Defining Information Sharing and Safeguarding (IS&S) Environment capabilities shouldn’t be confusing or daunting – capabilities should be simple and intuitive with the goal of enabling users to support their mission and overcome obstacles. Technical capabilities identified, if already developed/implemented by other communities, should be evaluated and reused when applicable. Where possible, leverage existing investments with proven track records of success and documented lessons learned in developing the IS&S Environment’s capabilities.
Desired Outcome: Governance body agrees on the determination of technology and human resources and processes that must be developed in order to succeed in implementing an IS&S Environment.
Play Checklist
1. Identify role-based user requirements for the IS&S Environment that are more specific to the user experience than the business requirements identified in an earlier play. |
2. Identify the existing systems and technologies that can be used in the creation of an IS&S Environment. |
3. Identify the additional technology resources and capabilities necessary based on collected business, user, and technology requirements, with a focus on maximizing reuse of existing technology. |
4. Identify the advantages and challenges of different environments (internal, cloud-based, hybrid) and make the decision about hosting considering the identified items in light of the user needs and other relevant parameters such as cost. |
5. Document an assessment of the existing resources that can be applied along with a statement describing the approach to filling the gaps in capability that must be filled. |
Play Key Questions
1. What primary tasks are the users trying to accomplish? |
2. What are the user requirements that support role-based information sharing and safeguarding? |
3. What are the systems and technologies already in place that can be built on to create the sharing environment? |
4. What are the capabilities that will developed or reused? |
5. What technologies are required to meet the user needs? |
6. What are the pros and cons of the technology approach? How does this impact the buy versus build decisions for hosting (i.e., software as a service, cloud storage)? |
7. Are there legacy systems that can be reconstituted to better share and safeguard information and meet identified user needs? |
8. What specific safeguarding measures will be employed? |
9. How does the IS&S Environment’s design visually relate to other government services? |
Play Resources
The following resources can help you with this play:
Pre-RFP Toolkit (v3-2013), IJIS Institute, http://www.ijis.org/?page=PreRFP_Toolkit |
Return to the IS&S Environment Playbook