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Attendees
Alec Wylie: SSA(ND) Chair
Vince Gaskell: BA (deputy for George McCorkell)
Paul Rich: POCL
Peter Crahan: PDA
Bruce McNiven: PDA
John Bennett: ICL Pathway
Mike Coombs: ICL Pathway
Jill Watson: PDA Secretary
1 Minutes and Matters Arising
The minutes of the meeting of 21 August 1997 were agreed as a correct record.
The actions from the previous meeting were reviewed and the following points
were made in discussion:
i
fad EVP bili
This would be covered in Mr Crahan's update.
offices.
Mr McNiven reported that by close of play Friday 191 outlets were installed,
of which 188 were operational, with more expected this week. The lessons
learned from the installation process would be fed into forward planning. In
particular, it was agreed that a Post Implementation Review of the Westfield
outlet would take place.
1.2.2.1 The revised 38 week installation process had been agreed in principle with
POCL's Regional Implementation Managers and was currently undergoing
quality assurance procedures.
1.2.3
A detailed plan showing the names and dates of the outlets to be automated
had been completed. The installation process was going well with more outlets
installed in the previous week than ever before. It was acknowledged that this
was due to good preparation work.
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1.2.3.1 The target time for installation was one hour per counter position. Where this
1.2.4
1.2.5
1.2.6
1.2.7
was not met, it was due to inadequate preparation by the sub-contractor
(WTL). Pathway reported that the remaining manual installation processes
were to be automated, which would further reduce errors.
AP/ 5: Mr Crahan to discuss the findings of the internal review of security
with Mr Coombs.
The review of security had been completed and discussed with Mr Coombs. It
was agreed that more openness and co-operation would be required in future,
A workshop would take place on Thursday to consider a better way forward.
oombs tc s¢ the contents of Release 2 by th August
Mr Coombs reported that Pathway were currently working through the release
contents and issues arising. These included security, declared exclusions,
fallback approach, Release 1c residuals and the System Architecture Design
Document (SADD). This work would be completed by the second week of
October with the Release Contents Document (RCD) available in mid-
October.
Action Point 1: Mr Coombs to present solutions and unresolved issues for
Release 2 by mid-October.
It was agreed that this should read "end-to-end conformance". Discussions
were currently taking place regarding the contractual and commercial issues
around Year 2000 compliance. ITSA and POCL were taking this forward for
their systems, with POCL aiming for compliance by December 1998. Pathway
were checking the conformance of linkages and Year 2000 compliance would
be included in testing.
Action Point 2: Mr Crahan to discuss with Mr Rich and produce a paper
for the next PDA Board meeting on Year 2000 activity and end-to-end
compliance for each of the services.
Action Point 3: Mr Crahan to consider the appointment of a Year 2000
manager for the PDA.
Wednesday 27 August.
The chart and briefing are attached to these minutes.
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2.1.2
22
2.3
Board meeting.
Mr McCorkell's request could not be resolved until the contents of Release 2
were finalised in mid-October and should be triggered through the Contract
Negotiating Team. This was also Mr Todd's view. Mr McCorkell, however
would need something more substantial for ministers. Mr Bennett agreed to
clarify the position with Mr McCorkell next week.
Action Point 4: Mr Bennett to discuss the situation with Mr McCorkell
next week and clarify the position.
Updates
PDA In addition to the written update provided, Mr Crahan reported that
Release 1c was progressing through Model Office Rehearsal and the
checkpoint meetings. Model Office Testing was due to be completed by 26
October and the anticipated release date was now 3 November.
Significant numbers of category one pinICLs (ICL software difficulties)
needed to be resolved. These were in the areas of security, accounting and
reconciliation. A decision would be taken on 29 September whether the release
was fit for purpose and if so, to how many outlets it would be delivered.
Pathway pointed out that they were striving for release to 200 outlets because
of the effect on Release 2 of anything less.
Pathway Release 2 was moving forward through checkpoint meetings.
Business Requirement Definitions were required from POCL for Pathway
Release 3, scheduled for July 1998. POCL had other clients to consider for this
release and required formal acknowledgement from Pathway that the July date
was not achievable.
Action Point 5: Pathway to write to Mr Rich giving formal release from
July 1998 for Release 3 and to provide an earliest possible new release
date.
Action Point 6: Pathway and POCL to create guidelines for Release 3 and
to ensure understanding of those guidelines.
CAPS Mr Gaskell confirmed that the CAPS Programme was on target. CAPS
Release 2.2 was due for release by 24 November, subject to approval by the
CAPS Programme Board. Their main concern was the impact of slippage on
the Feeder Benefit Programme.
POCL Mr Rich reported that a meeting had taken place between Mr Todd and
Mr Roberts which was also attended by Mr Bennett and Mr Coombs. Mr
Roberts was concerned about the credibility of the Programme and wanted the
next replan dates to be achieved.
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A short presentation on the Programme had been given to the Post Office
Board. A full presentation on the current position of the Programme would be
given to the next Board in November. After this, strategic decisions would be
taken on the future direction of post office involvement.
