This ICT strategy cuts across all of the public sector, in Central Government, Local Government, Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies.  Each part of Government has its own governance structure, its own accountability structure and its own agenda and set of priorities.  This creates a complex governance requirement that addresses the (sometimes conflicting) priorities of Government strategies – of which this is only one.

A critical success factor of any major programme is a governance framework that recognises:

• The ebb and flow of contemporary issues that will both positively and negatively impact on any one strategic objective
• That the more dependencies built into any transformation programme  increases the likelihood of failure as the governance becomes overwhelmingly complicated and in itself act as a threat to success
• That the governance has to work to a set of principles rather than hard and fast rules
  • Match supply with demand
  • Anticipate generic changes
  • Identify duplication and other opportunities for standardisation and sharing
  • Challenge relatively low value projects
  • Set priorities when competing for scarce capacity

For any Government strategy, clear accountability to and oversight from Ministerial committees and policy is critical.  Ministerial accountability for the ICT strategy lies with the Minister for the Cabinet Office.  At an official level, accountability is through a number of oversight boards such as the Civil Service Steering Board, the Information Assurance Oversight Board and the Corporate Function Board.  Detailed governance can be found in Annex A.

Successful implementation of the strategy requires a governance structure that is focused on delivery across the public sector and takes account of the interdependencies between strategy elements.  The CIO Council have agreed a delivery structure (detailed in appendix A) which provides clear accountability for delivery and ensures coherence across the strategy.  The public sector will take a portfolio management approach to implementation through the creation of an ICT Strategy Implementation Steering Group (ISG).  The ISG will be responsible for portfolio management of each strategy work-stream to manage inter-dependencies, overall benefits realisation and risks to strategy delivery.

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