Methodological Guideline on IT/ICT Project Management for Digital Commissioners by Central Administrative Authorities

The full methodology guideline can be downloaded as separate file.

To whom this material is addressed

The material is primarily intended for "Digital Commissioners" of central administrative authorities and IT managers:

Director of IT

Head of IT Department

However, the material is recommended to be shared with other staff, broken down by position/role below:

Digital Commissioner

Enterprise Architect, Consultant, Analyst

Quality Manager (QA)

Cybersecurity Manager

Operations Manager

Lawyer

Project Manager

Computer Specialist

Office Management (Chairman, State Secretary, Deputy Economic Section)

Agenda/process owner

Contracting Officer

Purpose of document

This document has several main purposes:

To unify the view of the IT plan by naming the main process or work steps from the detection of the need for change through preparation, implementation, operation and closure (these steps can also be called "work packages").

Clearly set the rules for keeping binding central records in the individual steps of the thread, necessary for the management of the Information Concept of the Czech Republic (ICCR) and the Information Concept of the Central Administrative Office. At the same time, provide information on the status of the individual systems that provide/will provide coordination and management of the ICCR/eGovernment.

Create an information signpost of the links of the project's threads to the main legislative documents and important methodologies.

Describe the thread of the intention in the context of the methods of management of the Information Concepts of the CR/government and in the context of the overall management of IT/ICT, in which a bundle of such threads in different states is running simultaneously, including links to other methodological documents (e.g. "Methods of ICT management", ITIL and IT4IT standards, etc.).

Basic principles and concepts

The key concept for this material is the so-called "thread of intent". The thread of intent is the basic process of a specific change in IT, which is self-driven, self-budgeted and defined by its output - typically a new information system, a significant change to an existing information system, its sub-part, the way IS is operated (transition to the cloud), a change in processes supported by the information system, etc. Everything that is subject to Government Resolution No. 86/2020 is the subject of the plan, which is documented in the Digital Czechia catalogue.

Thread of intent - a logical sequence of process or work steps (activities, activities and their outputs) is typically triggered by a management request for a change in IT support for the office's clients (digital service), or a change in support for the office's internal agenda/process. In practice, the thread is often triggered by a change in legislation.

For a thread, some steps may not be relevant for some purposes (e.g. change of legislation) and some steps can be carried out in parallel but the order of the steps cannot be changed.

At the same time, the following step "inherits" the properties and outputs of the previous step. E.g. if a piece of legislation is relevant to step 3, its relevance to the outputs of steps 4, 5, 6 etc. is naturally assumed.

The overall management of digital transformation/IT is then a cyclical process (loop), including strategic management (management of the information concept), management of the whole bundle of all threads in different states (different steps), supporting processes (resource management, quality, overall cyber security) and closing the feedback loop (from measurement and evaluation back to change concept and planning). This cycle and the management of the overall fibre bundle is in line with the "ICT Management Methods" issued by the MoI see diagram in the annex.

