Critical Success Factors for Formulating Service Delivery Strategies

Multi-channel service delivery is increasingly used in the interactions with citizens and businesses. Some projects have been undertaken successfully, whereas others failed and the reasons for success are not entirely clear. In this paper we focus on success factors for the development and implementation of multi-channel service delivery strategy. The factors are derived based on a document analysis and expanded and validated by public sector staff working in this field. In total 21 CSF were found and the top eight critical factors concern especially institutional and macro issues related to managing the interdependencies of strategic decisions, lobbying for strong political support and management buy-in, harnessing scarce resources, determining the right channel and services mix, enhancing inter-organizational integration and coordination, and managing clients’ perceptions. The findings should help to improve the development of service delivery strategies

Project benefit management: a conceptual framework of target benefit formulation

Successful realization of project benefits is strongly associated with organizational performance. Formulating project target benefits is regarded as the first and critical step in the benefit management process. In this study, we drew upon relevant theories and conducted in-depth interviews with senior managers in Australia to develop a conceptual framework of project target benefit formulation and corresponding propositions. Our findings highlight the important role of project target benefits in funding decision-making and suggest seven criteria for their appraisal (strategic fit, target value, measurability, realism, target date, accountability and comprehensiveness) and four constructs which improve the formulated target benefits (a formal benefit formulation process, senior executive leadership, senior executive supports, and public service motivation). These findings extend the current literature on project benefit management by providing a holistic view on how project target benefits should be formulated and appraised

Summary Assessment Report: The Planning Phase of the Rebuilding Communities Initiative

Evaluates the planning and implementation of a multiyear community change initiative in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Detroit

Process performance measurement support : a critical analysis

Design development processes, within engineering disciplines, lack the necessary mechanisms in identifying the specific areas where improved design development performance may be obtained. In addition, they lack the means to consider and align the goals and respective performance levels of related development activities with an organisation's overall goals and performance levels. Current research in organisational performance behaviour, formalised through performance frameworks and methodologies, has attempted to identify and focus upon those critical factors which impinge upon a wealth creation system while attempting to, simultaneously, remain representative of organisational functions, processes, people, decisions and goals. Effective process improvements remain conditional upon: the ability to measure the potential performance gains which may result from an improvement initiative; the ability to understand existing process dynamics and in turn understand the subsequent impact of some change to a system/process; and, the ability to identify potential areas for improvement. The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the management techniques, which are purported to support various process performance concerns and perspectives, and present the major factors that remain unsupported in identifying, measuring and understanding design process performance

Circular 02/21 : strategic area reviews : consultation on guidance to support local Learning and Skills Councils (local LSCs) and their partners in undertaking strategic area reviews of provision starting in 2003

"This document consults upon the proposed guidance for undertaking Strategic Area Reviews of provision across local LSC areas from April 2003. This guidance relates specifically to the Review of provision funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). However, the Strategic Area Reviews will need to take account of provision in the locality financed by other organisations. This document sets out draft guidance. The LSC will issue in parallel a toolkit offering advice and further information on each stage of the Review process. Drafts of the toolkit can be found on the LSC and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) websites" -- front cover

Toward Interagency Collaboration: The Role of Children's Cabinets

Today in our Commonwealth, children and families in need are served by multiple agencies -- Department of Children and Families, Department of Youth Services, Department of Mental Health - as well as by their local public schools. Yet, there is often little or no coordination among the agencies and public school systems.Social workers rarely talk with, or even know, the teacher of the child with whom they are working -- a teacher who may spend as many as six hours each day with the child. Too often the burden of navigating the labyrinth of social services falls on these already struggling families -- or, worse, on the children themselves.In an effort to better align state and local services for children, youth and their families, many states have begun establishing children or youth cabinets. Here in Massachusetts, in October 2008, Governor Patrick signed an executive order establishing the Child and Youth Readiness Cabinet -- a state leadership team focused on streamlining state efforts to improve services for children, youth and families. The Readiness Cabinet is jointly chaired by Paul Reville, Secretary of Education, and Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and includes the state secretaries of Administration and Finance, Housing and Economic Development, Labor and Workforce Development, Public Safety and the Child Advocate. The Rennie Center's new policy brief, Toward Interagency Collaboration: The Role of Children's Cabinets, is designed to inform the general public about the purpose of children's cabinets and to highlight the potential role that non-government stakeholders (such as parents, youth leaders, advocacy groups, and service providers) might play as the Governor's Child and Youth Readiness Cabinet begins their work in Massachusetts. It was also written to contribute to the policy dialogue about how to increase the level of collaboration among state departments and agencies that serve Massachusetts children, youth and families by putting forth examples of structures and strategies being used by other states' children's cabinets to carry out their work. The policy brief was the subject of discussion at a public event on June 10, 2009, co-hosted by the Full-service Schools Roundtable

Workforce Information Customer Satisfaction Assessment: A Primer for State and Local Planning

A handbook designed to assist state workforce information professionals in developing strategies for assessing customer satisfaction with workforce information products and services

Process of designing robust, dependable, safe and secure software for medical devices: Point of care testing device as a case study

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Copyright © 2013 Sivanesan Tulasidas et al. This paper presents a holistic methodology for the design of medical device software, which encompasses of a new way of eliciting requirements, system design process, security design guideline, cloud architecture design, combinatorial testing process and agile project management. The paper uses point of care diagnostics as a case study where the software and hardware must be robust, reliable to provide accurate diagnosis of diseases. As software and software intensive systems are becoming increasingly complex, the impact of failures can lead to significant property damage, or damage to the environment. Within the medical diagnostic device software domain such failures can result in misdiagnosis leading to clinical complications and in some cases death. Software faults can arise due to the interaction among the software, the hardware, third party software and the operating environment. Unanticipated environmental changes and latent coding errors lead to operation faults despite of the fact that usually a significant effort has been expended in the design, verification and validation of the software system. It is becoming increasingly more apparent that one needs to adopt different approaches, which will guarantee that a complex software system meets all safety, security, and reliability requirements, in addition to complying with standards such as IEC 62304. There are many initiatives taken to develop safety and security critical systems, at different development phases and in different contexts, ranging from infrastructure design to device design. Different approaches are implemented to design error free software for safety critical systems. By adopting the strategies and processes presented in this paper one can overcome the challenges in developing error free software for medical devices (or safety critical systems).Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund