Management Response (to be included in the report)

Agreed. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has developed and will continue to strengthen project portfolio management and update its Investment Plan for Spring 2015 and its Annual Information Technology (IT) Plan for June 2015.

The CBSA is updating its Investment Plan and its Annual IT Plan as part of its regular cycle and expects to present it to Treasury Board for approval in Spring 2015. The Investment Plan includes all significant capital projects to be undertaken over the next five years, including required financial investments and a capacity assessment confirming the Agency’s ability to undertake its project portfolio in full alignment with its governance structure and project management practices.

The Agency will continue to expand its enterprise end-state architecture in both breadth and depth; a functional directive covering every domain of the enterprise architecture will be finalized by September 2015. Prior to final directives being published, the CBSA has already begun to steer individual projects toward architecture standards that fully align with Shared Services Canada directions. The Service Life-cycle Management Framework will ensure that enterprise architecture directions are adhered to by all projects through formal gate reviews and approvals.

Finally, the CBSA will continue to maintain the Beyond the Border project-level risk profile and will provide a full portfolio risk update roll-up at the quarterly Beyond the Border Senior Project Advisory Committee.

Management Action Plan

Completion Date

Sub-Recommendation: Updating its Agency Investment Plan and Annual IT Plan and incorporating all significant capital projects, the Agency’s capacity to undertake projects, and the financial investment required.

·         The CBSA is updating its Investment Plan as part of its regular cycle and expects to present it to Treasury Board for approval in Spring 2015.

o   The Investment Plan includes all significant capital projects to be undertaken over the next five years, including required financial investments and a capacity assessment confirming the Agency’s ability to undertake its project portfolio in full alignment with its governance structure and project management practices.

·         The CBSA will update its Annual IT Plan in compliance with Treasury Board Secretariat’s directive and guidelines.

Sub-Recommendation: Defining and completing its target enterprise architecture and using it to provide direction on how projects should be prioritized and scoped to avoid redundancies.

May 2015

June 2015

September 2015

April 2015

December 2015

Management Response (to be included in the report)

Agreed. In alignment with the CBSA Benefits Management Framework approved in September 2013 and the corporate project portfolio governance model approved in December 2013, as of January 2015 the Corporate Affairs Branch (CAB) now ensures that all benefits are fully managed until full realization. The CAB provides a coordination and oversight function across all project stakeholders and, beginning in September 2015, will report quarterly to the CBSA Executive Committee on benefits realization status. Coordination and oversight activities include monitoring of project benefits, risks to benefits, benefits realization plans and benefits health assessments.

In June 2015, the CBSA will further strengthen its benefits management through a second benefits review and challenge of benefits documentation. The challenge and oversight function will continue through all Project Portfolio Management Framework gate reviews to ensure effective decision making throughout the project life-cycle.

The benefits management process and its integration within the Project Portfolio Management Framework and executive governance model will continue to be fine-tuned until March 2016. A pilot report will be presented by June 2015 and will include an initial baseline set of performance benefits indicators.

Management Action Plan

Completion Date

• Corporate Affairs Branch will continue to oversee the benefits management process throughout the project portfolio management cycle, in order to ensure that projects are on track to realize benefits after project closure. 
  
  
• The CBSA will further strengthen its oversight by June 2015 through a benefits review and challenge function of benefits documentation at all Project Portfolio Management Framework gate reviews to support effective decision making throughout the project phases.

• A benefits management process pilot report will be presented in the spring of 2015. Quarterly benefits reports will provide assurance to executive management that projects are on-track to realize planned benefits.

·         As part of continuous improvement, the CBSA will mature its benefits management process as an important business tool fully integrated with the Project Portfolio Management Framework and the Agency executive governance model. Further improvements will focus on the articulation of measurable benefits statements and performance indicators. The benefits baseline will continue to be formally established at gate 3 and subjected to a strict change management process from that point on.

January 2015 (completed)

June 2015

September 2015

March 2016

Management Response (to be included in the report)

Agreed. The CBSA will continue to clarify its procedures and practices on how the dashboard information is collected, validated and reported to ensure consistent and complete project status reporting for its portfolio of IT projects. A formal review of the process will be completed by June 2015.

Management Action Plan

Completion Date

• The CBSA will continue to clarify its procedures and practices on how the dashboard information is collected, validated and reported to ensure consistent and complete project status reporting for its portfolio of IT projects. A formal review of the process will be completed by June 2015.

June 2015