Agency Strategic Plans: Technology Resources Planning
View DIR's Agency Strategic Plan for FY 2013–2017.
From Instructions for Preparing and Submitting Agency Strategic Plans: Fiscal Years 2013–2017 (March 2012, PDF, 1.22MB) – Information about file formats.
Planning for technology resources is a key component of the strategic planning process. Statewide and agency planning provides a road map for the implementation of enterprise and agency-specific technology solutions that will result in more efficient expenditure of limited resources and more effective delivery of services to Texas citizens and agency constituents.
TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE ASSESSMENT AND ALIGNMENT
“Technology Initiative Assessment and Alignment” describes how technology will be deployed within the agency to address its organizational objectives. For the purpose of this section, a technology initiative is defined as a current or planned activity that will improve, expand, or significantly change the way information technology (hardware, software, services) is used to support one or more agency objectives. A technology initiative may correspond to one or more projects in the agency’s Information Technology Detail or Biennial Operating Plan, or it may not be specifically referenced as a project.
DEVELOPMENT GUIDES
This section provides guidance on articulating, organizing, and integrating technology initiatives within the context of statewide and agency planning. For additional information and to access an optional template for Technology Resources Planning, see Notes at the end of this section.
From the information gathered during its external and internal assessment, an agency should examine technology solutions that advance the mission of the agency and align with statewide technology principles and priorities.
For each of the agency’s technology initiatives, provide the following information
1. Initiative Name: Name of the technology initiative.
2. Initiative Description: Brief description of the technology initiative.
3. Associated Project(s): Name and status of current or planned project(s), if any, that support the technology initiative and that will be included in agency’s Information Technology Detail.
4. Agency Objective(s): Identify the agency objective(s) that the technology initiative supports.
5. Statewide Technology Priority(ies): Identify the statewide technology priority or priorities the technology initiative aligns with, if any.
- P1 – Cloud
- P2 – Data Management
- P3 – Data Sharing
- P4 – Infrastructure
- P5 – Legacy Applications
- P6 – Mobility
- P7 – Network
- P8 – Open Data
- P9 – Security and Privacy
- P10 – Social Media
6. Guiding Principles: As applicable, describe how the technology initiative will address the following statewide technology guiding principles:
- Connect – expanding citizen access to services
- Innovate – leveraging technology services and solutions across agencies
- Trust – providing a clear and transparent accounting of government services and data
- Deliver – promoting a connected and agile workforce
7. Anticipated Benefit(s): Identify the benefits that are expected to be gained through the technology initiative. Types of benefits include:
- Operational efficiencies (time, cost, productivity)
- Citizen/customer satisfaction (service delivery quality, cycle time)
- Security improvements
- Foundation for future operational improvements
- Compliance (required by State/Federal laws or regulations)
8. Capabilities or Barriers: Describe current agency capabilities or barriers that may advance or impede the agency’s ability to successfully implement the technology initiative.
In developing their strategic plans, agencies are encouraged, but not required, to use the Technology Resources Planning Template provided by DIR.
- This template should be repeatedly used to describe each identified technology initiative. The resulting technology initiative descriptions should be inserted in the order described on page 17 of the Agency Strategic Plan instructions. NOTE: Disregard the reference to Part 1 and Part 2 under the Technology Resources Planning item on page 17.
- Fonts, layout, pagination, etc., may be adjusted to match the overall Agency Strategic Plan.
- If the agency is using Microsoft Word to develop the Agency Strategic Plan, this template can be inserted into the main document with Copy/Paste.
- If the agency is using another software application to develop the Agency Strategic Plan, look for an import function that supports Microsoft Word. Also, it may be possible to use Copy/Paste, although some formatting may be required to make the resulting text look right.
- The text boxes provided are not intended to indicate the desired response length. There is no limit to the size of a response.
- DIR can provide additional guidance in the use of the template or in developing the Technology Resources Planning section of the Agency Strategic Plan. Please send inquiries to irsp@dir.texas.gov.
Technology Resources Planning Template (DOC, 40 KB) – Information about file formats.
Note that the Agency Strategic Plan submission instructions require that the copy sent to DIR be in an electronic word processing format. Acceptable formats include DOC, DOCX, and RTF. DIR cannot accept PDF files or files in document publishing formats. In most cases publishing applications can export to one of the acceptable formats. Please contact DIR at irsp@dir.texas.gov before submitting if you have a question about acceptable file formats.
To submit the Agency Strategic Plan to DIR, attach it to an email to irsp@dir.texas.gov with a subject line “Agency Strategic Plan – XXX”, where XXX is the agency name, number, or acronym. The sender will receive a reply acknowledging receipt of the Agency Strategic Plan within one or two business days.
If you have any questions or comments about the template or the Technology Resources Planning section of the Agency Strategic Plan, please e-mail irsp@dir.texas.gov.
