Still, ignorance is no defense, the cost of provisioning a shared service for enterprise change management across multiple agencies will be a fraction of cost compared to a tailored implementation.

God knows most agencies could do with some help in the project space...

Perhaps this is just the beginning of the rush to get in before the government can take the IT budgets off the core agencies...
Posted by Anonymous at 18:29:56 on August 14, 2012

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Hmmm Having worked at MoE also I'd agree it hasn't been done intentionally - but MoE architects and IT managers are so arrogant in themselves that they don't wish to talk to anyone else. Most of these 'leaders' are so far behind, they pick up buzz words and feel they can do everything better based on their naive understanding and never succeed.
Posted by Anonymous at 10:35:30 on August 15, 2012

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So... Wouldn't this be a prime, shared service, for all government agencies?

What happened to the All of Government stuff?
Posted by Anonymous at 11:03:16 on August 14, 2012

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So... Ministry of Education never follow the norm. They spent millions some years back on the failed ESAA project. A solution which even the vendors recommended against but MoE architects went ahead and pushed for it. The result? A bunch of MoE architects getting trips abroad to go talk themselves up, while the department suffered with higher maintenance costs and increased complexity while all other Government departments signed up to the other solution.

In respect to this RFI and future work - beware the bald man with dark rimmed glasses! He'll milk you for everything you've got!
Posted by Anonymous at 12:10:07 on August 14, 2012

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So... Agreed, Didn't MSD go to market for this a year ago? Why do we continually need to re do RFx's where departments have done this in the past.

Posted by Anonymous at 11:13:22 on August 14, 2012

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So... I think the fact we are asking these questions here shows just how immature our Government Departments are when it comes to IT. How hard would it be for the relevant manager to pick up a phone and call few of their collegues in other departments to make sure they are aligned and spending their dollars appropriately. We shouldn't even need DIA trying to force everyone to work together - it should be common sense.
Posted by Anonymous at 12:07:04 on August 14, 2012

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So... "We shouldn't even need DIA trying to force everyone to work together - it should be common sense."

Absolutely spot on. DIA is facilitating this "stuff" at the moment, but quite frankly, they wouldn't be needed if the agencies talked to each other.
Posted by Anonymous at 12:22:30 on August 14, 2012

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So... I suppose it all comes down to accountability - if the managers have been "building their empires" for years and getting away with it - why would they change now. The CEO's should have KPI's that require them to demonstrate how their add value to New Zealand Inc. by working together and if they fail, let see some sacking action going on, just like in private sector
Posted by Anonymous at 12:39:33 on August 14, 2012

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