- Day 1 - June 15
- Day 2 - June 16
- Day 3 - June 17
- Main
ISACA Ottawa Valley Chapter members only.
Conference Welcome Message by Conference Chair
The pandemic has dramatically accelerated digitization, bringing both benefits as well as risks for privacy. As the Government of Canada seeks to innovate and leverage the benefits of data, it must also consider how adopting and using new technologies will impact the privacy rights of Canadians, and ultimately, of our democracy. Gregory Smolynec will explain why it is important to start from a values and rights-based approach to innovation and will note some trends seen in our government and business advisory work. He will provide an overview of the OPC’s current priorities and offer some lessons learned from recent investigations. Finally, he will provide suggestions on how we can responsibly digitize in Government, while protecting the privacy rights of Canadians.
Coffee Break
Planning and organising a digital transformation within the EU, at governmental level, is challenging for a wide range or reasons: some are specific to the EU whereas the others are inherent traits of any digital transformation initiative.
After a brief characterisation of the EU environment, and more specifically the Council of the European Union, the speaker will share his experiences on three major recent digital transformation initiatives where he is (or has been) directly involved, as programme manager, architect or digital transformation officer:
•The ‘Council decision making Programme’ (CODEMAP), aiming at enhancing decision making within the Council of the EU;
•The ‘Information and Knowledge management’ (IKM-) Programme, aiming at improving the user experience of the EU Member States delegates and the staff of the General Secretariat of the Council, while exchanging information and sharing knowledge on EU policy matters.
•The “e-Justice” initiative aiming at promoting the digitalisation of the justice within the EU, along with the ‘e-CODEX’ programme that is the backbone network connecting the EU Member States and EU judiciary players and supporting the exchange of data on civil or criminal matters.
The speaker will also briefly evoke the EU initiatives (‘Connecting Europe Facility’, ‘Digital Europe’, and the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ recently adopted as a recovery plan for the EU) along with the EU laws (e.g. the General Data Protection Regulation, the Council Security regulation, the Open data directive or the ‘Digital agenda for Europe’) insofar as all these plans and pieces of legislation have (or will have) a huge impact on the digital transformations initiated at governmental level within the EU.
Digital transformation has been occurring across the US states and territories for decades. State CIOs have been fostering change toward better and more effective citizen services, better collaboration and partnering with agencies, evaluating technologies and business practices, and employing effective governance to ensure all stakeholders are represented.
But what exactly is digital transformation and digital government? Is it just about technology, or is it bigger than that?
In this session, we’ll explore the history and current status of transformation efforts including the acceleration of efforts that took place during state and territorial response to the pandemic.
Lunch Break
Let me share with you the journey towards building the SSC Architecture Centre of Excellence: its functions, its people and its processes, and very importantly, its values. A Centre of Excellence is more than just having expertise about the organization – it gains most significance from consistently and passionately seeking the best out of the people who drive the organization and helping them to realize individual and collective excellence. By sharing our journey, including all our successes and the ever-present, ongoing challenges, I hope to leave you thinking about how exciting and fulfilling enabling excellence in your organization can be!
The Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM) Programme is a large-scale transformation initiative launched in 2016 in the Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) department of the Canadian federal government. BDM is to deliver an improved client experience for the Employment Insurance (EI), Old Age Security (OAS), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and other selected benefits through the establishment of a modern technology platform streamlining benefits processing, new digital services, and enhanced service management capabilities. The Enterprise Architecture (EA) Team, embedded within the Programme, has the role of a trusted, dependable, and valued internal consultancy that fosters innovation and business alignment by delivering just in time information and guidance along the journey. The presentation will discuss BDM in general, how EA continuously delivers value; supports decisions by facilitating stakeholder consultation and brings pertinent information and analysis to the table.
Coffee Break
Over the past five years, Transport Canada has emerged as a digital leader within the GC. Join Raj Thuppal, TC’s Chief Digital Officer, for a discussion about the key factors in the department’s success, and the work that lies ahead as the department looks to build on its momentum and mature its transformation programme in the coming years.
- Main
The European Union eGovERA initiative is a suite of tools supporting public administrations CIOs and Portfolio Managers in their portfolio management and digital transformation roadmap decision-making processes. eGovERA is expressed in business terms linking the dots between enterprise architecture, portfolio management decision support and digital transformation roadmap support. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed for eGovERA as a mean in support of EU Member States requesting for funds. The presentation will include a short demo.
