Evidence of meeting #119 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, AdaptiveOrg Inc., As an Individual
Well, the defining factor is the outcome.
President, AdaptiveOrg Inc., As an Individual
The definition of collaboration is that we all agree on what the outcome is. If we don't have an agreement on that as an organization, then there is no collaboration. It's called competition, or contingent: I want a different outcome than you do.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I think the U.K. is pursuing the agile approach. Have you looked at how they're doing that or at how they're rolling that out, and are there any lessons maybe for us?
President, AdaptiveOrg Inc., As an Individual
I haven't, not in a lot of detail. When they were rolling out their initial stuff, it was mostly on IT and it looked as if it was mostly on software. Instead of going through a phase for writing requirements, the first phase was to create an alpha product. The second phase was to create a beta product, and so on. However, when I look at the press releases, I see a whole bunch of press around agiles not working in the U.K. There's a whole bunch of agile-failed projects in the U.K.
I would expect that. I would expect that you're going to get a high acceleration on this, and then you're going to get some plateaus as there's push-back.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I was going to ask that question. In your experience have you seen any agile setbacks?
President, AdaptiveOrg Inc., As an Individual
Yes, we do see agile setbacks, because we see these cross-functional teams working, but they're working in isolation, without that clear leadership vision and without the authority for someone at the top to clear the path.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Is that the biggest issue you've seen with the setbacks—
President, AdaptiveOrg Inc., As an Individual
Those are the biggest. In fact, in the engagements we get involved with, we have a charter—which is a contract, effectively, which is kind of against the agile principles. However, in a tough engagement where you're really trying to change culture, you need that executive to sign off.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Were they able to overcome those challenges, or did their culture not allow them to tackle that and they just kind of flatlined?
February 13th, 2018 / 11:40 a.m.
President, AdaptiveOrg Inc., As an Individual
That's why I have the charter. If you can't overcome those issues of clarity of vision and authority to clear the path, you're going to have trouble, and it doesn't matter what you do or what approach you use.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Ms. Tisdale, you talked about B.C. Can you give us some examples of some of the projects they would have worked on that perhaps we would have heard of?
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
Sure. There were a bunch of them. There was the revenue collection system, for example. Revenue is collected in about 147 different places across government, and they're all different, disconnected systems. What we did was basically go out and define what outcome we were looking for. We had a provider come in and replace all of the solutions, at its cost, and we entered into a long-term service contract with it. That drove out a couple of hundred million dollars in savings. There was that.
There was the modernization of health benefits, the MSP. There was connecting all of the first nations communities, schools, hospitals, towns, and libraries in the province to a high-speed network. That was by amalgamating government spend across—
Conservative
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
These were all led by that secretariat.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Were they hired as contractors, or were they brought into the government? How was that done?
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
It was a combination. I was hired as an independent who was brought in on a contract, but in a titled role as a deputy. Everybody else I hired on contract. I replaced those people with government people over a period of time.
Conservative
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
It's a little bit of a sad story. It continued on for quite a few years, and it has morphed into something they call the Strategic Partnerships Office. However, they didn't sustain the funding for it and it has kind of lost its teeth, to be honest. It wasn't sustained.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Generally when you give organizations strategic titles, it kills them off.
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
They're now trying to restart it again. We're actually having conversations about that. They're trying to figure out how to get back and do it again.
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
Desktop services, all the technology, and payroll, all of those—
Conservative
Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, Ernst and Young LLP
Sorry; I didn't see that.
