Implementing Interoperable Information Systems - The Human Perspective

The “Human” elements and challenges of implementing interoperable information systems are numerous. During this session, the speaker will focus on a few of the human elements and challenges of project implementation including the Technical, Financial and Planning challenges; in addition, the speaker will examine ways to mitigate those challenges.

In jurisdictional government, there is a constant turnover of people in key positions of project management; inevitably, project documentation is never complete prior to their departure. When key people depart, they take with them the “real knowledge” of the programs, processes and procedures; and the historical perspective.

Those taking their place are never fully prepared to assume full responsibility and in many cases the wrong people are thrown into temporarily managing the processes until the void is filled. That interim management entity is often someone who is available for, but not necessarily compatible with the effort. In addition, during the transition process, hardware and software ages in “real-time;” this aging process and the lack of forward momentum create further delay in achieving the expected goals and objectives. This interim management “human” incompatibility factor has now become a major risk to the interoperability objective.

Compounding the problem and heightening the risk, the interim manager often experiences multi-project overload; this issue negatively affects their ability to function and focus effectively in their new role and results in a lack of attention to the new project, lack of availability to deal with time sensitive issues, and lack of consistency with project documentation; the downward spiral for the project has now begun. Unless a clear and conscious effort is applied to the documentation effort before, during and following the management transition phase, systems interoperability implementation momentum grinds to a halt.