March 2020 - Assistant Deputy Minister (Data, Innovation, Analytics) - Stephen Burt
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Biography
Mr. Burt has 23 years in the Public Service, including Revenue Canada, the Privy Council Office, National Defence and most recently as Assistant Chief of Defence Intelligence at Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, before joining Data, Innovation, Analytics in July 2018.
Mandate
- Provide strategic leadership, governance and guidance to successfully transition National Defence to a data-driven organization that manages data as an enterprise asset and uses it effectively for evidence-based decision-making.
- Data, Innovation, Analytics is meant to drive analytics adoption and maturity throughout DND/CAF and lead the department-wide initiative to establish data governance.
Key facts
Total Employees:
- 67
Budget:
- ~$28 million (2019/2020 fiscal year), the bulk of which is devoted to executing enterprise-wide projects
Primary location(s):
- National Capital Region
Key Partners
Internal:
- All Defence Team
External:
- Chief Data Officer Council members:
- Canada Border Services Agency,
- Canada Revenue Agency,
- Environment and Climate Change Canada,
- Employment and Social Development Canada
- Treasury Board Secretariat
- National Research Council
- Statistics Canada
- Public Services and Procurement Canada
- Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
- Academia & private sector
- Five-Eyes Partners
Top issues for Assistant Deputy Minister (Data, Innovation, Analytics)
Data Governance
- Real-time data support provides a critical advantage to Force Posture & Readiness, at home and abroad.
- Released September 2019, the Defence Data Strategy is a vision & action plan that introduces leading-edge data management practices to support the Defence Team.
- Challenge: Transitioning the Defence Team [REDACTED] into a disciplined data culture capable of enabling a era of enterprise-wide analytics, resource management modernization, digital services, and artificial intelligence.
Enterprise-wide Analytics
- Ensuring access to timely diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive data analytics services.
- Enabling enhanced evidence-based corporate decision-making, emerging fields of research & development, and CAF military competitive advantage.
- Driving a culture where data is foundational through broad structural investment in digital literacy training and education.
- Challenge: Modernizing business processes and acquiring the right capabilities to ensure timely access to data in support of corporate, experimentation, and operational realms.
Resource Management Modernization
- Vendor support for DND/CAF’s critical system managing finance, materiel, supply, infrastructure, and maintenance data expires in 2025, and requires upgrading.
- More than just a system update, this programme is a key opportunity to modernize how the Defence Team manages resources and the supply chain.
- Challenge: Managing the complex programme, cost-benefit analysis of options, and aggressive timelines to deliver this mission-critical system.
Digital Services
- A modern military requires internal services that are digital, easy to use, and effective, so that it can focus on the task of keeping Canadians safe.
- This requires new methods of delivering services that borrow from proven private sector practices and cross-government approaches.
- Challenge: Reviewing the Defence Digital Service proposal - creating a multidisciplinary, client-centric organization to deliver new & redesigned digital services specific to the Defence community.
Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence has significant potential for transforming the business of defence. This potential is currently impeded by technical and cultural barriers.
- To operationalize and manage Artificial Intelligence’s ethical implications, DND/CAF organizations need expert guidance to take ownership of the way ahead and guide their people, processes, and systems.
- Challenge: Developing options for a centralized Artificial Intelligence organization to address implementation barriers and help produce field-ready applications.
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