A Discussion paper for Senior Civil Servants at Government Departments and Executive Agencies October 2010 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process Improving the Process and Quality of Government Policy delivery The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation UK Central Government: Environment Agency • Scottish Government • Scotland Insolvency Service • Welsh Assembly Government • Advantage West Midlands • Charity Commission • Medical Research Council • Natural Environment Research Council • NHS Purchasing & Supply Agency • Places for People • The National Archives • Scottish Natural Heritage • Fisheries Research Services • Highlands & Island Enterprise • Office of Scottish Charity Regulator • Government Office for the East Midlands • Government Office for the East of England • Government Office for the North East • Government Office for the North West • Government Office for the South East • Government Office for the South West • London Development Agency • East Midlands Development Agency • East Midlands Regional Assembly • East of England Development Agency • East of England Local Government Association • Equality and Human Rights Commission • Greater London Authority • Information Commissioners Office • North West Regional Development Agency • South East England Development Agency • South East England Intelligence Network • South West Observatory • West Midlands Regional Observatory USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore - Federal / Central Government / State Government: Australia Capital Territory Government • Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (AUS) • Australian Government Solicitor (AUS) • Department of Defence (AUS) • Family Court of Australia (AUS) • IP Australia (AUS) • Attorney General’s Department of NSW (AUS) • Central Corporate Services Unit (AUS) • Department of Local Government (AUS) • Department of State and Regional Development (AUS) • Department of Premier and Cabinet NSW (AUS) • Department of Water and Energy (AUS) • Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator (AUS) • Landcom (AUS) • Newcastle Port Corporation (AUS) • Office of Fair Trading (AUS) • Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (AUS) • Sydney Metro (AUS) • Transport and Infrastructure (AUS) • Brisbane Catholic Education Centre (AUS) • Queensland Police Service (AUS) • Townsville Port Authority (AUS) • Department for Families and Communities (AUS) • Department of Primary Industries and Resources SA (AUS) • Department of the Premier and Cabinet SA (AUS) • Department of Treasury and Finance (AUS) • Parliament of South Australia (AUS) • SA Health (AUS) • SACE Board of South Australia (AUS) • Shared Services SA (AUS) • South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission (AUS) • Barwon Region Water Authority (AUS) • Federal Magistrates Court of Australia (AUS) • Frankston City Council (AUS) • Future Fund Management Agency (AUS) • Linking Melbourne Authority (AUS) • Social Security Appeals Tribunal (AUS) • Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (AUS) • Corruption and Crime Commission of WA (AUS) • Department for Child Protection (AUS) • Department for Communities (AUS) • Department for Planning and Infrastructure (AUS) • Department of Agriculture and Food (AUS) • Department of Commerce (AUS) • Department of Environment and Conservation (AUS) • East Perth Redevelopment Authority (AUS) • Health Corporate Network (AUS) • LandCorp (AUS) • National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (AUS) • Parliament of Western Australia (AUS) • Western Australia Police (AUS) • Health Promotion Board (SG) • Media Development Authority (SG) • Sentosa Development Corporation (SG) • Archives New Zealand (NZ) • Counties Manukau District Health Board (NZ) • Department of Building and Housing (NZ) • Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (NZ) • Government Communications Security Bureau (NZ) • Housing New Zealand Corporation (NZ) • Land Information New Zealand (NZ) • Ministry of Social Development (NZ) • New Zealand Transport Agency (NZ) • Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives (NZ) • Office of the Privacy Commissioner (NZ) • Parliamentary Service (NZ) • Pharmaceutical Management Agency (NZ) • Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (NZ) • Tertiary Education Commission (NZ) The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 1 Foreword 2 Executive Summary 3 1 Introduction 7 1.1 What is a Policy Document? 8 1.2 The Policy Lifecycle 8 1.3 Policy Lifecycle Management 9 2 Research 10 2.1 Research Methodology 10 2.2 Which Documents are Government Organisations Producing? 