Standard License Shutterstock

Quality Assurance for Municipality of Amersfoort

/in , /by

The Digital Case-Oriented Work File got off to a rough start. Nothing is as radical as a system that changes your daily work. The system used was 'end-of-life' but proved difficult to deploy. The new system promised much but was technically complex. The Management Board felt the need for a critical outside view to assist with this programme. As an 'insurance premium'.

Contribution of Takeshape - Quality Assurance to the Amersfoort Digital Programme

In recent years, I have been commissioned by the Management Board of the Municipality of Amersfoort to perform the Quality Assurance role on the programme Digital Case-oriented Working, which has meanwhile changed into "Amersfoort Digital". From the sidelines, I was able to assist the programme with my 'view from the outside'. A unique opportunity to contribute to my own city. Much appreciation for the challenges that the IT/IV organisation of a municipality has to deal with.

 

Standard Shutterstock License

CISSP - Information Security Certificate obtained!

/in , /by

It is a regularly recurring discussion within organisations. When do you really know something? Organising information provision has become enormously complex. Clients cannot oversee this forest of three-letter abbreviations and have to rely on advice. I see too many professionals bluffing their way through the field based on 'a dose of common sense' and a smooth talk. I like to go one spade deeper. When a client asked me in 2019 if I could assist them in making their organisation ISO27001-proof, I replied; "yes, but". Yes, but I am going to pass the Certified Information Systems Security Professional exam first. I study for fun and this was a means to force myself to keep up. No sooner said than done. I registered at FOX-IT in Delft and followed the training from January to July. Lovely to immerse yourself in such an uber-geek organisation.

Een CISSP certificering is drie jaar geldig. Tijdens die drie jaar dient de professional aantoonbaar zijn of haar vak bij te houden door zelfstudie en training. Een CISSP certificaat is dus geen eenmalige prestatie, maar een bewijs van een leven lang leren.

Update (aug 2023): CISSP certificering verlengd tot augustus 2026

The right software for TenneT projects on- and offshore

/in /by

Connecting a wind farm to TenneT's fixed high-voltage grid easily involves more than 40 parties. The amount of coordination required to bring such a project to a successful conclusion is phenomenal. The Project Management Office of Offshore NL is in charge of this. On behalf of the PMO, I am investigating which systems are required to provide optimal support to the PMO and how these systems should be connected to the rest of the TenneT systems.

Contribution Takeshape - European Tender Project Management

After a market consultation, I led the European tender that resulted in a contract with an Indian party in May 2021. As is customary with Takeshape and complex projects, this did not happen in a straight line. During the tender process, more business units showed an interest in participating. Under the OneTenneT development, the tender was anchored higher up in the organisation so that the system would become a TenneT-wide generic service. All future projects at the major project departments and at Grid Field Operations will use the system.

In close cooperation with the IT department, architects and service managers, we were able to draw up a future-proof contract with maketype pricing. In the meantime, we had to start working with the entire team online in March 2020. In the small, well-established team, this went fantastically well. Negotiations with large teams of software providers also went well, even better, online.

In the meantime, the contract has been put on hold and implementation is in full swing.

 

 

 

Dutch Transplant Foundation

An own IM organisation for the Dutch Transplant Foundation

/in /by

Taking charge yourself, but how?

If you deal with death and the wishes of the deceased and their next of kin on a daily basis, you know that the margin of error must be small. The world of organ and tissue transplantation demands accurate and reliable information. So it will be exciting when the Dutch Transplant Foundation decides to insource application development and data management in 2018. Since its foundation in 1997, the NTS has been using IT support from Eurotransplant, the umbrella European foundation. Both foundations decide to complete the IT unbundling process. But how? And, which capacities should the NTS develop then? Is that possible with the limited size of the NTS?
The NTS does not have much time because the introduction of the Active Donor Registration Act on 1 July 2020 is fast approaching and in the meantime they have to move to new premises in Leiden. Both have a major impact and a high IT and data component. It is important that there is clarity soon!

Vision development

In the summer of 2018, I developed a vision for and especially with the Dutch Transplant Foundation about bringing information and data management under our own control. What capacities do we need, what do we do ourselves, what do we outsource? What technology do we use and how do we become proficient at it? What priorities do we choose? This plan, which also has personnel implications, has been approved by the NTS works council.

Putting our money where our mouth is

In the autumn of 2018, I actually implemented the plan. In an interim management role, I built up the Information Management department and the Management Team was expanded with the role of Information Manager. A new technology was chosen and a training programme was initiated with the help of external specialists.

Recruitment has succeeded in filling two crucial new roles, that of information manager and lead developer. Our own people will be in charge, a key element of the plan! My mission will be complete in the spring of 2019, when the structure will be in place and all the bases will be covered. After a month of handing over to the new information manager, I leave the NTS and its staff with professional pride and personal admiration.

A new IT governance model for Maastricht University

/in /by

Maastricht University (UM) is the most international university in the Netherlands and, with over 17,000 students and 4,000 staff, is still growing. The university distinguishes itself through its innovative educational model, international character and multidisciplinary approach to research and education.

The challenge

Maastricht University has strategically ambitious plans and partnerships that require IT innovation, but at the same time has found that the information provision is insufficiently capable of moving with it. A bottleneck analysis is available, but it does not tell the full story. There is more to it than roadmaps of systems and substantive IT choices. The clearer the vision, the easier the choices. Forming a vision, organising decision-making and adapting working methods in combination with content, that's when things fall into place.

Contribution Takeshape - Organisational Change of the IT Domain - Vision, Design, Implementation

As a part of the Wielinq brand, Takeshape forms a team which together shapes the renewal of the IT domain of Maastricht University. The goal is to become an adaptive organisation and to better connect and embed the IT domain in the organisation. Using the motto "practice what you preach", the team lays down a vision and translates it into a design for organisation and decision-making. The principles of the intended organisation are also applied in the programme itself. Taking "User-centred" design seriously means making the organisational design in sprints in which a broad reflection of the institution participates. Using the power of visual communication. Step by step, sprint by sprint, the design of the intended IT domain takes shape.

The design becomes reality with the recent appointment of the new CIO who chairs the IT Board, core of the new IT Governance organisation.

The new organisational model cannot be introduced as a big bang, the change is too big for that. The next step is therefore a period of learning and experimentation. Important parts of the organisational design are put into practice. Takeshape also supervises this phase, the 'learning programme', after which the supervision moves to the background and the organisation itself will take over the management of the change.

Professional IT support for growing engineering firm

/in /by

In 2016, a Private Equity party stepped into the already successful Petersburg, which by then had 25 consultants. In view of the energy transition, the newly appointed management team is tasked with achieving strong growth and upgrading the organisation.

St. Petersburg is a highly qualified engineering company in the field of high voltage and pipeline infrastructure. It offers engineering, consultancy and advisory services within the energy sector. It makes designs for high-voltage substations, high-voltage connections, carries out life cycle studies. In doing so, it uses the latest techniques. In order to remain at the forefront of the sector, it opts for strong growth.

Takeshape was asked in 2018 to bring the IT support to the desired level because the current informal model is not scalable. Petersburg Consultants now has 45 employees. In a short time, I mapped out the requirements, drew up a programme of requirements and carried out a supplier selection. At the same time, I carried out an AVG assessment. This freed up engineering capacity and increased the level of IT support.

en_GBEnglish
nl_NLDutch en_GBEnglish