Purpose

A program organizes the interrelationship of individual projects within it and provides an overall means for effectively coordinating those projects.  A program charter documents a set of related, perhaps interdependent, projects which, taken together, solve an identifiable business or technical problem or complete a specific initiative.  The steering committee associated with the program oversees the projects undertaken to address the problem or initiative.
This document describes the Data Management Program (DMP) and the responsibilities of the Data Management Steering Committee (DMSC).  It sets forth the business processes surrounding access to court data and provides a framework for addressing those processes.  It also describes the structure, responsibilities, and expectations of the DMSC.

Steering Committee Description

The DMSC will provide guidance, planning, and oversight in an initiative to give the Washington State courts, the public, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) criminal justice partners, and other stakeholders of interest access to criminal and civil justice information pursuant to data dissemination policies promulgated by the Data Dissemination Committee (DDC)* and approved by the JISC, and will address the business processes inherent in the delivery of that information from all court levels.
It will set priorities for projects, monitor progress of those projects, and communicate to other users the activities of the DMP.  The goal of the steering committee will be to give direction to the Information Access unit at the AOC in addressing the business needs identified in this document.
*(For a listing of Powers and Responsibilities of the Data Dissemination Committee, see Article Seven of the Judicial Information System Committee Bylaws.)

Business Needs

• Statewide access to information: stakeholders in this program require access to statewide information during the transition from JIS and SCOMIS to the new Case Management System
• Reporting and query support: stakeholders need a flexible and easy to use suite of end user tools to facilitate access to operational and management information.
• Data integration: the Courts and AOC need standards and specifications that direct how external systems can connect with AOC owned systems and share data that will be editable by either system.
• Data exchange: the Courts, AOC, and other stakeholders need a system that will allow data to be shared between statewide and local data repositories.
• Data quality: the Courts need to define business rules and processes to ensure the completeness, accuracy, and validity of the data in the warehouse.
• Business intelligence: judges, clerks, and administrators need business intelligence tools to analyze performance, track revenue, and improve the efficiencies of their courts.

Executive Sponsor

Judicial Information System Committee (JISC).

Program Sponsor

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC).

Stakeholders

• Washington State Courts.
• Washington State Association of County Clerks.
• Misdemeanant Corrections Association.
• Data Dissemination Committee.
• Public, including individuals, researchers, and the media.
• Criminal justice partners.
• Various state and federal agencies and boards.
• Administrative Office of the Courts.

In Scope

• This program will develop plans and processes to administer and implement tools and technologies to deliver information to all stakeholders using, but not limited to, the following tools:

• Data warehouse and data mart(s).
• Scheduled production reporting facilities.
• Data analysis and business intelligence tools.
• Query and ad hoc reporting tools.
• Data exchanges.

• Fee-based bulk data transfers.
• Documentation of items related to delivery of information to stakeholders.
• Create and maintain secure and public Web environments for access, presentation, and publication.
• Satisfy information requests for all stakeholders.

Not in scope

• Promulgation of data dissemination policies
• Business process re-engineering in courts or local jurisdictions and agencies.
• Data exchanges between the AOC legacy systems and the new case management system.

Goals

Objectives

Statewide source of information

• Consistent with policies promulgated by the Data Dissemination Committee (DDC) and approved by the JISC:
  • Provide a single source of information, including individual case history, order history, accounting, and other statewide information.
  • Provide Web-based services for non-court users to access data.
  • Create and maintain automated billing facilities for public access users.

Easy and efficient reporting and query capabilities; business intelligence

• Provide management reporting as defined by user work groups.
• Recommend to JISC a suite of decision support tools to enable users of all abilities to easily extract information.
• Recommend to JISC, business intelligence tools for use by judges, clerks, and administrators.
• Provide a catalog of frequently used queries for courts.
• Enable dynamic reporting with reports generated on command and the ability to access the underlying data.
• Provide context sensitive help to users.

Data exchange

• Create a system for exchanging data between statewide and local data repositories.
• Define custom data exchanges.

Data quality

• Define business rules for data.
• Install and maintain data quality software.
• Maintain processes for exception reporting and resolution.

Data integration

• Provide standards and specifications for external systems to integrate data with AOC owned systems.

Sponsor

Judicial Information System Committee (JISC)

• Ratifies program go/no go decisions.
• Resolves escalated issues.
• Ratifies long-term direction established by the program steering committee.
• Reviews major steering committee decisions.
• Sets overall priority of agency-wide programs and projects.
• Reviews overall program status quarterly.

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

• Secures program funding.
• Acts as liaison to legislature and other interested parties as appropriate.
• Operationally supervises and staffs program.

