ICT services of College of Health Sciences Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, here after CHS Ayder CSH, has been working in a roadmap development for the last six months. Congruent to its principle of courage, the office is able to mobilize its human resource in this times of difficulty. Following a presentation to the university management, it is suggested that the roadmap should be reviewed critically and
feedback should be acquired from experts in the institution. The management further pointed out that the initiative is exemplary in taking such a decisive step forward and it should be a contribution of work to take similar measures at a university level. With a support from college and university management, the office hosted the workshop with an aim to enrich the roadmap and incorporate different views and
perspectives.

Objectives

• Conduct critical review of the draft roadmap
• promote trust and effective communication among stakeholders
• Lessons for Mekelle University wide ICT roadmap

Discussion
The workshop was opened with an orientation and introduction of all attendees, facilitated by Dr. Fasika.The roadmap development initiative was inspiring and is an important indicator of resilience, given the current situation and its devastating impact. The over all roadmap development planning was outlined, with three main milestones. Firstly, and as it happened already, the ICT office with an oversight of the management, took the initiative to develop a 10 years roadmap that involve rigorous current ICT investments assessment and the way forward. Secondly, the ICT services roadmap should be enriched with an input from stakeholders with in the university. This workshop is
organized to reinforce the need for expertise view and alignment with the stakeholders efforts at an institutional level. Dr. Fasika further elaborated that the third phase is to engage global partners and experts to have their say and reflect their thoughts on the roadmap.  

The orientation and introduction was followed by an opening speech from the Chief Executive Director Dr. Amanuel Haile. After passing gratitude and appreciation for the effort that is devoted in the development of the roadmap, Dr. Amanuel forwarded two questions for the audience to think about 1) If there is a concern on the timing of the initiative and 2) To what extent should we consecrate to leveraging ICT institutionally. He used the two questions as a footstep to reflect his thought that this time of difficulty should show us how much dependent

we are in ICT to independently function as an institution. He  further explained his belief that the ICT roadmap initiative is in  its most ideal timing that it is the way out of our difficulties and
we currently face. In order to serve our community  and to the deserved level, we need to give priority to invest on College of Health Sciences Ayder ICT. ICT has a globally recognized impact for effective and Comprehensive Specialized efficient academic, research and health services provision. For us and our institution it is a choice we have to make between walking a long distance by foot and using car. We are decades back in leveraging technology and where the world has reached. In this fashion we will always be followers.

With an aim to pull audiences in similar context, presentation on the science of roadmap was presented by Dr. Hailay. The whys and Hows of roadmap development is explained thoroughly, pointing in the proper direction for the audience. Roadmap development should have well understood cause and should drive an institution from where it stands to where it aspires to reach. It is a tool by which an institution drives its overall engagement. It binds and contacts an institution to be able to serve its purpose in discipline and integrity. It ties efforts from top to bottom for a greater aligned impact.

Dr. Hailay further explained that roadmap development has a clear necessary procedures that has to be followed. Rigorous situational assessment is a start that has to show internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. Existing infrastructural and other relevant Dr. Hailay resources has to be assessed.Roadmap is a mechanism to fill the gap between where the institution is and what we plan to achieve. Without clear identification of current state, it is difficult to plan and execute to reach it. Following the current status assessment, a feasible plan has to be put to which the institution has work and achieve it in a specified time period. To fill this gap appropriate strategies need to be devised leveraging the identified strengths and opportunities to overcome identified weaknesses and threats. Dr. Hailay further explained that roadmap development by implementers themselves creates an added value of ownership and transparency, a good asset for use during implementation period.

Following a presentation on the science of roadmap, the over all methodology used to develop the 10 years ICT services draft roadmap is presented by Mr. Haftamu Kebede. The ICT team followed scientific methods and used frameworks and toolkits to facilitate the roadmap development. The roadmap is divided in to four sections. The first section focussed on background and rationals of the roadmap development initiative. It contains vision, mission, values/principles and objectives of the roadmap. The second section gives emphasis on as-is analysis. It explains results of ICT infrastructural assessment in the college, SWOT analysis and demand inventory constructed engaging the top management and all academic, administration and clinical departments of the college. The third section given emphasis on planning directions. Strategic themes of the roadmap are constructed by combining S-ICT, Stages of Continuous Improvement(SOCI), and HISMM maturity models and toolkits. The last section suggests mechanisms of income-generating for the office to sustainably execute implementation of the roadmap. This is explained in relation to retention of experienced staff and incentivization.