Coffee Break
Data, Innovation, Analytics is an Assistant Deputy Minister level organization within National Defence. It was stood up in 2018 to drive National Defence to a data-driven culture, treating data as a strategic asset and using it effectively for evidence-based decision-making. For this to be successful, culture, policies and processes need to be changed. The DND/CAF Data Strategy outlines a path to accomplish this, and to ensure that the digital ambitions of the department and Armed Forces are built on the strong data foundation required by modern technology and tools.
Données, Innovation et Analytique est une organisation de niveau sous-ministre adjoint au sein de la Défense nationale. Elle a été mise en place en 2018 pour amener la Défense nationale à adopter une culture axée sur les données, en traitant les données comme un actif stratégique et en les utilisant efficacement pour la prise de décisions fondées sur des données probantes. Pour que cela réussisse, la culture, les politiques et les processus doivent être modifiés. La stratégie de données du MDN et des FAC décrit la voie à suivre pour y parvenir et pour s’assurer que les ambitions numériques du ministère et des forces armées reposent sur la base de données solide requise par la technologie et les outils modernes.
This presentation discusses:
•challenges and opportunities to build trust and manage risks through a solid enterprise data foundation; and,
•the responsible application of innovative methods, such as AI solutions to data, to accelerate transformation.
Presentation themes include data standardization, data literacy and the ethical use of advanced analytics.
Lunch Break
We conducted a survey of Enterprise Architects in higher education institutions in 30 countries, including a high percentage of the very largest universities. Our research method involved doing 21 one-hour interviews with EAs initially, and then composing a survey based on the results of the interviews. In this presentation we will discuss the results of the survey. In particular, we will focus on the methodologies and tools the EAs use, the principles they consider most important, the factors that lead to success of their EA work, and the practices that make their EA and their institutions more agile. This is based on work performed by the presenter’s former PhD student Aliaa Alghamdi as well as by the presenter.
Digital Transformation is changing our world in fundamental ways that presents challenges and opportunities for government, industry, and academia. An important role for academia is the training of highly qualified professionals for this new world in the context of research and thought leadership on the one hand as well as education and mentorship on the other. Increasingly, the university is delivering that training through integrated collaboration with government and industry, in flexibly located, tailored learning environments.
This presentation will highlight uOttawa’s graduate programs in Digital Transformation and Innovation as an example of research and thought leadership; but it will focus mainly on exploring new directions for education delivery at the University in collaboration with government and industry, including distance learning, life-long learning, projects and mentorship, industry-tailored training, and strategic government initiatives (national and international) to develop industrial capacity.
Coffee Break
The government currently has about 21 large IT procurements underway, valued at over $6.6 billion. Procurements for major IT projects are inherently complex because of frequent changes in technology and business needs, ambitious timelines, and the need for technical expertise. The government recognized that traditional procurement processes must be adapted to deliver solutions that achieve business outcomes. In 2017, the Prime Minister directed the Minister of Public Services and Procurement to modernize how the government procures new IT systems. Since then, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Shared Services Canada have introduced initiatives such as agile procurement.
This presentation will highlight the audit findings of whether the federal organizations responsible for procuring 3 complex IT initiatives (Benefits Delivery Modernization, Next Generation HR and Pay, and Workplace Communications Services) were on track to support the achievement of business outcomes and to uphold the government’s commitment to fairness, openness, and transparency in procurement.
The Communications and Security Establishment (CSE) Cyber Centre has developed the Analytical Software for Threat and Risk Assessment (ASTRA) tool to guide government and private sector enterprises in assessing the threats and risks in their cyber space. ASTRA has the ease of use of turbo tax software for TRAs, asking users to input information from their environments, then providing them with an assessment of the status of their cyber security. Risks are ranked and recommendations are automatically provided to mitigate those risks. The ASTRA tool is nearing its final test phase and will be made available to the public shortly.
CSE’s Internal Audit group has prepared a cyber security audit program that is organized based on CSE’s publication the TOP 10 Cyber Security Threats. The audit program is an entry level program that includes a cyber security governance section and a risk management section, as well as audit tests for each audit sub-criteria. The audit program also denotes those audit criteria that are mandatory under Government of Canada policy.
