Message from the Defence CIO

As the Assistant Deputy Minister for Information Management (ADM(IM)) and the Defence Chief Information Officer (CIO) I am accountable for the management of the Defence IM/IT Programme. This programme includes the portfolio of applications that enables all Defence functions including the conduct of military operations.

This Application Strategy establishes the vision and objectives for the DND/CAF application portfolio over the next five years and describes the activities and resources required to realize them.

This strategy aims to shift the balance of the Defence application portfolio towards commercial applications and external service providers where it makes sense, so that we can focus our internal resources and expertise on the applications that are unique and most mission critical to DND/CAF business. It aims to enhance integration and interoperability of Defence capabilities by reducing duplication of application functionality and using more modern and flexible designs. Finally, this strategy plans to mature our ability to manage the application portfolio into the future to help ensure that resources are applied to the right activities in support of the priorities and needs of Defence.

This strategy describes a set of core activities, many of which have already begun, that will contribute to realizing these objectives. While the majority of these activities will be led from within IM Group, they are designed from a Defence CIO perspective to align and enable application-related activities across all Defence organizations. These activities employ guiding principles to shape the investment and design decisions of application owners and application service providers across the Defence enterprise to help converge capabilities and technologies towards an integrated information environment and the realization of the application portfolio vision.

This application strategy does not call for increased resource investment but rather focuses on changing the way we make application-related decisions and the way we manage the resulting portfolio.

Len Bastien

ADM(IM) and Defence CIO