Information Management in the Government of Canada - A Situation Analysis

2. The IM Landscape

Although it is popular to speak of our times as the information or knowledge age, information has been a hallmark of all governments. Governments from the earliest use of clay tablets have used recorded information to better administer the affairs of state. The earliest clerks were the clericals who recorded the decisions and directives of monarchs, parliaments, courts and governments.

The Canadian government and its public service have used paper records to record the decisions of government, the statutes of the nation and correspondence with citizens since 1867. The complexity and growth in paper records reflect the complexity and growth of the country and its government. Records once the protected domain of government are now subject to access and privacy laws which encourage the sharing of these records with the public. This creates a fundamental problem for the records manager as records organized to support the management and delivery of programs are not necessarily organized or structured to readily respond to the information requests of public applicants. The commitment of government to protect the privacy of recorded information about an individual is compromised by other applicants seeking greater access to government records.

The volume and complexity of paper records is but one concern for records managers and users. The attraction of records management as a career has lessened as other career opportunities increase. This presents challenges in the recruitment and retention of qualified, experienced and competent records staff at a time where there is an increasing demand for this talent. The management of paper records is further challenged by the advent of records in other formats often dealing with the same subject, topic or issue. It is increasingly difficult to economically organize and structure for use information in a variety of formats. Records management leadership is compromised by the increased demands being place on the leadership at a time when fewer experienced records managers, experts and specialist are available to address the complexities addressed in this report. Paper records will not disappear. Paper records will exist and be used into the foreseeable future. As a result, even as the government evolves into an electronic environment supporting priorities such as Government On-line (GOL), it must not lose sight of the fact that for some time to come it will be functioning within a highly complex environment supporting a wide range of media including paper.

Government is in the information business. As previously referenced, everything it does is based on information - from briefing notes to senior executives, to cheques issued to citizens, to licenses issued to businesses, to statistics provided to researchers and academics, and to information designed to provide the accurate, complete, and relevant context public servants require to make decisions and deliver their programs. Information, which can exist in many different forms from paper to electronic, is the fuel driving government programs and services. In Canada's knowledge-based society the quality, integrity and ongoing accessibility of information, including that produced in the public sector, is crucial.

In the Speech from the Throne, the government announced that it would connect Canadians to all government information and services by the Year 2004. The implications of this vision on all facets of government activity are profound. Citizens will have access to a wide variety of government information systems and sources. While traditional ways of interacting with government will be maintained, citizens will be able to electronically pay their taxes, apply for licenses and benefits, and search for the information they need to better understand themselves, their cultures, their environments, and their country.

Unlike any time in the history of this country, Canadians will have the opportunity to become an integral part of the program / service delivery and decision making processes of government. The vision set out in the throne speech will likely transform the way information is created, used, preserved and otherwise managed in the Government of Canada over time.

Web-enabled tools and techniques offer significant opportunities for not only enhancing the ability of Canadians to access government information but to completely re-engineer and move beyond traditional ways of locating, accessing, and retrieving government information. While recognizing that the government's program and service delivery environment will feature multiple forms of information (i.e. paper, electronic, etc.), the path to increasingly automated service delivery channels based on electronic information is clear.

Innovative approaches to ensuring the authenticity, integrity, and reliability of information, regardless of its physical form, for as long as the information is required are also possible but only if "out-of-the-box" thinking is used to fully lever what the emerging technologies have to offer.

To make this vision a reality, government will have to re-affirm a culture which values information and the role it plays in supporting a citizen-state interaction founded on trust and respect. In this new reality, public servants will:

• be fully conscious of the role information plays in establishing a relationship with citizens built on trust, integrity, and quality service;
• understand the varied needs of citizens including businesses and respond to these needs with information which is complete, relevant, organized, timely and structured to maximize self sufficiency and access;
• understand the central and critical role information plays in support of government business and accountability;
• understand the need to document what they are doing with the records created as a result of their activities;
• see these records as valuable sources of information to help them do their job and as instruments of accountability;
• understand the need to apply common standards and best practices to manage, make accessible and protect information assets, and;
• appreciate the value of sharing information and knowledge to support more integrated program delivery within government (i.e. where appropriate and authorized).

Information and its effective management are important at all levels: from the government as a whole, to individual organizations and programs, to individual public servants. And yet at all levels, the ability to create, use and preserve information effectively is being challenged. Getting the right information to the right person or persons, at the right time, in the right form and format, at a reasonable cost is a generally accepted principle that is becoming difficult to operationalize, especially in an electronic environment.

Concerns are being raised across the government about the quality and integrity of the government's information management infrastructure. There is a widespread feeling that unless these concerns are addressed the following will likely result:

• the absence of effective and relevant information standards and navigation tools will inhibit the ability of citizens and public servants to find government information recorded in multiple forms and formats, and access government services;
• the absence of complete and adequate policies, standards, best practices, and systems for managing the authenticity and reliability of information through time will increase the risk of government being unable to establish trustworthy environments for conducting business electronically;
• the absence of records documenting decision-making and actions will threaten the ability of citizens to exercise their right of access to government information and jeopardize the integrity and quality of the government's corporate memory;
• the absence of a knowledgeable and skilled workforce for developing and maintaining an information management infrastructure will increase the risk to government institutions of having to rely upon a poorly designed infrastructure to support decision making, the delivery of programs and services and the ability to meet various accountability requirements, and;
• the absence of an effective accountability framework where public servants can be held to account for their stewardship of government information will result in confusion (re: roles and responsibilities), increased risk, and increased costs.

