This project aims to develop a Strategic IT Planning Framework consisting:

1. A process specifying the IT strategy development process
2. A toolkit which explains how this process can be customized by different public organizations and implemented
3. A set of template to support the execution of major steps of the process such as: stakeholders analysis, IT capability assessment, IT visioning and goal setting, IT strategy development, IT objectives development, strategic mapping of IT objectives, development of IT initiatives and projects and IT strategy evaluation.
4. An IT Strategy Management and Alignment System (IT Strategy Database) which provides government-wide management, analysis and reporting capability for IT strategies and initiatives contributed by different government agencies to support their respective missions and strategic goals and also towards the support for government-wide programs such as e-government and public reform programs.

Using the developed IT strategy process and toolkit, the project will also assist a number of pilot agencies in developing their IT strategies. It will also assist the IT coordination office in setting up the IT Strategy Database to manage and align IT strategies with priority government programs.

The project will in partnership with the Macao SAR Government (MSARG) through its Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP), the project will:

• assist two other government agencies in developing their IT strategies
• provide training to selected officers from different government agencies including the two pilot agencies on how to use the developed IT strategy process
• provide training to SAFP on how to use the Central IT Strategy and Alignment System

The solution provides the requisite knowledge for developing strategic IT plans in the form of a toolkit to be freely and openly distributed to government agencies. It develops IT strategy from organizational strategies and goals - guaranteeing alignment by design. A government-wide adoption of the framework with its supporting IT strategy database allows IT coordination office to align IT initiatives across agencies (horizontal alignment) and at the same time ensure that IT initiatives from agencies support strategic IT initiatives of government particularly related to e-governance development and public administration reform.

The major deliverables of the project are:

D1) Strategic IT Planning Process - a specification of the process (expressed using semi-formal notations) for carrying out strategic IT planning in a public organization

D2) Strategic IT Planning Toolkit - a document explaining in details: the steps of the prescribed process, how to customize the process and how it can be implemented

D3) Templates for Strategic IT Planning - a set of forms to guide strategy team in implementing the steps of the process.

D4) IT Strategies for Agencies in Macao - IT strategy documents for each partner agency in Macao as the outcome of their IT strategy projects

D5) Government IT Strategy and Alignment System - a web application deployed at the Central IT Coordination office to manage IT strategies developed by agencies.

D6) Trained Personnel from selected agencies - a pool of trained officers with knowledge on how to develop and manage IT strategies

D7) Strategic IT Planning Project Portal - a portal providing information the project with related resources

In addition, the following categories of events will be organized as part of the project:

E1) Visioning workshop at pilot agencies - attended by agency stakeholders to determine the IT vision and goals based organizational goals

E2) Strategy sessions at pilot agencies - involving IT Head and Heads of core business and support units (and their staff) to develop IT strategies and concrete objectives based on the IT vision developed at the IT Visioning Workshop. Strategy sessions will be conducted for each unit of the pilot agency.

E3) Strategy presentation at pilot agencies - the Head of IT with the support of the project team makes a presentation of the developed IT strategies to all stakeholders (head of the agency, heads of units, representatives of employees, customers etc. ) for comments and feedback.

E4) Training Program - involves the training of government IT staff and other categories of employees involved in IT planning on how to carryout strategic IT planning. This program also includes the training of representatives of the IT coordination office.

The following results were achieved by the project in 2008:

• Strategic IT Planning

  A strategic IT planning process for government organizations, with supporting toolkit and templates, has been developed and validated through IT strategy exercises in three pilot government agencies in Macao. An open-source software for managing and analyzing IT strategies across the whole of government has been developed. Policy recommendations on the practice of IT planning in the agencies of Macao SAR Government have been developed, based upon the developed processes and tools, and submitted to the government. Finally, a government-wide IT Strategy for Macao SAR has been developed.

• Alignment of Electronic Government and Public Administration Reform Programs

  A generic procedure for determining the degree of alignment between Electronic Government and Public Administration Reform Programs has been developed. A procedure for aligning these two programs across major organizational and governance perspectives has been developed. The alignment procedure has been applied and validated through the Alignment Project of the e-Macao Program and already packaged into a toolkit. The strategic alignment tool is subject to ongoing development.

• Framework for Electronic Government Standards

  A framework for establishing baseline Electronic Government standards, based on the Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) and established international good practices has been developed. The framework was applied and validated through the Standards Project of the e-Macao Program.

All project deliverables have been completed. Over 50 personnel from various agencies of Macao SAR Government have been trained on the subject of IT Strategy Development and Strategic IT Alignment. They have also been trained on how to effectively use the developed IT Strategy Toolkit. Dissemination activities on the project will continue till June 2009. However, dissemination of project results to developing countries will continue beyond mid-2009.

This project is presently being executed within the framework of the e-Macao Program. The technical details of the methodology to be adopted have been documented and the strategic IT planning process has been defined. Three agencies are undergoing pilot IT Planning exercises. The development of the supporting toolkits, and the IT Planning exercises at the selected government agencies are to be completed by the end of March 2008. Development of training manuals, training of government officials in Macao, and preparation of a course for training public officials in developing countries in the use of the methodology/toolkit are planned for the first half of 2008.

The IT Master Plan Project for IFT was successfully carried out between September and December 2006. Based on a detailed implementation plan, survey and fact-finding instruments were designed in September 2006, while information gathering and discussions with all departments and units of IFT were conducted in October 2006. A Visioning Workshop was organized in late November 2006 to present the findings of the e-readiness assessment, articulate the Corporate Plan for IFT - vision, goals and strategies, and provide initial inputs to the corresponding Strategic IT Plan to support the Corporate Plan. The planning document was developed late November through December 2006, resulting in a two-volume report "IT Master Plan for IFT" with Volume 1 - Plan describing the plan and Volume 2 - Reference describing the results of e-readiness assessment for all units of IFT.

Similar exercises are planned for two other agencies based on IFT's experience within the framework of the e-Macao Program in 2007.