ICT Infrastructure: Assessment of Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy
Background:
You should read the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024
Objectives:
You need to produce a report that evaluates the content of the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 and makes recommendations on the future ICT service management by the Council.
This plan was prepared prior to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. You are being asked to evaluate this plan at the present time (Semester 2, 2022), and so you should also consider the issues being faced by the Council in coping with the current conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes the need for much of the workforce to work from home, and the need to rely on digital channels, such as video conferencing, to support interactions with customers, rate payers, supplies and other government agencies.
Specifically, you need to complete the following tasks:
Choose an ICT governance framework that you consider appropriate for the evaluation of the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 and provide a justification for why you have chosen that particular ICT governance framework.
Evaluate the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 against relevant criteria and guidelines that are derived from the chosen governance framework. You should not simply be critical but consider which components of the ICT governance framework are relevant to the objectives and context of the four key strategies in the plan. Consider the extent to which the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 indicates an awareness of the provision of ICT service, ICT service management, ICT service orientation and ICT infrastructure management.
Provide a proposal that:
indicates how the Council could enhance its ICT service management and ICT service provision, in line with meeting the current and future needs of the Council;
is aligned with the Council’s key strategic themes, stated on pages 3 of the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024;
addresses the key gaps that you have identified in the current Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024; and
is aligned with guidelines from your chosen ICT governance framework
Please Note: This is an Infrastructure Proposal Report, and so step 3 above should be the most significant component of your report.
Requirements:
You should produce an ICT Infrastructure Proposal Report in the report format in the supplied template for this assignment on LMS.
You should choose a recognised ICT governance framework (ITILv3, ITIL4 or COBIT) that you consider relevant to the need to evaluate the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 and justify your choice of that particular ICT governance framework.
You should analyse the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 against criteria that are derived from the principles, guidelines and processes in your chosen ICT governance framework.
From this analysis you should identify a number of key gaps that you consider are missing from the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024. There should a statement of justification to support each key gap, derived from your analysis.
You should produce a proposal that indicates how the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 can enhance its ICT service provision and management. This would require proposal of new or enhanced digital services and the infrastructure requirements to deliver these services. This proposal must address the key gaps that you have identified in your analysis.
You should keep to the scope of the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024.
You may make any relevant assumptions about the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024 and must include those assumptions as explicit statements in your report.
Your report must address the tasks stated in the Objectives section above
Relationship of Assessment Criteria to Intended Learning Outcomes
Through this report you need to demonstrate that you have the knowledge and skills to:
Explain current trends in ICT infrastructure and their impacts on ICT infrastructure management [ILO1];
Demonstrate an awareness of current ICT governance frameworks and their relevance to the development of ICT infrastructure management plans and proposals [ILO2]; and
Demonstrate an understanding of the role and importance of ICT service provision and acquisition in the responsibilities of an ICT infrastructure manager [ILO5].
This assignment will be assessed according to the following weighted criteria:
Achievement of the Assignment Objectives [30%]
Demonstration of Intended Learning Outcome 1 [20%]
Demonstration of Intended Learning Outcome 2 [20%]
Demonstration of Intended Learning Outcome 5 [20%]
Achievement of the Generic Skills criteria will apply to the degree of understanding, and quality of content, structure and presentation of the assignment submission. [10%]
Report medium: Your report should be prepared as a PDF. In your document, please include hyperlinks to any web pages referenced in your report.
References: You must include a Reference list at the end of your report. Entries in the Reference list should be sorted alphabetically by author, then by year of publication for works by the same author(s). Every single idea you borrow from someone else should be cited in your Reference list, and where possible should include the page number from the source. Quotations, if used, should be in quotation marks (“…”) and should be EXACT.
You MUST use APA style referencing.
Page limite: 10 pages (penalty applies if over the limit)
ICT Infrastructure Proposal Report
Student’s Name
Institution
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name
Date
ICT Infrastructure Proposal Report
1 Report Objectives
This report entails a detailed assessment of Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024. It seeks to answer two fundamental questions:
* How does the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024, indicate awareness of enhanced ICT service provision, ICT service orientation, and ICT infrastructure management?
* How can we propose changes to the strategy that aligns with the Council's ICT service and infrastructure direction(s), priorities, and transformation?
The report further offers recommendations for improving the council's ICT service provision and management based on the ITIL framework.
2 Background
The Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024, was created to help the council achieve its goal of being an authority that is digital by default (Argyll & Bute Council, n.d.). The council delivers digital services and believes that an adequate ICT infrastructure can support flexible working and provide new community engagement channels, self-service options, and other digital solutions to facilitate complete digitalization.
