| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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In accordance with SEPLAG’s previously outlined strategy, in December 2009, the selection process for the forming of a partnership to develop the IT program began. In March 2010, a local company called FACILIT TECHNOLOGY was chosen. The partnership took the form of a "joint venture". It was informal, which allowed the company to develop a system that would self-automate the monitoring process already underway in the state at no cost to SEPLAG.
Between 2010 and 2012, SEPLAG and FACILIT met fortnightly to discuss issues of specification, conceptual development, production and the validation of different system modules. FACILIT were granted permission to monitor all activities on the ground undertaken by SEPLAG in the monitoring process.
In July 2012, on completion of the first basic version of the system – a commercial contract was signed for use of the control panel between FACILIT and SEPLAG. It would take the form of ongoing maintenance, aiming to customize the basic version of the management model in use in the state. Under the terms the contract, several specific components of the monitoring process were added to the system as features. They included specific modules for monitoring relevant goals, bidding management, producing the minutes of monitoring meetings and of follow up meeting for special projects, management of referral meetings and for updating financial information concerning the priority goals, among others.
After signing the contract, a series of basic functionality tests were performed using tracking data from the priority goals between 2011 to 2012. This was conducted in a dedicated test environment. These tests also served to correct minor inconsistencies in the system and made it possible to build a database detailing the historical background of Government's achievements.
In this phase, the system was tested for ease of communication in a web environment. SEPLAG analysts, realizing that Secretaries were still using Microsoft Office applications in regular meetings, replicated the information on the online test version installed on their notebooks and performed data transmissions to servers on the ATI System – the Agency for Information Technology for the Government of Pernambuco. These opportunities have also been used to get technicians and department secretaries involved with the priority goals used to the new tool.
The beginning of 2013 was set aside for testing the offline version, which was developed specifically for mobile devices (tablets and smartphones). This version, called "Target App", allowed registered State managers, through a key and password, remote access to the most current version of the system and the database with the most recently updated information on the control panel. This made the decision making process more agile and capable of being run from anywhere. Participating in this round of tests were senior managers of state (the Governor, State secretaries and senior SEPLAG management).
The system came into official use in March 2013, having been fully approved by SEPLAG. It definitively replaced the Microsoft Office package.
After its official approval by SEPLAG, other versions of the Control panel were customized on demand for use in other State Departments. These were adapted to be used as control and monitoring tools for the organizational priorities of each institution. These versions, accessible only to registered users from each Department and using the same methodological tools used by SEPLAG for monitoring activity, provided unity and integration across the Government and enabled the Secretaries to build their own strategy maps and rank, register and monitor their priorities. Versions approved by the secretaries also allowed for electronic communication with State Government versions, thus avoiding rework and divergence of information.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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SEPLAG’s Executive Secretariat of Strategic Management issued an order for the development of an IT solution that would solve problems arising due to the inadequacy of using Microsoft Office and the increasingly complex dynamics of monitoring the activities of the “Todos por Pernambuco” plan. The initiative came from the testimonies of SEPLAG analysts and state managers who reported the limitations of previously used tools. They highlighted the difficulties of remote data collection, the need to retype and rework already printed reports, synchronization problems and difficulties with decision making.
FACILIT TECHNOLOGY, with the active participation of SEPLAG analysts and managers involved in monitoring activity, developed the quality of users, all modules and features of the control panel.
Executive management of the project was the responsibility of SEPLAG’s Executive Secretariat of Strategic Management, which officially attested to the appropriateness of the modules supplied, oversaw testing and approved the final product.
ATI – the Agency for Information Technology of Pernambuco, advised SEPLAG in the drawing up of the contract with FACILIT and in the definition of technical specifications and requirements for the anchoring system in the computing environment of the State Government.
Other SEPLAG managers involved with the state management model (formulation of strategy maps, budget management and result assessment) also contributed to a greater or lesser extent with the development of the system. They provided explanations on the methodologies of public administration adopted for the “Todos por Pernambuco” plan. They also provided guidance on desirable interfaces between the system and the other activities of the management model and other helpful suggestions.
Technicians and managers of the various state bodies using the system contributed to the development of the product, especially during system testing. Senior state management were also involved, especially in the validation period of the off-line version and specifically for mobile devices.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Selected in March 2010, the partner company and SEPLAG began the process of envisioning the system by setting up a permanent working group for the development and monitoring of the project. It was initially composed of 44 FACLIT software development specialists, five SEPLAG analysts - who worked directly with monitoring, and two ATI functionality specialists to adjust and regulate the system to state specifications.
This working group conducted fortnightly meetings in order to plan the various modules, system features, tests and validation of partial deliveries carried out. At the end of 2011, with an increase in the pace of work on the basis of first deliveries of modules to the system, two more SEPLAG analysts were brought in.
The first complete version of the system was finished. The signing of the commercial agreement between FACILIT and SEPLAG in July 2012 saw the permanent development working group dissolved. Work began on customization and testing with the creation of a quality assessment computing environment, where the tracking of priority targets had been in place since 2011. For this phase, which lasted until March 2013, a new specialized team was set up by SEPLAG of 14 planning, budget and management analysts, while the contracted company brought in two systems analysts. The team was responsible for planning and monitoring of real case simulations using the system and allowing for the debugging of errors and inconsistencies. During this step, about 60 professionals from involved government agencies followed the monitoring cycles. These professionals were important for the suitability of use of the final product, to the extent that they added to the vision of the monitored system and provided suggestions. This phase also involved senior state management (the Governor, secretaries and senior SEPLAG management). They contributed to the validation of the offline version, evaluating its usability and layout on various platforms (PC, tablet and smartphones).