11 2.2.1 Total Document Output 11 2.2.2 Annual Production of Documents 14 3 How Documents Are Currently Produced: 15 3.1 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process 15 3.2 Inefficiencies of Existing Processes 17 3.3 Capability Maturity Model for Policy Lifecycle Management 19 4 Opportunities for Savings 22 4.1 The Optimised Policy Lifecycle Management Process 22 4.2 Introduction to Costs and Benefits 23 4.3 Legacy Costs 24 4.4 Introduction to Benefits 26 4.4.1 Benefits Value Points 27 4.4.2 Business Process Improvement 28 4.4.3 Graphic Design 29 4.4.4 Printing 30 4.4.5 Consultation 33 4.5 Savings Summary 35 4.5.1 Total Savings Opportunity (Median Benefits) 35 4.5.2 Total Savings Opportunities for Low, Median and High Benefits 36 5 Political, Social and Strategic Benefits 38 5.1 Efficiency Savings 38 5.2 Stakeholder and Community Engagement 38 5.3 Ongoing Management of Policies 39 5.4 Management Visibility 39 5.5 Branding and Consistency 39 5.6 Transparency and Compliance 40 5.7 Effective Partnership Working 40 5.8 Environmental Benefits 40 5.9 Summary of Benefits 41 6 Recommendations 42 Appendices A Research Methodology 43 A.1 Total Document Output 43 A.2 Policy Lifecycle Management Process 43 B Calculating Savings 44 B.1 Policy Lifecycle Management Costs 44 B.2 Graphic Design Costs 44 B.3 Printing Costs 44 C About Objective Corporation 45 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 2 Foreword Objective Corporation is an established leader and specialist provider of proven content, collaboration & process management solutions for the public sector. Objective solutions empower public sector effectiveness, efficiency and transparency helping governments deliver better services to the community at a lower cost. Solutions are deployed by more than 400 government organisations globally. Objective capability includes purpose-built applications to meet the needs of policy development in government including stakeholder engagement, collaboration and document production, consultation, analysis, reporting and subsequent ongoing management of the policy produced. This capability is deployed as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model within a “Cloud” environment by over 250 UK local and central government organisations. The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 3 Executive Summary “We are both committed to turning old thinking on its head and developing new approaches to government. For years, politicians could argue that because they held all the information, they needed more power. But today, technological innovation has – with astonishing speed – developed the opportunity to spread information and decentralise power in a way we have never seen before. So we will extend transparency to every area of public life. Similarly, there has been the assumption that central government can only change people’s behaviour through rules and regulations. Our government will be a much smarter one, shunning the bureaucratic levers of the past and finding intelligent ways to encourage, support and enable people to make better choices for themselves ” Foreword by David Cameron and Nick Clegg – The Coalition – Our Programme for Government May 2010 Why is Policy Process Important? At all levels, government organisations are accountable to the general public for the way in which they spend public money to deliver services on their behalf. Behind each spending decision is a set of policies, strategies and plans that set out the corporate priorities and objectives of each government organisation relating to the specific service or set of services that it provides to the community. Policy making is at the heart of all government organisations with an estimated 5% of all civil servants working in a policy function (circa 25,000 people). Many would view this as a conservative estimate of the total effort that is invested. Studies in recent years have been focused on how to improve the stakeholder management in policy development and what skill sets are required within the ‘profession’ of policy development. One important area that has not been looked at in any great detail is the effectiveness of the processes across the policy lifecycle. Our research and this paper outline the opportunity and benefits of improving these processes, including how policies are documented and how stakeholders are consulted. We introduce the concept of Policy Lifecycle Management which to-date has largely not been seen as a priority by senior civil servants, but this perception is changing as government needs to examine all areas of activity in terms of (i) delivering efficiencies and savings, (ii) improving the way government works (for example greater cross departmental collaboration) to deliver higher quality policies and outcomes, and (iii) involving citizens and other stakeholders to a greater extent to shape, collaborate and even support the delivery of policy. Policy Lifecycle Management offers the opportunity to simplify and standardise the policy making process, allowing the focus to be on driving innovation in delivery. Policy is at the heart of government, whether it be a large central government department or a small government agency. Good and bad policy delivery is always remembered – but, the key question in the current climate is “Can government be more effective, efficient, transparent and consultative in how it formulates and delivers its policies?” The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 4 Policy Lifecycle Management The purpose of this paper is to help answer this question and present to senior civil servants the results of new research into policy development, publication and consultation processes so that they can take advantage of the latest process streamlining