The IT/ICT intent thread and its "life" cycle

Name	Description
01. Detection of needs and initial formulation of intent (new system, major change)	Input to trigger is an external or internal request for change. Usually this is a need to comply with a change in legislation, good housekeeping (increase efficiency, reduce overall costs), or a need for innovation, introduction of digital services for VS clients, etc.
02. Qualification of the project within the OIA/OVM (according to the IK OVM)	Setting the project in the context of the OVM Information Concept , definition of internal links to other information systems managed by the OVM or external links to other OVM information systems and data sources
::::	03. Legislative changes	Analysis of legislative changes which force the given intention or description of legislative changes which are a prerequisite for the implementation of the intention
04. Qualification of the project in the context of IKČR and OHA	Qualification of the project in the context of the Information Concept of the Czech Republic, description of the use of shared eGovernment services of the Czech Republic, definition of external and internal links to other information systems and data sources, preparation of relevant OHA forms
05. Allocation of financial resources for the project (budget vs ESF funds), notification to the government	Binding allocation of financial costs necessary for the preparation of the project, its project implementation including the necessary tenders and four-year operating costs broken down by individual sources (state budget, structural funds, etc.). The financial allocation must be entered in the records of investment projects and the operating costs in the medium-term budget of the relevant chapter of the State budget. The allocation of financial resources is a prerequisite for the transition of the project from state C to state B. This phase also includes an evaluation of the five-year TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) as a basis for the decision to implement the project in the Cloud or OnPremise
06. Preparation for implementation (other necessary opinions, public tender)	Preparation and procurement of the necessary public contracts for the implementation of the project, requesting necessary opinions from other authorities, e.g. opinions on compliance with the requirements arising from the Cyber Security Act, the Personal Data Protection Act, etc.
07. Implementation of the project (project implementation management)	Definition of the project team, project assignment and implementation
08. Completion of the implementation, evaluation (acceptance test)
09. Operational planning including minor changes and start of operations	In this stage it is necessary to complete the operational documentation and set up responsibilities for operational activities (processes). See. ITIL process block 4.
10. Operations, operational oversight, implementation of minor changes and operational support	During operations, a set of activities necessary to maintain the quality of security, availability, continuity of services must be performed.
11. Operational evaluation	It is important to continuously evaluate operational indicators including feedback. See. ITIL Block 5.
12. End of life cycle and decommissioning	The phase includes archiving of documentation, archiving of data holdings and decommissioning of relevant components including decommissioning of ISVS in the RPP

Thread of the project in the overall context of records, legislation and roles

Map of the overall context of the thread

Links of the thread of intent to mandatory central, and recommended local registers

This section describes the obligations and recommendations that bind to the various records associated with thread management. Most, but not all, are listed in the preceding diagram.

The descriptions are made in a numbered list that is identical to each step/stage of the cycle:

In the first step, authorities are advised to establish a single (structured) record of digitisation change requests. The register should detect upcoming changes in legislation, including the expected effective date of the change. It should also include external requests for changes, both from feedback from clients of the Authority's services (including other authorities), and from requests resulting from good housekeeping obligations (evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Authority's agencies and processes), or from changes to strategies and conceptual documents (e.g. the Information Concept of the Czech Republic, the Authority's Information Concept and other similar documents). The Digital Commissioner of the Authority should be the custodian of such a register, all organisational units of the Authority should contribute to the register and the content should be discussed by the Authority's management at least once a quarter. It is also recommended that these requirements - if they already imply an intention to change (even if partly unclear for the time being) - be reformulated into an intention and registered as an intention registration sheet in the 'Digital Czechia' catalogue, in the D - 'Outline' status. This will allow to consult and refine the plan with the staff of the "Competence Centre of the Digital Czechia programme". In terms of the structure of the description of the project, the name of the project is sufficient, followed by an optional description and a contact person.

The second step is the qualification of the project, mostly, but not exclusively, within the office. At this stage, the intention needs to be described in a more structured way, including the identification of the cooperating authorities. The intention is given the status C - "Concept" in the Digital Czech Republic catalogue. The qualification is usually approved by the management of the office on the proposal of the digital commissioner. Qualified plans (concepts) are already included in the implementation plans of Digital Czechia, therefore documentation of the plan in the concept (C) status in the "Digital Czechia" catalogue is mandatory. The structured description of the project in the concept state must contain at least the following information:

Title of the project

Brief description of the project

Time resolution of the implementation of the change (from-to date with accuracy of the estimate to the quarter)

Objective of the "Digital Czech Republic" (multiple objectives) that the plan fulfils. Note: In the context of the Authority's follow-up internal records, it is important to link the intention to the objectives of the Authority's information concept, or to the objectives of other strategic and conceptual documents.

Forestry Office (list of cooperating authorities, if relevant)

Responsible and contact person

Estimate of the total external costs of implementing the change

Estimate of external costs for sustainability for the duration of operation (for 4 years from the end of implementation)

Adjustment of legislation - step may not be part of the life cycle of all projects. The Government's Legislative Rules and the related Impact Assessment (RIA) Guidelines need to be followed and the Principles for Making Legislation Digitally Friendly need to be followed.