In order to understand the nature and extent of these concerns and the specific issues that need to be addressed, a government-wide consultation process was conducted in November and December, 1999. The results of these consultations led to the conclusion that the best way to frame the issues was to focus on the infrastructure of laws and policies, standards and practices, systems, and people required to enable government to manage its information at both the operational and strategic levels. Such an infrastructure would need to be viewed as an integral part of the business of government - a business that is increasing adopting a citizen-centered perspective to the delivery of its programs and services. The IM Infrastructure model which emerged from the consultation process was used to frame the issues and recommendations described in the remaining sections of this report.

The model begins with a perspective on the business of government (i.e. if IM is an integral part of the business of government then an understanding of how that business is viewed must first be acquired). The business view (see figure1) begins with a citizen (individual or business) receiving or accessing a service (e.g. applying for a benefit or license; filing tax returns; accessing government information sources; etc.).

Figure 1: Business View

The service is supported by a business process comprising a set of related tasks which generate an information product which could be recorded electronically, on paper, etc. The business process (which is normally automated) supports the requirements of a given government function or activity which is managed by accountable individuals located inside an organization. The organizational structure is nothing more than a management and accountability framework for the function / activity and the business process. All of this (i.e. the organization, the functions, and the processes) are situated within an accountability framework which itself is derived from a mandate(s) and an enabling law(s).

The basic relationship among the business process (or workflow), the information product, the function/activity, the organizational structure (accountability framework), and the enabling law and mandate is a constant regardless of the type of program or service being delivered. It also aligns very closely with models (e.g. federated architecture model) developed by the TBS and others to illustrate the concepts of electronic service delivery.

The IM Infrastructure view (see figures 2 and 3) is aligned with the business view. It focuses on the delivery of a service - often an information product generated by the tasks in the business process or workflow (see figure 3). The individual tasks themselves generate information "objects" of their own (e.g. the various types of information generated to process an application for a license; the multiple drafts of a briefing note to the minister; the documents generated to produce a report intended for dissemination to a wider audience, all of which can exist in multiple forms from paper to electronic). In executing these tasks, three kinds of activities are carried out, namely:

• activities done to bring information into existence to support decision making, program/service delivery, and to meet accountability requirements These activities include: create, generate, collect, receive, etc. The label given to this set of activities is "create".
• activities done with information to support decision making, program/service delivery, and to meet accountability requirements. These activities include: transmit, exchange, access, retrieve, disseminate, share, etc.. The label given to this set of activities is "use".
• activities done to information to ensure it is authentic, reliable, available, usable, and understandable for as long as required to support decision making, program/service delivery, and to meet accountability requirements. These activities include: organize, describe, classify, retain, protect, store, migrate, dispose, etc. The label given to this set of activities is "preserve".

Figure 2: Information View - Part 1

Figure 3: Information View - Part 2

These activities are managed by a framework of polices, standards and practices, systems, and people (see figure 3). This framework cannot exist in a vacuum. It must be supported by people who have an awareness and an understanding of the importance and relevance of information to their programs. But it needs more than this. The framework requires ownership and accountability through public servants who understand its fundamental importance in enabling them to carry out their program responsibilities.

Normally this "ownership" is reflected in an accountability framework extending across a given organization: to the deputy minister or head of agency; to the individual program managers and staff; and to the specialists responsible for the infrastructure to create, use and preserve information. The accountability framework must be supported by policies, audit standards, and methods to measure the extent to which the infrastructure is (or is not) implemented and maintained effectively.

The IM Infrastructure view or model provides context within which the issues described in the report can be situated. By focusing on the IM infrastructure, it has been possible to distinguish between information issues which are specific to individual programs and those common information issues which are specific to the infrastructure itself. Given that the infrastructure model is one which can be applied as a template to any government program or activity, it follows that if the issues associated with the infrastructure could be addressed, then the program specific IM issues might be more easily resolved.

This perspective on the model explains why the scope of this initiative did not extend to so-called information based functions such as Communications or (ATIP), or even to "knowledge management". By addressing issues within the context of the IM Infrastructure, it follows that any government program or activity, including communications and (ATIP), would benefit in terms of their ability to have the information they need to meet their program and accountability requirements. In this respect it is important to emphasize that the rationale for an IM infrastructure is not driven solely from the need to address (ATIP) considerations; it is driven from the need to meet the business and accountability requirements of given programs and services and to do so within the context of government-wide laws and policies. By meeting these requirements, it follows that government institutions should also be able to meet their obligations under laws such as ATIP.

Knowledge management (KM) strategies would also benefit because the infrastructure would result in the effective management of explicit information which is one of the important building blocks for KM (the other being tacit information or the information retained in peoples' minds based on experience and the understanding of the various contexts in which they worked and which might not be documented).

The IM Infrastructure does not exist in isolation. The Business Infrastructure of government is primary and sets the context for other supporting infrastructures. The IM Infrastructure supports and manifests the information requirements of the Business Infrastructure - it fuels and documents the business functions and supporting activities. The Information Technology Infrastructure serves mainly to support the Information Infrastructure. These three infrastructures are created, sustained and imbued with purpose and meaning through the government's Human Resources Infrastructure.