technique “Policy Lifecycle Management” to reduce policy document production costs whilst increasing the quality and nature of output. Within this paper we introduce two models: 1. The Policy Lifecycle – this outlines the end-to-end process of the Policy Lifecycle from policy conception through to termination 2. Policy Lifecycle Management – the process of policy document management through the Policy Lifecycle – including consultation, conception, collaboration, authoring, reviewing and publishing. It is supported by the Policy Lifecycle Maturity Model – which outlines the maturity and capability of an organisation in relation to the Policy Lifecycle Management model Government departments and executive agencies are a diverse group in terms of size, remit and operations. The key product that they all deliver is a constant stream of high value documents. These documents can be internal or external, for use by other departments, agencies, politicians and increasingly the public. All departments have established mature systems to accommodate high and predictable volumes of document output. However, for many organisations the processes behind this output are so ingrained in day-to-day activities that despite the evident scale of the undertaking, there is little understanding of the costs involved or how to drive quality at the same time as meeting a deadline. Objective Research The paper demonstrates the substantial efficiency savings to policy production that is achievable within all government departments and executive agencies. This paper: • Presents the findings of a major research project undertaken to profile the process of Policy Lifecycle including Policy Origin, Development, Validation and Approval, Implementing and Communication, and Policy Monitoring. It focuses on the development of policy related documents throughout the lifecycle along with the collaboration and consultation processes that underpin policy production • Provides accurate benchmarking costs to government departments and agencies to help them understand their own costs • Outlines where major cost savings and performance improvements can be found today • Shows how an optimised Policy Lifecycle Management process will produce financial savings, a percentage of which are “in-year” This new research is a means of identifying and evaluating what, for most organisations, is an entirely untapped area to realise savings and improve performance. In preparation for this paper, Objective Corporation has conducted significant research into government departments and agencies and their processes. 52 government websites have been comprehensively analysed for the documents they host, totalling some 230,000 documents, and 500 documents have been catalogued manually in detail. In addition, in depth interviews have been conducted with civil servants, and industry expertise has been consulted to map the activities, costs and resources supporting the conception of policy documents through to their publication. The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 5 Our research focuses on improving the policy processes irrespective of the organisational structure of the policy function within an organisation. Our research shows that an average central government organisation focusing on the processes will deliver between 23% and 45% (median 34%) reduction in the current cost of policy document delivery. If the process change is conducted in parallel to the re-organisation of the policy function, the total amount of cash savings increase considerably and many of our customers are looking to reduce their entire policy function by 25% to 50% through headcount reduction (supported by new optimised processes). The following summary of research findings shows the range of savings by department type: Main Government Policy Related Documents Produced Government Executive Department Agency Average Number of Live and Current 3,078 847 Documents in Public Domain Average Annual Document Production 875 241 Average Annual Policy Document 300 90 Production suitable for Policy Lifecycle Management Processes Average Annual Costs of the Policy Function – for documents suitable for Policy Lifecycle Management Processes. Cost elements including: Staff costs for management, authoring, £17.5m £6.2m reviewing, proofing and approving of policies. Cost of meetings.Publishing (including Web) and graphic design / software utilisation. Consultation management. Printing. Potential Annual Savings Opportunity £4.1m to £7.9m £1.7m to £3.1m (Median £6.1m) (Median £2.4m) It is recognised that this cost could vary considerably in individual government departments and agencies in proportion to the size of such organisations. Our analysis shows that approximately 5% of all civil servants (circa 25,000 FTEs) are employed within a policy related function. This is consistent with other research conducted. (Source: Civil Service Statistics 2009, ONS. The 21st Century Civil Service March 2010) The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 6 Recommendations Summary The research uncovers the hidden administrative costs across the policy lifecycle within central government and highlights opportunities for significant