Introduction
Valuable Information and Technology programs are fundamental for normal, if not productive, operations of businesses and other institutional systems. Technology, for many years, has been believed to be an essential and beneficial tool in running projects of institutions. Significantly, digital tools are meant to facilitate the progress of organizational functions even though this has not been the situation as described by the Victorian Auditor General’s Office (VAGO). While the IT tools may not be the main source of problems, the governance of the problems is the real priority issue that needs urgent address by the relevant authorities (Information Systems Audit Control Association (ISACA) 35). The main role of VAGO is to promote confidence in the public sector by working closely with audit offices to note their strengths and potential weaknesses that may need correction. VALIT is a framework for governance used in business platforms to improve IT services and other related activities. Notably, organizations may have different VALIT structures depending on their objectives and anticipated productivity or efficiency of the IT system. Ramasamy and Ganesan define Kotter’s Model as an eight-step concept meant to bring potential changes in a business setting (181-182). In this case, Kotter’s model is applicable in changing the performance of ICT projects in business and other governmental institutions through VALIT. VAGO has confirmed the consistent low performance of ICT projects of government institutions. The situation in governmental institutions has necessitated the creation of an effective change management project that will have Victoria’s government initiate VALIT in its governance process to help in formulating and implementing the necessary strategies.
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Background
The fact that there have been shortfalls in the governance practice is an issue to consider in the verge of attempting to make potential changes. A change is no longer an option given the facts highlighted in the VAGO report concerning audit performances of government institutions. More specifically, 2018 VAGO Audit Report on the performance of the government ICT programs noted that agencies spent more than $720 Million annually between 2011 and 2014 (The Victorian Government ICT Dashboard 7). However, the money appeared not to have been used properly. Even though agencies have an obligation to adhere to the Financial Management Act 1994 (FMA), they conform by presenting inconsistent data. The act compels companies to provide quarterly updates regarding the progress of their current projects that cost over a million dollars (The Victorian Government ICT Dashboard 8). Organizations make substantial meaning and impact in the society only if they are able to benefit the people through the services they offer. For organizations to remain productive, they have to acquire effective ICT services and engage in active ICT investments. After the realization of relatively poor performances of ICT services in government institutions and other organizations, there is an urgent need in improvement of services and productivity, which can take place through an assessment of VALIT and application of Kotter’s model that embraces positive change. Organizations in Victoria have an obligation to perform and become financially stable if not satisfy the needs of its stakeholders. ICT investments, as Bucciarelli notes, are significant part of business progresses and institutional operations (38). Therefore, their managements are essential and need adequate control guided by prudential decision-making process. Governance of IT investments may be slightly different from the overall organizational activities because they require special practices and strategies (COBIT). In addition, governance of IT assets is vital as the control of other assets and activities in an institution. Improvement of ICT investments can be felt not only within the internal environment of an organization but also in the external environment, such as in the economy of Victoria and other parts of the country.
VALIT Overview
VALIT is a framework for government that is oriented to create business value subject to IT investments. Moreover, VALIT is made of up of a number of principles, practices, and process that facilitate various management practices and improves a given situation under observation (IT Governance Institute (ITGI) 7). Some of the decisions made under VALIT are given by businesspersons, global practitioners, and academicians. The major components of VALIT include IT assets and services among other resources. Getting value from IT investments may not be easy as getting value from other business resources. In turn, this necessitates the creation of a specific tool or framework that would help in sourcing value from technological investments made by a particular organization.
First, VALIT provides a governance framework. The framework consists of key management practices, which are made up of various principles that an organization, guided by its leaders, should follow regularly. The principles may differ from one organization to another depending on their objectives and nature (Lombardi et al. 293). Setting of principles protects an organization from making irrelevant or unproductive decisions that would deteriorate its performance in the near future. The management, on the other hand, is obligated to follow the principles in practicing their professional roles. Moreover, each process is important in improving the performance of IT activities within an institution. Consistency of the predetermined processes requires continued improvement in the yield of IT activities.
