The Task

It is late 2005. You are a consultant specialising in ICT Governance. You have been employed by the Irish Department of Health (DOH). A major enterprise-wide system was suspended a number of months ago, much to the embarrassment of the Irish Government and the DOH. They are concerned about the Governance of the Programme in general but particularly in relation to the governance around ICT. They have asked you to advise and make recommendations on how ICT and related Governance can be improved before the Programme can be restarted.

Background.

The DOH is the responsible government body for Health Care in Ireland and has a policy and strategy brief. The executive function for delivering health care was delegated, in the period in question (1998 - 2005), to 8 Regional Health Board (RHB) around Ireland. There were legally independent entities but funded by the DOH.

In about 1998 one of these RHB endeavoured to establish a new payroll system and went on to propose a major new HR System that could be used by all 8 RHA, which the DOH supported as they required accurate HR data on all health employees.

What emerged in about 2001, was an intention to roll out a HR Enterprise Wide System (EWS) for all RHAs. This Programme, called PPARS, ran into significant difficulties and was suspended in 2005. A report was undertaken by the Irish Government's audit office, The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and published in 2005. This Report gave the Government, DOH and newly formed Health Service Executive (HSE) significant issues to consider before deciding of what to do with the suspended Programme.

Note: In the period 2003 to 2005 the Government wished to establish a single, centralised entity that would be responsible for the delivery of all health care in Ireland. In about 2003 the Interim HSE was established and in January 2005 the HSE was established which incorporated all the previous RHAs.

The CAG Report can be found here C& AG PPARS Report 2005 and you must read and analyse this document. More detail on the scenario outlined above is given, in summary form, on page 9 of the Report, Summary of Findings.

Summary of Findings The origins of the Personnel, Payroll and Related Systems (PPARS) project date back to 1995, At that time, each of the former health boards was statutorily responsible for its own human resource management and most of the personnel and payroll processes were manual in nature and processed centrally. The PPARS vision established at the outset encapsulated the development of an integrated human resource management and payroll system which would be used to transform the manner in which health service personnel were managed. A move from centralised personnel administration type activity to a more strategic function was envisaged with elements of personnel administration decentralised and devalved to line management. Hence, the PPARS praject involved much more than the implementation of a computer system - it was part of a change management drive. A further significant feature of the project was that it represented the coming together of many health agencies in pursuit of a common goal. Project Outcome The project experienced considerable time slippage and cost escalation. On & October 2005, the Health Service Executive (HSE) decided to suspend the further rollout of the project pending a review. At the time the project was suspended, a combined personnel and payroll system had been implemented in three HSE areas and St. James's Hospital. Configuration work and some elements of testing of the combined system had been completed in the remaining five HSE areas. In addition, personnel administration modules were functioning (n three of those five areas. The planned extension of the system to the Dublin Academic Teaching Hospitals and voluntary agencies has also been deferred. A set of issues raised by users, including issues relating to the reporting element of the system have yet to be resolved. Particular features of the project had a significant bearing on this outcome. These included . A failure to develop a clear vision of what strategic human resource management actually meant for the health service as a whole and for its individual operational units. s An wurgent need in the Department of Health and Children (the Department) for accurate information on health service employee numbers and pay costings and a consequent desire to see the system implemented as speedily as possible. . A complex governance structure defined by a consensus style of decision-making. . Substantial variations in pay and conditions. organisation structures, cultures and processes which existed between and within agencies, the full extent of which was not known before the commencement of the project. . The lack of readiness in the health agencies to adopt the change management agenda. . An inability to definitively 'freeze' the business blueprint or business requirements at a particular point in time in accordance with best practice. . A failure to comprehensively follow through on its pilot site implementation strategy before advancing with the roll out to other HSE areas