savings. Objective recommends the following: • As part of your organisation’s response to the 2010 Spending Review ensure that the hidden costs of policy document creation are fully identified and potential savings understood and captured • Create a business case focused on realising these saving through a full policy lifecycle improvement pogramme • In constructing the business case and executing a plan to realise these savings, Objective will invest at our cost in supporting public sector organisations in business case development and other analytical resources. We will work with your organisation to conduct an audit of the existing Policy Lifecycle Management processes and document output, deliverables include: • Analysis of the policy lifecycle • Detailed analysis of the Policy Lifecycle Management processes in place and those required for improved outcomes • Identification of realistic opportunities for cashable savings • Recommended action plan For further information on Objective and the Policy Lifecycle Management process review please contact: Phil Bradbury Email: phil.bradbury@objective.com Tel: 01628 640441 www.objective.com The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 1 Introduction The development, consultation, publication, dissemination and tracking of policies, strategies and plans are at the heart of the machine of every government department and executive agency. They set out the principles the department or executive agency will follow in delivering the Government’s agenda across a wide range of services and define the specific processes that are to be followed. The Coalition Government have outlined through the Structural Reform Plans the process for how government departments will deliver the reforms set out in the coalition agreement. Central themes to these reforms are those of improved transparency of government, greater efficiency in how government delivers, more centralisation and sharing of key back office and mid office processes, wider consultation and ownership through ‘Localism’ and reduced spending on ICT projects. Central to all these themes is that ’good’ policy development and the management of that process through its lifecycle can deliver better outcomes for citizens, but must be delivered at a lower cost by embracing innovation through people, process and technology change. This change though has to be delivered quickly and in a different manner from the typical large-scale transformation programmes of old. This paper offers a ‘point of view’ which is intended to: • Drive the debate on what ‘good’ Policy Lifecycle Management could look like, and • Outline the benefits of streamlining the process of document production, collaboration and consultation throughout the process To demonstrate the value of Policy Lifecycle Management, Objective undertook the research outlined in this paper, which included interviews and discussions with a number of customers. In a world alive with real time information and easy access to it, document publishing - in traditional form or electronically - continues to represent the primary method for government organisations to convey their policies, plans, instructions, reports and guidance. Rather than constantly changing, a document represents a moment in time; a clear commitment in writing to provide a service, convey principles or report the facts. Our research shows that standards and consistency vary a great deal. At their best, documents impressively and clearly convey the aims and messages of the organisation to the intended audience; at their worst they are unclear, unbranded, undated, un-locatable and often frustrating for those trying to access them. There are several lessons to be learnt from modern media. It would be unthinkable to see a government website with various brands and design standards in different parts, or to have crucial information buried deep inside poorly navigable pages. The drawbacks of doing so are obvious, but the research shows that among many departmental and publicly available documents, this inconsistency is commonplace. 7 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 8 1.1 What is a Policy Document? Policies within the context of this paper are any document or related documents that are delivered as part of the policy development, consultation, publication and dissemination process. This includes: Policies - A Policy provides guidance, a framework, or set of principles that determine decisions, actions, and other matters Strategies – A Strategy is defined as a long-term approach to implementing a set of principles, based upon a shared vision, establishing the current situation and the desired future outcome. A strategy is not static and should evolve in response to or anticipation of changing needs and circumstances Plans – A Plan follows on from a strategy and is a detailed document that sets out the intended methods of progressing from the current situation to achievement of one or more desired outcomes. The sequence of steps must be measurable Procedures – A Procedure is a particular way of accomplishing an objective and is usually developed to describe the methods for implementing a policy 1.2 The Policy Lifecycle The following illustrates