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Input into CAPS Programme Board Report
for Meeting on 12 February 1999
Introduction .
This report summarises the status of the overall HORIZON
Programme as at 31 January 1999.
Programme Overview
The major focus of the Programme at the current time is:
. supporting the existing live systems
. reviewing with Pathway the status of testing inchiding pre-
proving prior to entry into MOT
* progressing the ‘Programme Management’ content of the Plan
with respect to the Live Trial, Multiple Benefits and the NR2+
Release, and brokering a way forward
+ clarifying contractual issues and the acceptance process
+ Service Management development
+ supporting the Treasury review and resulting negotiations.
Live Operations
The current Release continues to provide a Benefit Payment Service
and Order Book Control System for Child Benefit Payments in 204
outlets (119 in the South West & South Wales Region and 85 in the
North East Region). From an operational point of view, there are no
major threats to business continuity.
During December there were approximately 88,700 encashments
with a total value in excess of £2.7m (includes foreign encashments).
Incomplete Transactions (IT’s)
Historically. Incomplete Transactions have been reported a month in
arrears due to the frequency of ICL Pathway reports. However,
because of their importance the current status of IT’s will now be
reported based on the latest information produced by the BM
Incomplete Transaction Workshop.
In December there were 13 ITs. The previous month's declared
figure was 6.
During January a BES customer transaction occurred during which
no detail was written to the message store. However, the customer
side of the transaction was completed with payment and receipt
containing an “eight zeros” reference number. This has been passed
to ICL Pathway development team for urgent action. A new
category has been agreed and assigned to this incomplete
transaction - INVALID TRANSACTION REFERENCE.
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While it has been agreed between both POCL and ICL Pathway that
the desired target for ITs should be nil, this is difficult to achieve
realistically as system freezes and power failures will always occur.
The (joint BA, POCL and Pathway) Incomplete Transaction
Workshop has suggested that Pathway should broker an agreed
minimum acceptable level for these two categories.
The Business Service Management Team continues to produce a
monthly Service Report which includes service performance reports
and operational issues / threats. The latest report was issued on
1 February 1999. CAPS are included on the distribution list.
Progress against the Master Plan and Integrated Programme Plan
A copy of Pathway’s High Level Plan version 7.0 was received on 21
January. The plan lists 95 activities (not including summary tasks)
of which 63 appear on the Integrated Programme Plan (approx.
70%). The remaining activities relate (in the main) to Pathway
support activities including progress meetings & third party testing.
.The IPP has been updated against the latest Pathway plan and input
received from HORIZON teams and support projects. The latest
plan is version 7.1.
The Programme Master Plan (MP version 4) will be updated
. following formal agreement to the way forward.
ICL Pathway Release 2
Release Management
The overall plan has been discussed with the CAPS Board who are
supporting the drive to start NRO as soon as is practical but are”
concerned about the Pathway state of readiness to enter MOT. The
Horizon position is to await the outcome of the pre-proving cycles
this month before making this judgement. CAPS have also raised
concerns on the multi-benefit plan but Horizon have proposed that
” adecision on this should be deferred to mid-March when progress
will be clearer. For the time being all parties are working to the key
dates tabled at the Checkpoint on 23 December. Version 7 of
Pathway’s plan supports these dates although there is some
ongoing discussion on the detailed plan for the Live Trial.
Testing
The second phase of pre-proving completed on 27 January. This
was generally successful, although a number of issues remain.
A targeted test to re-witness the more significant issues arising (and
which are deemed to jeopardise a successful MOT run) has been
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scheduled for w/c 1 February. If successful, this will return the co-
ordination testing status to “Green”, and also clear all those issues
regarded as necessary to clear prior to entry into MOT.
Pathway understand that we will not be prepared to start MOT
until all the re-demonstrated incidents have been witnessed
successfully, or in extremis that an acceptable work-around is
available which does not undermine the integrity of the testing
. phase.
. The detail of the position regarding pre-proving is being discussed
with CAPS and Pathway on 3 February, with a view to either
confirming MOT starting on 15 February, or agreeing a delay.
Acceptance
The status of 21 Acceptance Specifications (out of 24) is now green,
one is amber and two are at red. The Acceptance Specifications
Consolidated Caveats is now agreed by Pathway and BA and is
awaiting POCL agreement.
Three Acceptance Closure Reports aré currently under review
(OBCS, Customer Education and APS).
The ‘Acceptance Plan has been re-worked and now shows all
Acceptance Specifications approval, Acceptance Trial, Acceptance
Review and Closure Report tasks as well as the Acceptance-related
" testing activities, the preparation of Acceptance Reports and the
corresponding JAB and RAB meetings.
Implementation
Migration
The migration pre-proving exercise has started. The Class B data
was sent to Pathway on 18 January but problems were experienced
with loading it onto the test rigs. This has now been resolved
though the plan is running two days late. This is not currently
considered detrimental to MOT.
Migration plans are now well developed with rehearsals and final
stages of agreeing schedules for office migration. A proposal for the
dual data centre migration being 12/13 June is being assessed.
There is also,a proposal to migrate the first ECCO office on 11 May
and this is being evaluated.
National Rollout
Ongoing discussions are taking place with Pathway to clarify issues
around the ramp up, trigger points, firebreaks, etc.
The CCN286b which addresses the training issues is expected to be
approved now that the issues have been resolved.
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CCN 142E, concerning score card entries, is still being negotiated.
The issue with score card entries has been agreed but there are
continuing concerns regarding the EVP specification and PPDs.
Horizon are writing to Pathway to clarify this.
CCN117 concerning Temporary Tokens is still not approved and
this could impact the release authorisation for NR2
6 Service Management Development
Work is continuing on three main strands of work;
¢ Establishing a support centre
¢ Conformance .
© Development/deployment of Business Service Management
principles. ,
‘The Business Case has been produced and will be submitted to Post
Office Counter’s Major Projects Expenditure Committee on 5
February.
“7 Future Releases
Release 2 + (introducing AP Smart and Logistics Feeder System
functionality)
We have received a set of handshake milestones from Pathway for
I the interface specifications.
I : CCN 243 is still not signed off, consequently there is no
contractually agreed design for EVP for NR2+.
A response from Pathway is still awaited following the submission
of comments on the SADD for NR2+. :
‘The HORIZON review of the E2E design of NR2+ previously.
I scheduled for early February is now forecast to be completed by
: mid March 1999.”
The NR2+ release plan continues in development.
: 8 __ Issues / Risks
a There are currently no significant issues or risks on the Programme
register which impact BA/CAPS.
9 This report has been produced in accordance with the guidelines
agreed between Peter Crahan and the Horizon Programme Director
on 15 April 1998. The area not covered is ‘Routine Commercial /
Contractual Activity’ where no request had been made by the CAPS i
PMO for specific detail, and no input received from the Horizon I
Joint Contracts Team. . . I
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