However, it is critical to note that VALIT has three domains. The major domains of VALIT include Portfolio management, Value governance, and Investment management; they are form the PM prefix, VG prefix, and the IM prefix respectively for each governance value that are well-explained under VALIT Critical Analysis (ITGI 19). COBIT and Information Systems Audit Control Association (ISACA) are integrated with VALIT. Nonetheless, they are different tools whose main purpose is to improve IT investments. While COBIT directs and perfects the execution process of improving IT investments, VALIT focuses on discovering prudent and effective IT investment decisions before they are implemented (ISACA 34-35). Moreover, VALIT assess the main benefits that can be realized from an effective IT investment procedure.
VALIT Critical Analysis
VALIT principles and governance domains will be elaborated in this section after they were only mentioned in the previous ‘VALIT Overview’ section. Value Governance (VG prefix), Portfolio Management (PM prefix), and Investment Management (IM prefix) are the three domains that make the governance framework of VALIT as noted earlier. Importantly, IT Governance Institute (ITGI), a non-profit institution that conducts independent researches meant to perfect the governance of IT assets in the global business community, outlines the major VALIT initiatives as technique guides, cases, empirical analysis, benchmarking, enterprise exchange, and community influence (ITGI 6). More specifically, empirical analysis and benchmarking are researches, techniques and cases are categorized under supporting publications, and community influence and enterprise exchange are forms of services (ITGI 6). The process of attainting an effective IT government method does not flow smoothly and may have some challenges. According to IT Governance Institute, one of the common challenges is the absence of a structured approach (7). The first steps of IT value management often turn out to be elusive for most companies.
The value governance process involves numerous activities and objectives. Particularly, the six processes involved in the Value Governance (VG) domain include VG1- Establishing focused and informed leadership, VG2-Elaborating and Executing Processes, VG3- Defining Portfolio Features, VG4-Matching enterprise financial planning with integrate value, VG5- Establishing workable governance inspection, and VG6- Consistently improving value management activities (ITGI 19). The whole process has to be accomplished through execution of each stage to make it successful in enabling effective IT value governance. Establishment of informed leadership is important in enforcing professionalism and effective leadership skills among workers throughout the delivery of duties pertaining to IT value creation (The World Bank 59-60). Moreover, the process has to be understood by the personnel involved in using or implementing it, therefore, the need to define it. Implementation of the processes may also necessitate taking precaution of possible challenges. Thereafter, it is important to identify portfolio characteristics o order to internalize the whole process and mitigate possible risks. Being conversant with the whole process is a plus for the responsible personnel and the organization at large. In addition, the integrated value management should be aligned with organizational financial planning to ensure a smooth of operations during change processing and implementation. Implementation of the right value governance strategies should establish effective governance and improve the value the value of the practice even though governance monitoring is essential as a follow-up action.
Portfolio management also has its distinct activities involved in the process. They are abbreviated as PM. The process begins with PM1, which indicates the establishment of strategic direction and focus on investment mix. The directions of the management team with respect IT value management should have a strategic direction. Moreover, PM2 is about assessment of sources of finances; finances are always needed to support progress of any project including the IT value creation project (ITGI 19). PM3 is about ensuring availability of human resources, which translates to gathering of competent and quality personnel to help in delivering quality services in the long term aspect. PM4 necessitates that programs to be funded should be selected keenly rather than spending on all projects that may not be successful at the end (Lambardi et al. 295). On the other hand, PM5 requires that the responsible team monitors and give substantial reports regarding the performance of investment portfolio, which would be important in assessing if the changes that have been made are effective or not. Ultimately, PM6 is about optimizing performance to assess it workability.
Investment management processes are abbreviated as IM’s. IM1 involves development and evaluation of initial program concept of a business case to prepare for the whole activity. Thereafter, it is crucial to understand the main program and assess implementable options, IM2 (ITGI 19); this can be done through a predetermined criterion. Further development of the program in various or proposed ways makes IM3. IM4 requires the development of a full life-cycle costs and benefits to help in weighing if the investment is worth implementing (ITGI 19). IT investments that have more costs than benefits may be done away with and vice versa. Development a comprehensive program business case follows as IM5 (ITGI 19). After, the development of the case, the program is launched and managed effectively as stated in IM6. However, updates of the progress of the investment program and development of the business case are always needed as per IM7 and IM8 consecutively. The last two Investment management processes are Monitoring of the report and retirement of the program; IM9 and IM10 respectively. Evidently, the VALIT processes are procedural.