3 Nature of the Report
This report is based on the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024, and as such, its application is limited to the contents of the strategy. Also, the report is based on the assumption that the council has a sufficient budget and a harmonious inter-departmental interaction, which is necessary for the implementation of the proposed changes.
4 ICT Governance Framework
1 Existing ICT Governance Framework
The Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy is based on IT service management methodology. The council relies on the 4Ws (what, why, who, when) to collect data and create its strategy, as evidenced by its approach to each key theme (Argyll & Bute Council, n.d.).
2 Choice of ICT Governance Framework
The ITIL is the preferred ICT governance framework for several reasons. One, it focuses on integrating IT into the overall business aspect of an institution/organization and pays attention to value delivery (Lopes, 2021). Two, it helps organizations create a flexible ICT environment, which is essential when technologies change rapidly (Reiter & Miklosik, 2020). Three, it is a flexible framework that can be adapted based on the organization's specific needs (Lopes, 2021). Thus, this framework is suitable for the Argyll and Bute Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy because it will facilitate service delivery when digital is the default approach.
5 Analysis of the Argyll and Bute Council's ICT and Digital Strategy, 2021-2024
3 Analysis
ITIL4 Principles
Evidence
Findings
P1-Focusing on value:
The council should focus on value creation for all stakeholders
The council identifies pupils, staff, businesses, and the community and focuses on creating value for them in terms of digital learning, public-facing payment channels, a digital platform for community engagement (p.6), and agile, flexible working for its staff (p.15)
Conforms
F1: the evidence indicates the council knows who its customers are and what value they should derive from the ICT infrastructure
P2-Starting where you are:
The council should assess the current state of its ICT infrastructure to establish what is working and what is not working- to help it start from where it is
No evidence of what is working or not working. The report only notes that the current IT infrastructure is stable, low-cost, and efficient (p.2).
Does not conform
F2: There is no evidence that the council has assessed the current state of its infrastructure to establish whether and how it can build on this infrastructure rather than creating a new one
P3-Progressing iteratively with feedback
The council should establish and utilize a wide range of feedback channels to facilitate iterative progress and improvement of its ICT infrastructure, especially in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the demand for digitalization.
“Enhance the customer experience through… user feedback…(p.5)."
“Use feedback from formal customer satisfaction survey… (p.14)” and “feedback from PRDs and staff surveys (p.15)” for staff training.
Partially conforms
F3: There is evidence that the council has several feedback channels (customer, PRDs, staff) that can support iterative improvement.
However, the feedback seems to be utilized to improve staff training, ignoring other ICT services that can improve its ICT infrastructure.
P4-Collaborating and promoting visibility
The council should facilitate collaboration among its stakeholders to improve its services and ICT infrastructure.
“Improve staff collaboration…” through unified communications (p.12)
“Support and collaborate regularly with partners… (p.14)” By participating in projects, seminars, and networking opportunities
Conforms
F4: The council supports collaboration with staff and other partners to strengthen its ICT infrastructure. It has practical strategies to support collaboration, that is, unified communication, seminars, networking opportunities,
P5-Thinking and working holistically
The council should incorporate a holistic approach in delivering its ICT services.
No evidence of how changes in one aspect of the ICT infrastructure will impact other aspects. For instance, how does compliance with data protection laws affect information sharing among partners (p.7)?
Does not conform
F5: There is no evidence indicating how the council will account for changes in one aspect of the ICT infrastructure based on changes in another aspect
P6-Keeping it simple and practical.
The council should establish rules to handle exceptions and ensure the minimum number of steps are used in delivering ICT services.
The council uses clear and simple guidelines on how to manage its customers, processes, technology, and people to maximize value and simplify the delivery of its ICT services (p.4)
Conforms
F6: The council understands the importance of simplicity in creating value. It highlights every activity it will undertake to create value and simplify service delivery throughout the report.
P7-Optimizing and automating
The council should optimize and automate its services for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.
The council outlines steps to optimize its technology investment (p.8) and infrastructure (p.11) to facilitate the automation of its services.
However, it has not highlighted which areas will be optimized or automated and how the outcomes of optimization and automation will be measured.
Partially conforms
F7: The council needs to highlight services that will be optimized or automated and define the metric for measuring success. Without doing so, its optimization and automation efforts will be futile.
6 Identification of Key Gaps
KG1: A lack of a detailed assessment of the council’s current state of its infrastructure to inform suggested improvement activities.
As shown in F1, the council lacks proper assessment of its infrastructure. It only notes that its infrastructure is stable, low-cost, and efficient (...