Evidence under the responsibility of the Legislative Council of the Government

If a new legal norm is planned to be drafted, the intention must be included in the Government's Legislative Work Plan or in the Government's Legislative Work Outlook

If the intention is related to the implementation of a Directive of the European Parliament and Council (EU), then it should be included in the Government's Implementation Work Plan

If there is a need to create or amend a decree, it should be included in the Decree Preparation Plan

Evidence of the impact of changes to legislation in the Digital Czech Republic programme catalogue

Update and refine the data recorded in the Catalogue of Plans as the work progresses, especially any changes in the implementation dates.

Add the RIA task (ticket) to the project and attach the processed RIA form see https://www.vlada.cz/cz/ppov/lrv/ria/aktualne/vzorove-zpravy-ria-zpracovane-dle-pozadavku-obecnych-zasad-ria-138671/

Significant milestones in terms of the life cycle of the project:

Approval of the new draft legislation as a government proposal - can proceed to further work related to the preparation of capital expenditures

Approval of the legislation by the Parliament of the Czech Republic and signing by the President of the Czech Republic - it is necessary to check the changes between the draft approved by the Government and the final version of the legislation and to take these changes into account during further implementation

Qualification of the project in the context of IKCR and OHA - preparation of documents for the OHA decision. This step is also dependent on the nature of the project. Preparation of the OHA form and obtaining the OHA opinion of the MoI is governed by the provisions of Act 365/2000 Coll. (see table in the next chapter). In case of ambiguity, consult the project with the Department of the Chief Architect of the Ministry of the Interior. The processed forms are currently not linked to the project registration in the Digital Czech Republic catalogue, however, in the future it is planned to electronicise the OHA forms and integrate both registers.

Allocation of financial resources for the project (budget vs. ESF funds, operational vs. investment expenditure), notification to the government. In this step, it is necessary to know how the project will be financed (budget chapter, ESF+non-budgeted expenditure, over-requirements…). From the point of view of registration in the catalogue of the CR, it is important to know not only the implementation expenditure but also the expenditure for the sustainability of the project, the implementation effort (internal) and the sustainability effort (internal). From these data, the total cost of ownership (TCO) can then be calculated. A necessary part of the registration is the form of declaration of intention to make an expenditure according to Government Resolution 86/2020. The form can be generated as a task in the TCO catalogue.

Preparation of implementation (other necessary opinions, public tender). This step is mostly dominated by the preparation of the tender documentation according to the Public Procurement Act. An important part of this may be analyses and opinions concerning the cybersecurity of the project as a whole and the basis for the decision to implement the project in the Cloud or On Premise.

Implementation of the project (project management of the implementation). It is necessary to appoint a person responsible for implementation for all projects registered in the register of the DC and it is recommended to apply standard project management methodology in accordance with international standards (PMI, PRINCE2).

The main implementation part of the project is concluded with the completion of the implementation, in which mainly the predefined acceptance tests must be carried out. Acceptance tests must not be a mere formality, but must test the actual functionality of the project's output, which will be taken over by the subject matter manager. The completion of the implementation is also related to the completion of the documentation, the handover of the project results to the operational team, the handover of the implemented project from the project team to the operational team. Refer to ITIL process block recommendation 3. should always include:

Acceptance test name

Description of the acceptance test

A set of acceptance test steps and milestones with expected input and output

The person responsible for the acceptance test

In this step, it is necessary to complete the operational documentation, according to the requirements of Act 365/2000 Coll. and Decree 529/2006 Coll. https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/2006-529#f3147008 and set the responsibilities for operational activities (processes). At this stage, the established SLAs, KPIs and other indicators that assess whether the project output is working as designed and agreed by the acceptance tests also start to be monitored. See. ITIL Process Block 4.

