ESDC's Senior Management Tabletop Exercise "Horizontal Chaos" - Wednesday December 6, 2017 - DRIE Ottawa
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
1 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
ESDC’s Senior Management
Tabletop Exercise
“Horizontal Chaos”
Wednesday December 6, 2017
2 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Purpose
This presentation is a summary of the Employment
and Social Development Canada (ESDC) Portfolio
Tabletop exercise “Horizontal Chaos” which was held
November 21-22, 2016 and highlights:
– Exercise planning
– Design
– Exercise play
– Lessons learned
– Next steps
3 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Service Canada – The Big Picture
4 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
How does Service Canada interact with Canadians?
5 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Exercise Objectives and Background
The Horizontal Chaos exercise was coordinated by the Emergency
Management and Business Continuity (EMBC) team under the Departmental
Security Officer (DSO)
Objective: provide an opportunity to exercise departmental readiness in
response to departmental obligations to continue the delivery of social benefits
under the Federal Emergency Response Plan (FERP)
The exercise was designed to be a “Tabletop” to test the Department’s capacity
to deliver Employment Insurance (EI), Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age
Security (OAS) during a major systems disruption exceeding 30 days
Branches and Regions were engaged to create a series of scenarios and
injects
Exercise design was structured to engage at the Director General, Director
and subject matter expert level during Day One of the exercise, with Day Two
focusing on Senior Executives6 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Who Was Involved Key Branches
• Chief Financial Officer Branch
• Citizen Services Branch
Senior Management
• Human Resource Services Branch
• Deputy Minister of ESDC
• Innovation, Information and
• Deputy Minister of Labour
Technology Branch
• Senior ADM of ESDC
• Internal Audit Service (observers)
• Integrity Services Branch
External Partners
• Public Affairs and Stakeholders
• Shared Services Canada
Relations Branch
• Public Service and Procurement
• Transformation and Integrity Services
Canada (PSPC)
Management Branch
• Treasury Board Secretariat
• Public Safety Canada
Regions
• Privy Council Office
• Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario,
Western – Territories7 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Exercise Planning
Participating Branches were identified from results of the 2015 Business Impact
Analysis and Business Continuity activities performed by EMBC
Participants were divided into two groups:
o Exercise Design Team
o Horizontal Business Continuity Planning Team
The two groups functioned independently in order to retain the integrity of the
scenario
The working groups were established approximately 6 months prior to the
exercise with meetings held bi-weekly to complete required tasks, provide
direction and measure progress8 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Horizontal BCP
Business owners and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) were asked to assess
their program process flow and identify critical functions (9 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Horizontal BCP template
• Template visual for audience viewing10 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Service delivery metrics for response
prioritization
Employment Insurance Program - METRICS
Info out to Canadians New Applicants Applicants in process In pay Maintenance
_______ (Annual total) _______ - Clients who have applied via Automated Claims Established Millions (Annual Revised number of clients (average/month)
_______ (average/month) Claims Processing (ACP) but not yet processed to total) Critical changes such as name change, address
_______ (average/week) decision at any given point. Claimants in receipt of benefits at any change, Direct Deposit
one time 1 million (average) Reconsiderations and Appeals
Average amount of EI Benefits paid ______ received
per client per week $______ ______ decision maintained
Processing Speed of Pay standard ___
days
SERVICE DELIVERY METRICS
In-Person Service - WEEKLY METRICS
Info out to Canadians New Applicants Applicants in process In pay Maintenance
In-Person Service Requests Weekly Average by In-Person Service Requests Weekly Average by Activity In-Person Service Requests Weekly Average by In-Person Service Requests Weekly Average by Activity
Activity - April 2016 to September 2016 - April 2016 to September 2016 Activity - April 2016 to September 2016 - April 2016 to September 2016
Region Program Information Redirect Region Program Applications Region Program Processing
Support Region Program Follow-up
ATL EI ATL ATL
ATL
CPP
OAS
QC EI QC QC
QC
CPP
OAS
ON EI ON ON
ON
CPP
OAS
WT EI WT WT
WT
CPP
OAS11 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Categorization of information
Functions were also organized in accordance with the Departmental Business
Capabilities Model (DBCM) to align with established Department framework
DBCM definitions document to help all users understand how and where to
categorize their business function
Example:
6.3 Payment Management
The ability to process, receive, manage and track payments to and from clients
registered in a service.
o Social Benefit Payment (EI, CPP, OAS, etc.)
o Grant or Contribution
o Worker Compensation Payment12 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
13 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Exercise Design
“Exercise-in-a-box” material developed by Privy Council
Office (PCO) was used as the basis for the exercise design
Subject matter experts (SMEs) from Branches and Regions
were consulted for their experience and corporate
knowledge to develop complex, yet realistic scenarios and
injects
Expertise from PCO was engaged to organize the Master
Scenario Events List (MSEL), inject timing and assisting
with exercise preparation and facilitation14 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Exercise Play
The Tabletop exercise “Horizontal Chaos” was held November 21-22, 2016 with over 100
participants involved, including Regional representation via video conferencing.
Day One:
• Directors General, Directors and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with operational
functions connected to EI, CPP/OAS participated
• Scenario and injects were rolled out in accordance to the MSEL
• Discussion and resolutions were documented by scribes and evaluators
Day Two:
• The Crisis Manager for ESDC and Portfolio Management Board members (DM and
ADM level) were briefed on events from the previous day and new injects were
provided
• Presentation and evaluation of Day One events
• Discussion of recovery options
• Hot wash and observations
• The Crisis Manager was the Incident Commander for the entire day.15 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Exercise Results
Operational gaps, vulnerabilities and areas for future investment options were identified
for EI and CPP/OAS
o Data centre locations, operational clarification of tasks, defined roles and responsibilities
o Direct input: tasks created for the Management Action Plan (MAP)
o Indirect input: revisions and inclusion in Business Continuity Management directive and Standard Operating
Procedures (SOPs)
Payment distribution was the focal point of discussions
o Address EI Regulation powers to provide greater flexibility in the event of an emergency
o Evaluate EI payment options
o Identify reconciliation complications
Technological infrastructure assessment and risk management options
o Invest in infrastructure vs. risk manage operations
Communication responsibilities and their order of operations
o Challenges were encountered in communicating and coordinating internally given the interdependence of
many systems
Human resource allocation to maintain service level
o The ability to re-deployment of staff to maintain service standards will be evaluated16 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Lessons Learned
Scenario
• Having a large number of injects creates a risk that there will be insufficient
time for the responses to each inject to be tabled
• It is important to include Regional perspectives and other players
• As exercise play can be very rapid, simplified observation and evaluation
forms are needed
• Delivering a large number of injects rapidly by email can be problematic.
Having a back-up plan in case of IT problems during the exercise would be
wise
Process (Exercise and BCP Working groups)
• Exercise design and preparation is likely to take longer than expected
• Strict adherence to project deliverables and timelines by working groups is
needed
• Having the appropriate SMEs for exercise design and plan development is
key to developing an accurate plans and realistic scenarios, this is
particularly important for IT related systems17 NOW AND TOMORROW EXCELLENCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO
Next Steps for EMBC
A Management Action Plan (MAP) was developed for Departmental Senior
Management to address areas for improvement
Horizontal BCP project expansion to incorporate other priority and enabling
services within ESDC
Current costing methods for recovery strategies will need further exploration
and evaluation
Establish an exercise cycle to promote continual improvement, reinforcing the
importance of exercises and testing of plans at all levels
o Annual exercise calendar for corporate reportingYou can also read
