Specialist Education Programme for IT Managers

Overall project objective is improvement of quality of implemented IT projects and activities, and by that, of the overall effects achieved by them.

Purpose of the Project

The specific purpose of this project is to improve the skills and knowledge of the IT staff in public administration so they would successfully manage complex IT projects, and better manage IT services aligned with the needs of the institutions.

Brief Description

In all the public administration institutions in BiH, numerous projects and activities from the field of information technologies are being implemented. In most cases, the projects have the infrastructural character or are focused on establishment of new and upgrading and linking of the existing information systems. Considering a dynamic development in the field of information technologies in general, it can be said that investments in this field in public administration in BiH in the last years are significant, and that in the future will be even more pronounced, since the understanding becomes increasingly clear that information technologies in public administration, i.e. e-Administration, are extremely useful and indispensable tool for achieving more efficient, faster and more transparent public administration, aimed at end users. Bearing in mind the considerable volume of future IT projects in public administration, as well as overall activities currently being implemented, which represent a support to business processes, the quality of implementation of activities and projects will have a major impact and clearly set the difference between successful and unsuccessful projects. The key role in implementation of the project activities is the role of managers of institutions and project leaders in public administration bodies, who by their decisions directly affect the specific activities, outputs of projects and their quality in the end. The responsibility and the importance of these personnel is thus greater when it is known that quality, skilled and trained manager can successfully implement even a substandard project while the opposite, a manager who does not have the necessary knowledge and experience can ruin projects that have at their disposal all the resources and assumptions to be of quality.

There are several scenarios by which IT projects are implemented in public administration in BiH:

–              The first is not to use as an assistance, in practice recognised, methodology or programme;

–              The second is to use in some cases various approaches depending on the degree of acquired knowledge and experience of individual IT manager, when consistency in the use of those approaches is questionable;

–              And finally, the most preferred are those scenarios in which managers use advanced methodologies or approaches that have been confirmed at an international level and which extract the maximum from every project or activity in the field of e-Administration.

Based on the aforementioned, it can be concluded that there is a remarkable disparity and imbalance in quality and success of IT projects management, and thus also implementation of overall activities by those who are responsible for it. The idea of this project is, through several complementary training programmes, which are, de facto, industry-recognized standard and already have a successful application in public administration, to raise the overall level of knowledge and skills of IT staff in public administration, which would achieve greater efficiency of projects and outputs, maximize available financial and other resources, while at the same time, the providers and suppliers of IT services would be provided with adequate interlocutors on the side of public administration.

The training programmes are directed to several complementary certification courses, related with:

1M) PMP module that includes project management from the phase of proposing, implementation planning, monitoring and controlling, and closing of a project covering all aspects of project management: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risks, procurement, participants.

2M) ITIL BASICS, a module, which includes management of IT services and activities with the objective of their harmonisation with business processes, including as a minimum the following fields: service life cycle, key principles and models of ITSM, processes and functions, strategy, design, transfer from design to implementation, functioning, and continuous improvement of services.

3M) PRINCE2 BASICS, a module that includes a methodology for management, control and organization of the projects with a focus on the actual implementation and quality assurance of achieved results. A module should, as a minimum, cover the following fields: defining, organisation of the project, start and initiation, quality, control, risk management, change management, project management, project delivery management, configuration management and project closure.

The training program is designed for all civil servants in whose job description is planning, implementation of projects and activities, and management of IT services. Involving staff from institutions from all administration levels will allow for easier understanding and exchange of experience among IT staff since the projects would be carried out by well-established methodologies and the IT personnel would have the same or similar level of knowledge.

In addition to professional improvement, it is important to develop awareness that e-Administration is not just a matter of information technologies, but the information technologies are a tool for improving and streamlining the processes, greater transparency and a higher quality of public administration services.

Training programmes will need to be organised and implemented, for civil servants from the level of the institutions of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of BiH, the Republic of Srpska and the Brčko District of BiH. Participants of the trainings will be organized into several groups according to time and location plan of implementation of the trainings, which will be proposed and determined by the implementer together with the beneficiaries representatives. A total of 86 trainings will be implemented, i.e. 15 trainings for PMP module, 47 trainings for ITIL BASICS module and 24 trainings for PRINCE 2 BASICS training module.

It is significant to mention that certain civil servants expressed the interest to attend two training modules.