Over three years, about 120 people of different specialties were involved in the development and deployment of the control panel.
With regard to technical and material resources, the contractor provided all the equipment and laboratories necessary to develop the system.
The content management platform used was Communis, which facilitated integration with other systems in use in the state and provided the panel with its own portal system. It was then possible to develop a customizable solution using the Java Portlet E-specification, accessing a PostgreSQL database.
In terms of financial resources made available for the development of the control panel, the total amount of funds allocated by the state for the project was R$ 510,000.00 ($221,700.00).
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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An important result obtained through the implementation of the control panel has been progressive improvement in the dynamics of monitoring meetings involving principal state leaders. When Microsoft Office was still being used, meetings lasted on average four hours. Much time was lost due to the high demands of managers and decision makers for further information on the implementation of the priority goals, which were contained in the various subsystems of SEPLAG and monitoring departments. When the control panel was introduced, meetings became quicker (on average two hours and 34 minutes – data up to November 2013) and to the point, optimizing the time of the State Governor and his secretaries.
On implementation of priority goals, the guarantee of unity and a correction in the flow of information was another gain brought by the adoption of the control panel. Prior to this, there were frequent cases of discrepancies between the information provided by SEPLAG to the Governor on priorities that were being monitored and that provided by agencies during meetings. By concentrating on one system for all stakeholders (be it SEPLAG or other departments), discrepancies and inconsistencies in the recording of information about the priority goals, its stages and referrals were eliminated as was the asynchrony between information provided and available to managers.
Another measurable gain occurred with the elimination of monitoring printouts. Under the old system, the entire content of what would be presented at each meeting had to be printed, and hard copies distributed to participants, two days before meetings. For each meeting 16-20 copies of about 40 pages each had to be distributed, amounting to an average annual print total of 28,000 pages. Before being officially distributed, draft material underwent a process of validation, which in turn produced another 15,000 printed copies. Also, significant changes in the status of priority goals often occurred after printing the final version, which required annual reprints of about 11,500 pages of material already produced. In summary, considering only the cost of the printouts, about R$98,000 (or $42,000) no longer needs to be spent.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The development of the system was begun by the company FACILIT, which established a working group of their own technicians and SEPLAG analysts. Beginning in March 2010, they monitored the progress and development of the tool fortnightly.
The contract between SEPLAG and FACILIT was signed in July 2012 and defined the scope of services required to customize, test and document, in a period of 10 months, the control panel for use in the state management model. These services consisted of six developmental phases specified by the government (definition, elicitation, analysis, architecture, software testing and documentation). Each stage was well-defined and to be delivered at specific times of the stipulated schedule. Monitoring was carried out by 14 SEPLAG analysts.
Tests conducted by this team using real data occurred in 2011 and 2012. These tests were used not only to assess the adequacy of the system to its requirements, but also the ease of remote communication, compatibility with other operating systems and its usability on different platforms. They were used mainly to approve the products delivered and release scheduled payments to FACILIT, in accordance with contractual clauses. Also evaluated were; the usability of the system in real situations monitored by responsible departments, replication of data still being produced by SEPLAG on Microsoft Office on the online version of the test, managers and technicians of other government organs, future users of the control panel and data security.
With the permanent entry into operation of the control panel in March 2013, the system began to be monitored and evaluated daily by SEPLAG analysts, senior government officers and other users in real situations. Their aim was to correct inconsistencies and add improvements. From March to July 2013, within the scope of the contract, new tools were added to the panel by FACILIT on SEPLAG’s request, by the particular form of management reports, such as the "Analysis Report SEPLAG by TAG" and the "Report on Priority Works Implementation by Strategic Objective".
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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One of the obstacles encountered was the need to balance, over time, the development of the system and the agendas of the SEPLAG analysts that made up the permanent work group. Their time was divided between effective participation with the project and other daily analyst duties. For the team to develop their work and carry out their regular fortnightly meetings, it was necessary to strengthen this team with two more SEPLAG analysts.
Another issue which needed to be addressed were the substantial changes in the FACILIT project during the development stage. This was due to the dynamism of the monitoring process for “Todos por Pernambuco”. The frequent introduction of improvements in the mechanical tracking of priority goals by SEPLAG, in parallel to the development of the tool, demanded that FACILIT have their staff constantly monitoring activity. They aimed to absorb methodological changes, define new cases and adjust the functionality of the system. Even so, reworked cases were recorded by FACILIT showing the need for fresh programming routines.
From signing the ongoing maintenance contract with FACILIT in July 2012, SEPLAG struggled early in the testing phase of the control panel: the entire SEPLAG team had to perform their daily monitoring duties as well as entering targets monitored from 2011 and 2012. There were some complaints from analysts as a result and these were noted by SEPLAG management. SEPLAG responded successfully towards pacifying staff through specific meetings relaying the importance of the tests not only for debugging errors in tool development, but for training analysts in the system.
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