the five elements of the Policy Lifecycle: Policy Origin, Development, Validation and Approval, Implementing and Communicating, and Monitoring and Review. The Policy Lifecycle Policy Origin Process Impact & Options Community Engagement Outcome Review Development Needs Analysis Draft Publishing Validation & Approval Policy Acceptance Action Setting Linkage Resource Provision Publishing & Printing Stakeholder Involvement Evaluation & Monitoring Stakeholder Involvement Committee Review Outcome Review Improvement Review Termination / Redesign Stakeholder Involvement Implementing & Communicating Monitoring & Review Collaboration, Authoring, Reviewing Issue / Opportunity Recognition 1. Policy Origin - Selection of the problem that needs to be addressed, generating interest and engagement with the wider community, research / analysis to understand the problem and implications (resource, financial, political, etc.) The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 2. Development - Development and testing the acceptance of the policy options across stakeholders. The conception, collaboration, authoring and reviewing of policy drafts and option papers 3. Validation and Approval - Choosing and approving policies. Understanding the relationship links between policies and associated documents (strategies, plans and frameworks) 4. Implementing and Communicating - Provision of resources for the required activity, review of the outputs of what the policy actually produces, impact analysis on the community or organisation that it is targeted against. Publication and communication of the policy including consultation with stakeholders 5. Monitoring and Reviewing - Evaluation, monitoring, reporting and improvement of policies. Stakeholder consultation on performance and enhancements. Policy termination or maintenance / improvement In considering the multiple aspects of Policy Lifecycle the primary focus of the research work undertaken by Objective has been to analyse the costs associated with the development of policy documents and the phases of stakeholder and community consultation engagements. 1.3 Policy Lifecycle Management To introduce a structured analysis to such a diverse and distributed set of activities as those behind policy document production, the Policy Lifecycle Management model has been developed. The processes and activities addressed by this paper can be summarised as follows: Consultation The management of a structured engagement to seek and collate responses to proposals included in the document - whether this be external (e.g. citizens or statutory bodies, commenting upon a public document) or internal stakeholders Conception The triggers that lead to the decision to proceed with a publication of some form Collaboration The management, participation and agreement of strategy and direction among all stakeholders, including meetings, workshops and communications, and the decision of who will be involved, and at which point, in the process Authoring The production and collation of the content of the publication, often from several contributors, and the work of central project resources supporting the process Reviewing The validation, assessment and sign-off of content by stakeholders, often senior managers, prior to finalisation Publishing The delivery and distribution of the content in several electronic document formats, web formats and where appropriate, hard copy The Policy Lifecycle Management Model is explained in further detail in Section 3. 9 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 10 2 Research 2.1 Research Methodology The research was conducted across a group of 52 government organisations, which were split into three broad categories. The top tier group was representative of ‘Government Departments’, largely ministerial, while a second group represented smaller ‘Executive Agencies’. An additional group was identified as ‘Inspectorates / Watchdogs’ and were singled out for having a core responsibility to produce inspection reports, audits or assessments in a routine and repeatable fashion for many localities or organisations. The research had two main themes: 1. The analysis of the total document inventory for all 52 organisations (as made available on their websites) 2. Statistical sample analysis to further profile total document output More details on the approach and methods of this research can be found in Appendix A. The analysis in this paper refers to ‘Standard of Design’ and ‘Document Types’. These were judgements made by the researchers on the following basis: Standard of Design High: Documents with a well produced structure throughout, colours and images, indicating some investment in the presentation Medium: Documents with some aesthetic value, colours and structure, but unlikely to have been produced professionally, either internally or externally Low: Documents primarily just text, clearly produced using MS Word or similar, with no aesthetic effort evident Definitions of Document Types Major Documents of strategic importance, intended for a large or senior Publication: audience, produced using graphic design resources Minor Documents published without publicity, for a smaller or niche Publication: audience and produced without the use of graphic design resources Routine A document relating to a particular organisation or locality which Publication: is one of many editions, indicating a repeatable process. Examples would include Audit Reports, Inspections or Assessments The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 2.2 Which Documents are Government Organisations Producing? This section presents the research into government document production. It highlights the types and numbers of documents that government organisations produce. 