Operations, operational oversight, implementation of minor changes and operational support. For operations, the recommendation is to follow ITIL standards (continuity, configuration, incident, problem management, etc.).

Operational evaluation. The operations evaluation should include an evaluation report.

End of life cycle and decommissioning. Of particular importance is the decommissioning of the ISMS in the RPP.

Links of the management steps of the fibre of intent to the underlying legislation and methodologies

The relevance of a document to a step of the thread is marked with a cross, subsequent steps inherit this relevance:

Name of the legislation	Link (hyperlink)	01. Need detection and initial formulation of intent (new system, major change)	02. Qualification of the intent within the IOA/OVM (according to IK OVM) including assessment of legislative compliance	03. Impact analysis (RIA) and legislative change^^04. Qualification of the project in the context of IKCR and OHA	05. Allocation of financial resources for the project (budget vs ESF funds), reporting to the government^^06. Preparation of implementation (other necessary opinions, public tender)	07. Implementation of the project (project management of implementation)	08. Completion of implementation, evaluation (acceptance test)	09. Operation planning including minor changes and start of operation	10. Operation, operational supervision, implementation of minor changes and operational support^^11. Operational evaluation	12. End of life and decommissioning
Information Concept of the CR	https://archi.gov.cz/ikcr-dokument:ikcr	X	X	X	X
Information Concept of the Office	X |X	X |X	X |X	X |X	X |X
Methods of public administration ICT management	https://archi.gov.cz/metody-dokument:metody	x |X	X |X	X |X	X |X	X |X	X | |Decree No. 323/2002 Coll., on budgetary composition |https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/2002-323 |	|	|X	|	|	|	|
Law 110/2019 on the processing of personal data	https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/2019-110	X | |X	X |	X |X	X |X	X |X	X | |Law 297/2016 on trust services |https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/2016-297 | |X	X | |X	X | |X	X |X	X |X	X |Act 499/2004 on archiving and filing services |https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/2004-499 | |X	X | |X	X |X	X |X	X |X	X ===== Plugging roles into individual thread steps ===== "Required" wiring is marked "P", recommended wiring is marked "D": ^ ^01. Detection of needs and initial formulation of intent (new system, major change)^02. Qualification of the intention within the IOA/OVM (according to IK OVM), including assessment of legislative compliance^^03. Impact analysis (RIA) and legislative change	04. Qualification of the project in the context of IKCR and OHA^^05. Allocation of financial resources for the project (budget vs ESF funds), reporting to the government	06. Preparation of implementation (other necessary opinions, public tender)^07. Implementation of the project (project management of implementation)^08. Completion of implementation, evaluation (acceptance test)^09. Operation planning including minor changes and start of operation^^10. Operation, operational supervision, implementation of minor changes and operational support	11. Operational evaluation^12. End of life and decommissioning^ |Digital Proxy |P |P |P |P |D |P |D |P |D |P |D |P |D |P | Operations manager (technical administrator) | |	|	|	D	|P	P	P
Enterprise Architect, Consultant, Analyst	D	D	D	D	P |P	D	P |D |D |D |D |	D	D
Quality Assurance Manager (QA)	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	P	D	P	D	P	D	D	P	D
Cybersecurity Manager	|D |	P	D	P	D	P	D	P	D	P	D	P	D	P	D	P
Computer Specialist	D	P	D	D	D	D	D
Owner of the agenda/process (substantive administrator)	P	P	P	P	P	P	D	D
Supplier	|D |	D	|	P	|D |P |	D	P	|D |

Overview and checklist for thread management

The checklist is available for download in the classic document Check list

This check-list summarises the different work packages defined in the "ICT project life cycle". Although the individual work packages are numbered and ordered to show their sequence, not every ICT Intent needs to fulfil every work package. It is only important to go through them and provide all the necessary outputs and inputs if they are relevant to the ICT plan.

