Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives

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Open data programs are often seen as unimportant or not worth taking up space in the budget in local government.
Open data programs are typically owned by a single open data evangelist who works on it as a side-of-desk project.
Having a single resource spend a portion of their time on open data doesn’t allow the open data program to mature to the point that local governments are realizing benefits from it.
It is difficult to gain buy-in for open data as it is hard to track the benefits of an open data program.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Local government can help push the world towards being more open, unlocking economic benefits for the wider economy.
Cities don’t know the solutions to all of their problems often they don’t know all of the problems they have. Release data as a platform to crowdsource solutions and engage your community.
Build your open data policies in collaboration with the community. It’s their data, let them shape the way it’s used!

Impact and Result

Level-set expectations for your open data program. Every local government is different in terms of the benefits they can achieve with open data; ensure the business understands what is realistic to achieve.
Create a team of open data champions from departments outside of IT. Identify potential champions for the team and use this group to help gain greater business buy-in and gather feedback on the program’s direction.
Follow the open data maturity model in order to assess your current state, identify a target state, and assess capability gaps that need to be improved upon.
Use industry best practices to develop an open data policy and processes to help improve maturity of the open data program and reach your desired target state.
Identify metrics that you can use to track, and communicate the success of, the open data program.

Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop your open data program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives – Executive Brief

1. Set the foundation for the success of your open data program

Identify your open data program's current state maturity, and gain buy-in from the business for the program.

2. Grow the maturity of your open data program

Identify a target state maturity and reach it through building a policy and processes and the use of metrics.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

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Testimonial

Milwaukee County Department of Administrative Services – Information Management Division (DAS-IMSD)

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Rocco was very experiences and knows where we need to go. To short of time was the worst experience!

Cobb County

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

It's too early for me to estimate how much time or what the financial impact will be of the tools that we went over, but from the presentation; it ... Read More

Workshop: Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Define Business Drivers for Open Data Program

The Purpose

Ensure that the open data program is being driven out from the business in order to gain business support.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identify drivers for the open data program that are coming directly from the business.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Understand constraints for the open data program.

1.2

Conduct interviews with the business to gain input on business drivers and level-set expectations.

1.3

Develop list of business drivers for open data.

Defined list of business drivers for the open data program

Module 2: Assess Current State and Define Target State of the Open Data Program

The Purpose

Understand the gaps between where your program currently is and where you want it to be.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identify top processes for improvement in order to bring the open data program to the desired target state maturity.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Perform current state maturity assessment.

Defined current state maturity

2.2

Define desired target state with business input.

Identified target state maturity

2.3

Highlight gaps between current and target state.

List of top processes to improve in order to reach target state maturity

Module 3: Develop an Open Data Policy

The Purpose

Develop a draft open data policy that will give you a starting point when building your policy with the community.

Key Benefits Achieved

A draft open data policy will be developed that is based on best-practice standards.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Define the purpose of the open data policy.

3.2

Establish principles for the open data program.

3.3

Develop a rough governance outline.

3.4

Create a draft open data policy document based on industry best-practice examples.

Initial draft of open data policy

Module 4: Develop Open Processes and Identify Metrics

The Purpose

Build open data processes and identify metrics for the program in order to track benefits realization.

Key Benefits Achieved

Formalize processes to set in place to improve the maturity of the open data program.
Identify metrics that can track the success of the open data program.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Develop the roles that will make up the open data program.

4.2

Create processes for new dataset requests, updates of existing datasets, and the retiring of datasets.

Initial draft of open data processes

4.3

Identify metrics that will be used for measuring the success of the open data program.

Established metrics for the open data program

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

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Guided Implementation 1: Set the foundation for the success of your open data program

Call 1: Identify the appropriate business drivers for your open data program, and develop a strategy for level-setting expectations with the business.
Call 2: Using the maturity assessment tool, define the current state maturity of your open data program.
Call 3: Develop a strategy to identify potential open data champions and gain buy-in from key stakeholders.

Guided Implementation 2: Grow the maturity of your open data program

Call 1: Define the target state maturity of the open data program.
Call 2: Assess your current open data policy and processes, and discuss how they can be improved.
Call 3: Discuss the metrics that should be tracked for the open data program.