2.2.1 Total Document Output Types of Document Our research indicated that Research and Reports form the majority of documents produced by central government organisations. 11 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 12 Document Age This diagram shows that there is a fairly smooth lifespan of documents on a government website, with documents expiring and being replaced by new ones at a constant rate. The research was able to identify if a particular software application was used to produce the document. These applications were categorised as evidence for the involvement of a specialist graphic design resources in the process (e.g. QuarkXpress, InDesign) or evidence of author generated publications (e.g. Word, PowerPoint). A strong correlation was found between the observed standard of design of a document and the indication of whether a designer was involved. As indicated in later sections, image and branding work has a significant impact on the cost. The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 13 The composition of this output is summarised in the charts below. Designer Standards of Design This diagram shows that while there are relatively few poorly presented documents, there is still significant room for improvement in terms of design The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 14 2.2.2 Annual Production The analysis also recorded the date of publishing of documents, giving visibility to the annual production rates and the lifespan of documents in the public domain. Annual % of Average Main Government Inspectorate / Production of Output Size Government Executive Watchdog Documents (pages) Department Agency Report /Study / 70% 65 608 167 899 Research Policy/Strategy 20% 79 171 47 252 Transcript / 9% 15 85 24 126 Bulletin/News Corporate 1% 12 11 3 16 Document Total Annual 875 241 1,293 Output The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 3 How Documents Are Being Produced: 3.1 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process Objective Corporation has drawn on its own experience as policy document professionals and consulted with civil service staff in order to produce this map of a typical Policy Lifecycle Management process within government organisations. As previously mentioned there are some variations between the organisations studied, but the research suggests that the following process is widely applicable. The first feedback loop on the following diagram represents the cycle of revising content following a review. It will occur between one and four times depending on the size and complexity of the document. The second feedback loop represents the final revisions in style, format and content that take place during the latter publication stages. Any revision at this stage is costly, as it involves repeating the design and formatting steps unnecessarily. Experience suggests that there are numerous inefficiencies in aspects of many of the existing policy development processes, which are highlighted in the following diagram. The descriptions marked with the red triangle icon highlight inefficiencies commonly found in existing processes. It is the potential streamlining in these areas that form the basis for the savings projections later in the paper. 15 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 12 Publish Document 10 Apply Design Concept to Copy 9 Develop Design Concept 11 Review Document & Act on Feedback 8 Prepare Copy for Design Engagement with key stakeholders and citizens 7 Consolidate Document 5 Identify Reviewers & Allocate Draft Sections 4 Draft Sections 6 Review & Provide Feedback 2 Identify Main Structure 3 Allocate Authors 1 Decide to Write a Document Conception Consultations Consultations Collaboration Authoring Reviewing Publishing Engagement with key stakeholders and citizens Sections 1 ! 2 4 6 8 10 12 9 7 5 3 11 Inefficiencies in current processes • Informal and uncontrolled information flows • No formatting rules • No fixed structure • Difficult to re-use existing work • Time consuming manual liaison • Time wasted on administrative tasks • Authors working in isolation • No overall visibility of work • Collaboration limited • Content emailed • Version issues common • Communication problems • Feedback emailed • Reviews in isolation • Version issues common • Engagement with key stakeholders • Collating responses and tracking • Disparate consultee databases • Formatting issues • Version issues common • Formatting issues • Version issues common • Reworked as copy changes • Branding and web often ignored • Reworking required with structural changes • Work repeated with changes • Version issues common • High resolution resources