Title of work package	Inputs	Outputs	Worked on as part of the intent?
Mandatory	Mandatory	Mandatory	Mandatory	Free text	Check-list
01. Detection of needs and initial formulation of the intention (new system, major change)	- Information concept of the CR\- Intention in the CR catalogue	- Requirements of the management of the office	- Change of the intention in the CR catalogue	Introduction into the internal database of intentions	https://spcss.archirepo.com\\\ /digitalnicesko/webapp/object/id-el-219fab6c-14be-4ab9-9873-0d4d51a7b0f6	☐Intent entered into the Digital Czech Republic catalogue ☐Needs mapped (requirements gathering)
02. Qualification of the project within the Office of the Central Statistical Office/OVM (according to IK OVM)	- Information concept of the Office - Project in the catalogue of the Czech Republic - Evidence of the RPP - agendas, ISVS, permissions	- Change of the project in the catalogue of the Czech Republic - Necessary modifications to the RPP registration - agendas, ISVS, authorisations	☐Change in the internal database of intentions
03. Modification of legislation	- Analysis of the legislative environment for intentional - Impacts of changes to legislation \- RIA Methodology and Principles of Digitally Friendly Legislation	- Reason for changing or maintaining legislation \- Necessary modifications to the RPP records - agendas, ISVS, authorisations - Results of the impact analysis (RIA) - Proposal for changes to legislation	☐RIA (form of the task catalogue of the DĆ) ☐Modified legislation\\ ☐Modifications to information in the RPP
04. Qualification of the plan in the context of the ICCR and OHA	- Information Concept of the Czech Republic and its follow-up documents - OHA Forms	- Approved OHA form - Necessary modifications to the RPP records - agendas, ISVS, permissions]	☐Compliance with the CR information concept\ ☐Completed OHA form\ ☐Approved OHA form\ ☐Modifications to information in the RPP\\ ☐Modifications to information in the ISVS register
05. Allocation of financial resources for the project (budget vs. ESF funds), notification to the government	- Information to the government	- Budget systems of the office	- ESIF structures	- Acknowledgement by the government of the CR\- Change of the project in the catalogue of the Czech Republic - Calculation of the 5-year TCO (total cost of ownership)	Feasibility study	☐Project updated in the catalogue of the Digital Czech Republic\ ☐Funding secured\ ☐Information according to ÚV86 - role in the catalogue of the Czech Republic
06. Preparation of the implementation (other necessary opinions, public tender)	- Approved OHA form - Requests for comments from the subjects concerned\ - Documents for the tender procedure	- Feasibility study	- Approval of the implementation by the subjects concerned\ - Evidence in NEN - Tender documentation - Termination of tender procedure - Change of the project in the catalogue of the Czech Republic	☐Tender published in NEN\ ☐Tender documentation created ☐Tender documentation created\ ☐Project updated in the catalogue of the Digital Czech Republic\\ ☐Implementation report 10-20% of fulfilment (task in the catalogue of the Czech Republic)
07. Implementation of the project (project management of implementation)	- Project team - ICT management methods	- Assembled team - contractor + contracting authority\ - Change of project in the catalogue of the Czech Republic	☐Project updated in the catalogue of the Digital Czech Republic ☐Implementation report 20-90% of implementation (task in the catalogue of the Czech Republic)
08. Completion of the implementation, evaluation (acceptance test)	- System documentation - Operating contract - Change of the project in the catalogue of the Czech Republic	☐Implementation report = 100% (task in the catalogue of the Czech Republic) ☐Acceptance tests\ ☐Operating documentation\ ☐Operating and support agreement\
09. Operation planning including minor changes and start of operation	- System documentation	- Operation contract	- Change plan
10. Operation, operational supervision, implementation of minor changes and operational support	- System documentation - Operating agreement\ - Change plan
11. Operational evaluation	- System documentation - Operational contract\ - Change plan	Operational evaluation
12. End of life and decommissioning	- Operational evaluation	- Lessons learned from implementation

Annexes

Thread in the context of information management concepts of the Czech Republic and the Authority

Thread in the context of the overall IT/ICT governance of the Authority

Thread of intent in the context of ITIL and IT4IT methodologies