Mr. Haftamu further explained that the roadmap was developed in the most natural way and in a participatory fashion that a hybrid approach(top-down and bottom-up) is used to construct institutional aspiration with regard to ICT use. Following the presentations, Dr. Fasika facilitated arrangement of the remaining session in group discussion. Group discussions are firstly oriented by a short presentation section by section. Mr. Yemane Seged, Mr. Getachew Seyum, and Mr. Haftamu Kebede presented an overview of sections one, two and three respectively. In the interest of time, the fourth section was rather discussed in a plenary fashion after a short presentation by Mr. Haftamu. Four groups are formed, having eight to ten group members to discuss and document their feedback in a shared (network shared file) document. A representative from each group is invited to present on the consensus reached feedback. The draft roadmap document was given to all workshop participants before a week period. In addition to the disseminated document presentations were made by different presenters on all sections of the document.

Following the presentations participants were grouped in to four, Where every group consisted more than seven members.Reflections on the scope of the roadmap were raised as clarity is needed and Workshop participants in a group discussion explicit statements need to be stated. Participants have commented that the roadmap has broadened scope and hence some of them recommended it to be
a university’s roadmap. Mission and vision of the roadmap was the other point of discussion. However vision is recommended to be exactly the same as the university’s vision, mission is commented to be modified. The roadmap is prepared to serve for 10 years. But as the ICT industry is disruptive and underpinning the facts that ICT is very dynamic and ever changing in a rapid pace, 10 years can be too long. Unless some bench marks are used, the roadmap may need revision based on frequent assessment and for alignment with the global changes in given years interval. Participants showed concern on some of the proposed ICT services because they taught the services are preferable to be configured at corporate level instead of at college level. On the other hand they have appreciated inclusion of top health specific applications and ICT services .

Duplication of efforts and resources is main problem in huge institutions. On the contrary there can be a need to use external infrastructure resources. So the roadmap has been commented to incorporate ideas that show a way forward in efficient and effective usage of internal and external resources.

The roadmap is developed to be implemented in CHS Ayder CSH campus. But it shouldn’t be considered for CHS Ayder CSH only. Because there can be other hospitals and health institutions that are probably using CHS Ayder CSH as their role model. So participants suggested that the roadmap should indicate scalability and linkage possibilities to address stakeholders interest.

The other comments correspond to structure and flow of messages. Structure and flow of messages have a significant effect on the readability of the roadmap document. Reflections on the structure of the document were raised and a major emphasis was given. Comments were raised that contents that focus on situational assessment and future plans were scattered and adjustments need to be made to clearly demarcate situational assessment and planning part of the document. Structure of the document was reviewed in detail. It was evaluated against International standard structure templates. It almost followed the standard but some few sub sections are recommended to be included. Benchmark and indexes, enterprise architecture, planned actions and key performance indicators, and monitoring and evaluation are some of the newly proposed sub sections to be incorporated. How do we differentiate between perspectives and pillars?,How scientifically is true driving the 11 pillars/factors/activities from joined maturity models? Other similar questions were reflected and discussed.

The AS-IS and situational analysis majorly focused on infrastructure and more emphasis needs to be given to assess workforce and associated capability. Other comments that focus on typography were raised with possible solutions to add on the readability.

Possible Followup
The workshop was vital in a sense it enabled for an extensive look of the roadmap from diverse disciplines. A number of comments and feedback were raised that has to be seriously considered and answered in the roadmap. To make sure all input is considered and justified properly a write-up session is suggested and volunteer based engagement from the audience is requested. Accordingly, Dr. Hailay, Dr. Tadesse, Mr. Teklay, Dr. Shishay, and Mr. Desalegn Massa shall engage in the write-up and incorporation of the input in this next version of the roadmap.