often missing • Deviation from brand common • Reworking of design common • Version issues common • Different teams required for web publishing • Difficulties in transferring large files C 16 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation 3.2 Inefficiencies of Existing Processes The following summarises the inefficiencies that are commonly encountered in existing policy document production and consultation processes. Conception - Decide to Formulate a Policy • Informal communication and decision making which is typically unstructured and unaudited • Unstructured research and stakeholder management • Existing live policy / strategy / guidance not easily tracked for renewal or refresh • Triggers to action a policy/strategy/guidance held in silo Collaboration - Identify Main Structure • No formatting rules leading to issues of consistency with corporate standards • No fixed structure making allocation of roles and responsibilities time consuming and complicated • Difficult to find and re-use existing work Collaboration - Allocate Authors and Engage with Stakeholders (Including Citizen Engagement) • Time consuming manual liaison leading to loss of integrity for auditing purposes • Issues with continuity of ownership through document authoring and production stages • Ineffective channel management of stakeholders, timelines and expectations • Time wasted on administrative tasks including chasing project contributors within defined timeframes Authoring - Draft Sections • Authors working in isolation on different versions of localised files • No overall visibility of work to all contributors as no single collaborative version exists • Collaboration limited due to multiple contributors working on multiple versions of the same files • Limited or no auditing or tracking of work undertaken as part of the authoring processes in a single location Authoring - Identify Reviewers and Allocate Draft Sections • Content distributed ad-hoc via hard copy or email resulting in unnecessary loss of productivity • Version issues common due to single files distributed to multiple reviewers resulting in large increase in numbers of files generated • Communication problems - agreeing content reviewers is unstructured and unclear Reviewing - Review and Provide Feedback • Reviews and feedback collated in wide variety of electronic and non-electronic methods • Dissemination of review comments and feedback is time consuming and inefficient • Version issues common due to large number of electronic and manual files generated throughout the process • No centralised resource for true collaboration on reviewing to be undertaken • Content quality and accuracy potentially compromised • Accurate auditing of “who said what” not possible • Format is open to interpretation Reviewing - Consolidate Document • Highly ineffective collation of content as format is open to interpretation • Significant time spent in administration of document due to issues with compiling multiple versions of electronic files • Repagination of document labour intensive 17 The Policy Lifecycle Management Process - Objective Corporation Consultation - Engagement with Key Stakeholders • Challenging to distribute consultation materials to stakeholders • Time consuming and inefficient methods of collating responses, e.g. email, phone and post • Tracking of responses difficult as consultation material divorced from the response mechanism used • Collation of reports for analysis is typically labour intensive • Loss of valuable intelligence as no central database available for all consultation information. This includes stakeholder database, response database and reporting mechanisms Publishing - Prepare Copy for Design • Formatting issues by transferring content from one source to another, for example Desktop Publishing • Version issues common as content may still be in the authoring / reviewing processes at any time • Reworking as copy changes requiring review and approval at all times Publishing - Develop Design Concept • Branding and web often ignored • Reworking required with structure changes requiring review and approval at all times • Version issues common as content may still be in the authoring / reviewing processes at any time • Design concept can lead to significant amount of capital expenditure Publishing - Apply Design to Copy • Work repeated with changes and requiring review and approval at all times • Version issues common as content may still be in the authoring / reviewing processes at any time • High resolution resources often missing Publishing - Review Document and Act on Feedback • Deviation from brand design common • Reworking of design common with revisions and changes requiring review and approvals at all times • Version issues common as content may still be in the authoring / reviewing processes at any time • Significant risk of budget over-run due to late revisions or instructed changes Publishing - Publish Document • Different teams required for web publishing • Difficulties in transferring large files • Total process of design and publishing traditionally condensed into a short timeframe. This can result in additional expenditure and a real threat to meeting publishing timeframes 18