Systems Under Development Best Practices Symposium
Foreword
L. Denis Desautels, FCA
Auditor General of Canada
Pressures are increasing on government to improve service to the public in spite of opposing pressures to reduce costs. To do this, it is essential that government provide easier access to more timely and accurate information. Information technology is a vital tool for providing it. The government already spends over $3 billion a year on information technology equipment, people and services, and this is expected to rise as old systems are replaced and new ones are added.
In past years, my Office has reported significant concerns about the management and development of computer systems. The Public Accounts Committee, to whom I report, has also expressed similar concerns over the poor record of success in the development of major systems. For these reasons, I have committed the Office to a program of reviewing the development of major computer systems in government.
As part of this process, my Office, in co-operation with the Treasury Board, invited 150 senior public and private sector people to participate in a Systems Under Development Best Practices Symposium on 23 September 1993. This symposium provided a forum for us to present some of our preliminary findings on best practices in systems under development and to hear first-hand from leading authorities in the field. The audience included representatives from the Treasury Board Information Management Sub-committee (TIMS), the Advisory Committee on Information Management (ACIM), the Council on Administrative Renewal (CAR), professional associations, departmental senior management, information technology managers and users, internal audit, personnel management, contractors, integrators and private sector organizations.
This volume documents the proceedings of that day, including opening remarks by myself and Andy Macdonald, the speakers' presentations and our preliminary report. Also included are the minutes of a concluding panel discussion on systems under development, followed by a question and answer period.
I want to express my thanks to the speakers and the participants who all helped make this symposium such a success. I would also like to thank those who gave us their comments and suggestions, which we took into consideration as we proceeded.
We will continue to share our findings as we work with the community to refine these best practices and to develop an agreed-upon set of criteria that can be used to evaluate systems development projects.