The UK government has announced the creation of a CIO Delivery Board that will be responsible for the delivery of its newly re-launched IT strategy.
The Board, will be made up chief information officers from "large delivery departments", and will be responsible for the delivery of the IT strategy in central government.
"The Delivery Board will take ownership of the delivery and implementation of the ICT Strategy," the Cabinet Office explained in its strategy document published today. It will advise the newly-created Public Expenditure Committee (Efficiency and Reform) on its progress.
The CIO Delivery Board will sit above the existing CIO Council, which is made up of CIOs from across central and local government. CIO Council members "are accountable for implementing the strategy in their [individual] organisation and portfolio managing their ICT".
Both governance bodies are chaired by overall government CIO Joe Harley.
The strategy published today reaffirmed many of the government’s previous stated objectives, such as using open source software "where appropriate", using Agile project management techniques and opening government IT work up to smaller vendors. The CIO Delivery Board will publish a "strategic implementation plan" by the summer of this year.
Earlier this year, an investigation by the National Audit Office found that the CIOs of government departments often struggle to exert influence. It found that the CIO sat on the executive board at just four departments, and that "“many [CIOs] are not routinely involved in investment approvals even when ICT forms a key part of an investment case”.
