Getting 'IT' Right
A Thematic Inspection

Appendix C

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that each police force and central service review its planning processes to ensure that the IS/IT strategy is clearly linked to their business needs.

Recommendation 2 Para 2.5

It is recommended that each force and central service creates IS/IT strategies which conform with the good practice described in this report.

Recommendation 3 Para 2.8

It is recommended that each force and central service should have an annual IS/IT business plan, specifying the elements of the IS/IT strategy to be tackled in the particular year, and the resources allocated to each.

Recommendation 4 Para 2.11

It is recommended that there should be close user involvement, both at the senior level in approving (and monitoring progress with) the IS/IT strategy and the annual business plan and at a working level in developing individual systems.

Recommendation 5 Para 3.1

It is recommended that each force and common service should put in place a programme management team, chaired by a senior user, to consider the organisation’s entire programme of IS/IT projects, empowered to give the go-ahead to new projects, and allocate (and re-allocate) resources to these projects within the framework of the annual business plan.

Recommendation 6 Para 3.5

It is recommended that an option appraisal be carried out for each significant proposed investment in IS/IT, including an investment appraisal based on the costs and benefits of various ways of achieving the business aims over the life span of the project, and specifying the risks associated with it. No significant investment should be approved without such a business case.

Recommendation 7 Para 4.7

It is recommended that organisations use terms and conditions of contract developed by the customer rather than the supplier for supply and maintenance contracts.

Recommendation 8 Para 4.9

It is recommended that training staff form an integral part of project teams in the development and testing of systems in order to raise the quality of training ultimately delivered to users.

Recommendation 9 Para 4.11

It is recommended that, as part of the implementation of every computer project policy documents and operating rules should be prepared to serve as the basis for systems training and subsequent reference by users.

Recommendation 10 Para 4.16

It is recommended that, as a matter of urgency, forces and other policing organisations undertake a comprehensive programme to address the greatest risks to data, hardware and software assets and to adopt countermeasures, including business continuity, the millennium problem and the deployment of virus control software.

Recommendation 11 Para 5.3

It is recommended that full support should continue to be given to the Scottish Police Information Strategy and that liaison is maintained with the equivalent strategy in England and Wales to maximise the scope for harmonisation between the two strategic approaches.

Recommendation 12 Para 5.4

It is recommended that ACPOS develop a service-wide business strategy which will form the basis of SPIS developments.

Recommendation 13 Para 5.8

It is recommended that:

a) forces use the SPIS process models as an opportunity to review their operations in each of the applications areas; and

b) forces ensure that greater importance is attached to process modelling and that this be completed to timescale.

Recommendation 14 Para 5.11

It is recommended that the IS/IT Co-ordinating Committee consider producing guidelines to assist forces in dealing with Back Record Conversion.

Recommendation 15 Para 5.15

It is recommended that:

a) forces carry out a skills audit to ensure that they have the right levels of expertise available to implement SPIS locally; and

b) strenuous efforts be made to fill vacancies which currently exist in the central SPIS Team.

Recommendation 16 Para 5.16

It is recommended that all forces develop a detailed migration plan for the transfer to SPIS systems.

Recommendation 17 Para 6.6

It is recommended that the IS/IT Co-ordinating Committee and the SCRO Controlling Committee:-

a) consider how the work of the SCRO Development Standing Committee and Fingerprint Standing Committee should be incorporated with that of the IS/IT Co-ordinating Committee;

b) urgently undertake a detailed review to:

provide an integration path to SPIS

consider future architectures

develop a business continuity demand profile

conduct a networking capacity review covering the future demands of the Scottish police service and other criminal justice organisations.

Recommendation 18 Para 6.9

It is recommended that the IS/IT Co-ordinating Committee:

a) commissions a study to identify common data standards with other criminal justice organisations

b) develops a protocol with the ISCJIS Project Board to determine the future means of control and direction of the project.

Recommendation 19 Para 6.12

It is recommended that ACPOS review the networking strategy in light of potential developments in digital radio provision and prepare a statement of business requirements in relation to mobile data.