GCcode/ConceptCase

Problem or opportunity statement

Explain the business problem or opportunity that needs to be solved in one sentence.

Source code developed by GC workers (software engineering, scientists, researchers,...) to support key programs needs to be available for reuse across departments and to be scanned for security vulnerabilities.

Current state or context

Describe the current state in which the problem or opportunity exists. Provide evidence to support the business problem or opportunity.

Aspects to consider: stakeholders and users, business process, technology employed, information or data used, relevant legislation or policies, strategic alignment

Each department has at least one source code repository to manage versioning, and manage the software development life cycle. Many departments have several source code repositories. About $2 million is spent by departments on maintenance of source code repositories their associated continuous integration tools. This is based on data from the Application Portfolio Management program's inventory of applications which covers mostly the large departments.

Root Cause

Traditionally, software development is done within departments without a view to reuse the code or solution for other projects or across departments. Tools did not exist to easily share source code outside departments. Over the past few years, several collaboration platforms centered on development have emerged and gained popularity. The GC can leverage one of those platforms.

Desired business outcome

A common platform to develop and collaborate around source code will

  • Decrease time and cost to build new solutions
  • Reduce costs associated with acquisition and maintenance of source code repositories in each department
  • Improve continuous integration (CI/CD) practices

Future state

Describe the expected future state.

Aspects to consider: stakeholders and users, business process, technology employed, information or data used, relevant legislation or policies, strategic alignment

Source code developers will be able to

  • discover tools to help them be more efficient, such as configuration scripts, user interface customizations.
  • collaborate on common solutions
  • decrease their learning curve for new technologies
  • discover solutions which they can reuse to address their clients needs
  • network and learn from their peers

Departments will be able to

  • Reduce their IT costs by using common version control and CI/CD tools
  • Reduce software development costs by reusing solutions for the same business need.
  • Discover and retain talent

IT Security managers will be able to

  • Quickly locate vulnerable software libraries at the departmental level or across departments
  • Automate application security scans to prevent issues

Next Steps

What are the planned next steps? Are there any known time constraints moving forward?