Mr Rich reported that little progress had been made on the Post Office
Review. They were currently awaiting input from ministers.
Mr Rich pointed out that POCL were having to replan because of the slippages
in the automation programme and this was having an effect on their business.
The migration of functions back to POCL was proceeding and Mr Rich would
have responsibility for Service Management. Mr Rich raised the issue of
Implementation Management and the effect of the extended 38 week
installation process. The issues for POCL were the number of post offices
prepared, resources, communications and the effect of delays.
Action Point 7: Mr McNiven to produce a milestone modelling plan
showing the number of post offices at each stage by the end of the week.
ICL Pathway Pathway reported that they had recruited two senior managers.
John Humphries had been recruited from CSC as Development Manager and
John Wooler from IBM as Testing Manager. Details of the new appointments
would be shown in the organisation chart.
Status of Planning Activity
Release 1c Authorisation Process Mr Crahan presented Paper 18/97 which.
sets out the Release Authorisation Process. The process would be the same as
for previous releases. Mr Bennett pointed out that Pathway had not hada
chance to comment on the paper prior to the Board. In future, Pathway would
like to see such papers at the draft stage. This was accepted in principle by the
Board.
Action Point 8: Mr Bennett to provide comments on Paper 18/97 to Mr
Crahan.
The Release Authorisation Board was the final link in the approval chain and
had to reach unanimous agreement before a release could go out. Seals of
Approval from within the DSS, eg BA Security and Programme Accounting
Group would be required. Mr Rich asked for further details of the Seal of
Approval process.
Action Point 9: Mr Gaskell to talk through the Seal of Approval process
with Mr Rich.
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Press Lines
Mr Crahan explained that a holding submission was put to ministers a week
ago. A full submission would follow when the results of the PA Consulting
Review were known and the latest round of replanning was complete.
Ministers had requested some holding press lines for use in the meantime.
Draft lines had been prepared. The intention was for all sponsors to use the
same lines, therefore the Board would be asked to approve the lines.
Following discussion, it was agreed that Mr Crahan and Mr McNiven would
rework the press lines, taking account of the comments of Board members.
Action Point 10: Mr Crahan and Mr McNiven to rework the draft press
lines by Friday 26 September 1997.
Future Structure of the PDA
Mr Crahan presented Paper 17/97. Stream 1 progress was expected to improve,
following the appointment of Paul Dyson as Technical Assurance team leader.
Stream 2 was being taken forward by Katie Bares for the BA and Keith
Downer for POCL. The Transition Plan would be completed by the end of
October but the outcome of the PA Consulting Review would impact on the
timescale of the migration of PDA functions.
PA Consulting Review
All members had now seen the report prepared by PA Consulting. The report
‘was a matter for the PSC to consider but it was necessary for the Board to
decide how Mr Crahan should brief Mr Mathison (as chairman) prior to the
PSC meeting the following day.
Mr Wylie listed the main areas which the PSC would be asked to consider:
a) whether the report fulfilled the Terms of Reference (TORs);
b) whether the findings were accurate;
c) whether the analysis was acceptable;
d) the tactical recommendations;
e) the strategic recommendations; and
f whether the report represented value for money and if payment should
be made.
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It was agreed that the TORs had been broadly fulfilled. There were some
minor quibbles with the findings and analysis but these did not affect the main
thrust of the report. It was decided that the report did represent value for
money and that payment for Phase 1 should be made, one third by Pathway
and two thirds by the PDA on behalf of BA and POCL.
Action Point 11: Mr Crahan to make arrangements for payment of the
invoice from PA Consulting.
Tt was agreed that the Board would recommend to the PSC that the tactical
recommendations in the report be taken forward by action plans prepared by
each sponsor. The plans would be co-ordinated by Mr Wylie.
Action Point 12: Mr Bennett, Mr Crahan and Mr Rich to provide
summary level action plans to Mr Wylie.
It was agreed that the strategic recommendations should be taken forward
initially at awayday workshop(s) attended by PDA Board and PSC members
and facilitated by PA Consulting. This should be preceded by a PDA Board
meeting with a facilitator to prepare and plan the structure of the workshop(s).
It was decided that lines to take on the report for ministers should be agreed at
the PSC. Lines to take for the media would be incorporated into the press lines
after the PSC, It was agreed that for staff, the briefing should be verbal at this
stage and should sound a positive note.
Action Point 13: Mr Crahan and Mr McNiven to draft a briefing for staff.
Any Other Business
The action points for the PSC were discussed.
Action Point 1 The status of this action point should refer to agenda item 3,
not 5 as stated in the update.
Action Point 2 Mr Bennett was to discuss the commercial issues with Mr
McCorkell.
Action Point 3 Mr Crahan would be working with Mr McNiven to prepare a
further defensive press briefing.
Time and Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting would take place on 5 November 1997 at Terminal House.
The Pre-Board would start at 9.30am and the main Board at 1.00pm.
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