Data Management Steering Committee (DMSC)

• Provides program guidance and strategic direction, including prioritization of programs and projects within the guidelines set by the JISC.
• Approves and recommends program plan to the JISC for final approval.
• Establishes, promotes, and communicates program vision and major goals.
• Assists with strategy in the budget process.
• Is responsible for overall quality and schedule of the program.
• Reviews program expenditures and scope changes for projects.
• Makes program go/no go decisions.
• Recommends termination of programs in trouble.
• Designates work groups for specific assignments.
• Commits business resources to efforts.
• Authorizes work groups, identifies and recruits members; designates chairs.
• Approves, reviews, and signs off key deliverables.
• Reviews monthly program and project status reports.
• Resolves program and project issues.
• Provides direction to the project manager.
• Approves shifts and adjustments in priorities.
• Monitors programs for compliance to standards.
• Promotes program to other stakeholders.

Program Manager

• Manages program team, scope, budget, time, and deliverables.
• Ensures participation of appropriate business and technical staff.
• Manages vendor and consultant contracts.
• Recommends priorities or shifts in priorities to the program steering committee.
• Prepares budgets for the program and any projects related to the program.
• Maintains and updates the budget and expenditure plan.
• Prepares status reports for the JISC and the program steering committee.
• Identifies program issues and recommendations for program termination.
• Ensures completion and sign-off of program deliverables.
• Ensures that work plans and activities are coordinated with and among projects.
• Works with program steering committee chair to set agendas for steering committee meetings.
• Communicates with stakeholders.
• Facilitates change control, risk management, and approval processes.
• Responsible for the success of the program.

Program Staff

• Provides the program manager with technical recommendations and alternatives.
• Supports and communicates with customers on requirements.
• Develops and executes plans for development, testing, and implementation.
• Communicates and coordinates with other program staff as needed.
• Prepares status reports for the program manager.
• Works closely with consultants and vendors, providing day-to-day guidance.
• Represents programs to other interested parties, as directed.

Washington State Courts

• As members of designated work groups, provide business resources to projects.
• Communicates program and project goals and progress to local users.

Strategic Approach

The Data Management Program will address the business needs by devising a plan that will address processes and tools to satisfy reporting, query, and data access.  A high-level program would include:

• Selection of a steering committee with interest in data management.
• Defining a charter to outline the scope and intention of the program.
• Defining and prioritizing potential projects.
• Designating and staffing work groups.

Guiding Principles

• All committees and work groups will be governed by Robert’s Rules of Order.
• Committee members agree to communicate steering committee information to their professional organizations.
• Changes in priority will be authorized before work begins.
• All projects within this program should be limited to a duration of six (6) to nine (9) months.
• Statewide business rules will be agreed upon by the steering committee.  Exceptions to the rules must also be agreed upon before work begins.
• Any implementation will require stakeholder participation.

Communication Plan

This section identifies what information needs to be communicated to whom, and how it will be delivered.

Program Charter

• Program overall plan.
• Program budget.
• Strategy for projects.

Status Reports

• Reports to program and executive sponsors.

Project Management Reports

For any approved projects:

• Project definition and plan.
• Resource allocation plan.
• Risk management plan.
• Progress reports.
• Testing and implementation plans.
• Post-implementation reviews.
• Other documentation as required.

Business Agreement

If business processes and rules cannot be agreed upon, statewide and cross-jurisdictional solutions cannot be developed.  Additional resources may be needed to define a common business solution.

High

AOC Staff

Loss of AOC staff with the business and/or technical expertise required by the program.  Provide competitive salaries and benefits commensurate with expertise of the individual.

Medium

Funding

If no funding is allocated, the program will be canceled.  If partial funding is obtained, implement projects which will have the most benefit to the largest amount of customers.

Medium

Washington State Courts Satisfaction

• Court customer satisfaction response on survey.
• Less than five eService incidents per month reporting problems or requesting information available in the warehouse.
• Reports and exchanges delivered on time.
• Reduction of duplicate data entry due to data exchange.
• Increase in quality of data due to data exchange.
• Increase in quality of data in data warehouse and data marts.

Public Usage

• Increased reliance by the public on information available through the public AOC Web site (http://www.courts.wa.gov).
• Site statistics show increased usage.
• Reduced number of data dissemination requests.
• Response time for public searches falls within generally accepted limits.

Justice Partners and Care Agencies Usage

• Revenue generated by the public data warehouse offsets any loss occurring in JIS-Link.
• Exchanges meet or exceed traffic and usage estimates.

Rich Johnson
Representing the Courts of Appeal

Judge Brian Tollefson and Judge Thomas Wynne
Representing the Superior Court Judges Association

Vacant
Representing the District and Municipal Court Judges Association

Delilah George and Frank Maiocco
Representing the Association of Washington Superior Court Administrators

Pam Daniels, Barb Miner, and Siri Woods
Representing the Washington State Association of County Clerks

Jeri Cusimano and Chuck Ramey
Representing the District and Municipal Court Management Association

William Holmes
Representing The Washington Association of Juvenile Court Administrators

Larry Barker
Representing the Misdemeanant Corrections Association

Dr. Carl McCurley
Representing the AOC’s Center for Court Research