The CSE cyber security audit tool suite also includes:
(1) a one-page placemat; (2) a Cyber Security Audit Guide on how to approach and conduct an internal audit of cyber security, and (3) a Preliminary Survey Tool (PST) to guide auditors in gathering key information and ranking audit entity risks at the start of the audit planning phase. The ASTRA software tool can also be used by auditors in the planning or examination phases of an audit to assess cyber threats and risks.
Biographies – Robert Fox, Heather Belanger, Larry Stoddard, Brian Thompson
- Main
- Stream 1
- Stream 2
This presentation examines various governance reforms and implementation strategies in information technology and how over the years they have shaped India’s digital transformation journey. The presentation discusses how as a country, India has responded to governance challenges through eEnablement. Policy and regulatory framework, citizen centric service delivery, knowledge management, business process augmentation, institutional restructuring, capacity building and change management are some of the key areas touched upon while deliberating the nature of technology related reforms implemented in the country. The presentation also provides recommendations for a sustaining digital transformation in the country.
Coffee Break
FINTRAC CIO Rachel Porteous explores the cultural, technological, and security challenges of transforming the Centre while navigating a global pandemic.
The success of a digital transformation journey can be short-lived due to the actions of unwanted ‘partners’ – cyber attackers. The session will examine the current cyber threat environment and trends, the risks they pose to all areas of business operations and conclude with a discussion of the private sector’s collaboration initiative designed to reduce these risks, the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange.
The cyber threat landscape has changed dramatically. Increases in the activity of nation state actors and organized criminal groups, the growth of ‘ransom as a service’, the increased collaboration amongst threat groups, increased focus on supply chain attacks, all serve to increase the risk to every business. Businesses recognize that these risks impact digital transformation, including business operations, reputation, financial and may invoke legal consequences. Mitigation strategies need to be holistic in their approach and include collaborative defensive strategies.
Lunch Break
In organisational literature, by “customer orientation” or “market orientation” is considered the focus of the management in their strategy. Likewise, public administrations CIOs and portfolio managers should decide their digital public service implementations orientation. The challenge is how to do it?. The presentation will include a short demo.
Gregory will outline steps to institutionalize analytics within public sector organizations. The approach is based on research with over 1000 organizations in six different countries over the past ten years. The session will address the following topics:
•Logic models as the foundation for Analytics-based Results Management (ARM);
•Where artificial intelligence fits in an organization’s analytics strategy; and
•Governance challenges to be addressed when introducing AI.
Coffee Break
Unpacking complex digital transformation problems requires us to adopt new mindset and approach such as Design Thinking. Through the PSPC use case study, learn various design techniques to adopt the human-centric model, gain deeper insights about the context, explore possibilities to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user.
At first glance, enterprise architects in small government departments can appear trapped between TBS policy and operational requirements. But look closer, because small EA groups can have a disproportionate influence on their organization’s IT agenda. With a creative interpretation of enterprise architecture responsibilities and a relentless focus on practical outcomes, EA teams can directly influence major projects, shape governance and set the pace of digital transformation. This session will describe how the Enterprise Architecture team at the Public Service Commission has been able contribute effectively to the organization’s ability to respond to new challenges.
Vik Pant will be discussing the currently advancing files such as science and policy integration through the creative application of digital solutions, sharing insights in building a digital accelerator at NRCan and looking to the future in developing frameworks around data valuation and state of readiness for quantum applications in the Government of Canada.
Biography – Vik Pant, PhD
Conference Wrap-Up
Unpacking complex digital transformation problems requires us to adopt new mindset and approach such as Design Thinking. Through the PSPC use case study, learn various design techniques to adopt the human-centric model, gain deeper insights about the context, explore possibilities to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user.
At first glance, enterprise architects in small government departments can appear trapped between TBS policy and operational requirements. But look closer, because small EA groups can have a disproportionate influence on their organization’s IT agenda. With a creative interpretation of enterprise architecture responsibilities and a relentless focus on practical outcomes, EA teams can directly influence major projects, shape governance and set the pace of digital transformation. This session will describe how the Enterprise Architecture team at the Public Service Commission has been able contribute effectively to the organization’s ability to respond to new challenges.