Kotter’s Model Overview
Kotter’s model is a fundamental subject that could facilitate change that is a major concern of the Victoria’s government today. Harvard Business School Professor came up with an eight-step model that he developed in the verge of researching potential methodology to bring change in 100 organizations (Ramasamy and Ganesan 182-183). Identifiably, the eight steps of the model include increasing urgency, building a team meant to provide guidance, developing a tangible and realistic vision, communicating for buy-in, empowering of actions, creating short-run achievements, not letting up, and making the changes remain. Creating of urgency can be done in a number of ways, such as identifying potential threats and the their anticipated effects, scrutinizing opportunities that can arise from interventions, Initiating relevant and true dialogues that would bring in value, and looking for reliable support from stakeholders and market participants.
Creation of guiding actions is important to ensure proper following of the processes; in turn, it would create a powerful and relevant change and enable identification and follow-up of organizational changes. Development of a strategy or a vision is crucial as it helps in determining the key values of the institution (Dijesh and Mary 1351-1352). Moreover, is enables the company to stick to its role. Communicating the vision means connecting it to the fundamental aspects of performances. Obstacles should not be tolerates as they would possibly thwart the change implementation process. Short-term wins in the process enable the organization to reach its bigger picture, that is, attain it major change objective (Bacciarelli 38). Finally, consolidating gains and sticking to changes ensures that change become the culture if not an integral part of the organization, which is beneficial in the long term aspect.
Application of Kotter’s Model in VALIT Implementation
Kotter’s model connects to VALIT in various aspects in different angles. The procedure of the model is nearly similar to those of VALIT even though the latter is quite extensive and procedural (Lombardi et al. 296). Notably, application of the Kotter’s model in implementation of changes for Victoria’s government would necessitate the application of the model in all process of the VALIT Implementation, starting from Value governance to investment management. Value governance has more to do with perfecting management in an institution with an aim of making a crucial change. The first process of VALIT have nearly same objective as the initial steps of the Kotter’s model. Nonetheless, undertaking both activities simultaneously may cause some confusion. Under value governance, it would be important to create and urgency, form powerful coalitions, develops strategies and a vision as required in the Kotter’s model. However, this would take place at the end of the value governance process under VALIT. Application Kotter’s model does not affect the flow of VALIT processes but rather strengthens it. Moreover, under the portfolio management domain, it would be important to apply the next steps- the forth to the sixth step- of the Kotter’s model in implementing change.
After the portfolio management processes, it would be prudent to communicate the vision to maintain the flow of VALIT processes, assess the removal of possible obstacles that thwart IT value investment, and create short-term wins whose results would be achieved at the end of the process. Kotter’s model is based on actualizing organizational changes; its application on VILAT makes the whole process more practical (Dijesh and Mary 1353-1354). The investment management is domain is the last but also an important process. The final process requires strategies that are more practical, but also hints at the retirement of the program, and at this, stage changes should started to be detected. The investment management process can be implemented through the last steps of Kotter’s model: consolidating gains, and sticking to changes in corporate culture. Many stakeholders of organizations are likely to forget about the major changes in the processes of VILAT (Lombardi et al. 297). Therefore, there is need to assess the gains by maintaining continuous improvement and anchoring the changes to maintain them as corporate cultures.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this change management project based on the application of Kotter’s model on VALIT is bound to improve the governance of organizations of the Victoria’s government. Although the good results may not be detected immediately, the project is likely to attain its fruition as expected. The background information that VAGO issued signals the urgent need of change in management, mainly in governmental institutions. VALIT is a lengthy and procedural process, but a significant one in formulation of empirical and workable strategies. Kotter’s Model in conjunction with VALIT can hardly fail to maximize the benefits that the project can bring pertaining to changes.
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