# Presentation: 929017

## Strategy Markup Language (StratML)

- Enterprise Content Management Association (AIIM)
- 1.10.2007

## Agenda

- StratML Scope & Vision
- StratML Benefits
- StratML Proposal to AIIM
- Progress to Date
- Strategic plan core schema
- Strategic plan rendering
- Search & discovery prototype
- StratML core schema & elements

## StratML Vision

- StratML is a proposed XML vocabulary and schema for strategic plans as well as performance plans and performance reports
- The initial focus has been on the core elements of the strategic plans U.S. federal agencies are required to compile and maintain under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA)
- The vision is to establish StratML as an international (ISO) voluntary consensus standard for potential use by all organizations worldwide

**Notes:**
Discuss the CIO-C, AIC, etc.  They were the sponsoring the effort.  

## Slide 4

## Slide 5

## Why StratML?

- Standardization
- Search & Discovery
- Line of Site
- Reduce Resource & Application Dependency
- http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm#DefinitionPurposes

**Notes:**
Decreased time and resource commitment from Federal agencies; 
The establishment of a line of site from strategic goals and objectives to specific actions and resources;
The efficient and intuitive search and discovery of strategic plans, actions, and records, as well as sharable services and strategic alignments;
The enhanced application of content for reporting and research; 
The sharing, referencing, indexing, discovery, linking, reuse, and analyses of the elements of strategic plans;
The discovery of potential performance partners who share common goals and objectives;
The facilitation of stakeholder feedback on strategic goals and objectives;
The improved maintenance and management of strategic plans; and,
The reduction in resources associated with maintaining redundant data "stovepipe" systems.

## StratML Project Proposal to AIIM

- http://www.xml.gov/draft/AIIMProjectProposalXSDforStrategicPlans.htm
**E-Gov Act requires agencies to:**
- “...link their performance goals ... to key groups, including citizens, businesses, and other governments, and to internal Federal Government operations.”
- “...work collectively in linking their performance goals to groups [of stakeholders] and ... use information technology in delivering Government information and services to those groups.”
**Supports AIIM’s mission of developing:**
- The tools and technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes.

**Notes:**
These benefits are what Owen outlined in the StratML project proposal to AIIM.  

Since the eGov Act requires agencies to:
link their performance goals ... to key groups, including citizens, businesses, and other governments, and to internal Federal Government operations ...
work collectively in linking their performance goals to groups [of stakeholders] and ... use information technology in delivering Government information and services to those groups.

Supports AIIM’s mission which is to develop The tools and technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. 

## StratML Project Proposal to AIIM

**Scope statement:**
- An XML schema (XSD) will be specified containing the semantic elements that are common to the strategic plans of all organizations worldwide. Examples include vision, mission, values, goals, objectives, metrics, and stakeholders.
- The XSD will not include stylistic elements.
- To the extent that may be appropriate, the XSD will be modular so that organizations can use any logically separable part of it without being bound to using all of its components. In addition, the schema will be extensible in the sense that any organization can add any element (s) it chooses to meet its own more specialized needs/desires without losing the benefits of the base schema.

## StratML Progress to Date

**Phase 1A (completed)**
- Elements and definitions deemed essential (core) to any strategic plan are logically structured into an XML schema that is consistent with the intent, purpose, and lexicon of the GPRA and best practices of the Strategic Planning and Performance Management (SPPM) process**.**
- StratML Value Proposition White Paper
**Phase 1B (completed)**
- The vocabulary and schema has been tested with 100+ strategic plans
- The goal and objective statements contained in those plans were rendered in XML and the capability to search for and discover related goals and objectives across agencies has been demonstrated.
- StratML Results & Summary White Paper
**Next Steps**
- AIIM’s Standards Board approved StratML for inclusion in its standards program at its meeting in September 2007.
- Establish StratML as an international (ISO) voluntary consensus standard for potential use by all organizations worldwide

**Notes:**
1) research to identify a relatively small set of core elements that are common to all strategic plans;
2) build consensus within the StratML CoP (as well as more broadly across industry and government at all levels, to the degree that time and resources allow) on the semantics (names and definitions) of such elements;
3) rendition, piloting, and testing of an XML vocabulary and template (schema);
4) validation of the template against existing government policy and related standards; 
5) advancement of the schema not only for government wide usage but also for establishment as an international standard through a recognized voluntary consensus standards organization; and
6) Testing and validation of XML CoP’s Federal XML Naming and Design Rules and Guilelines (NDRG).

Corpus includes more than two dozen agency plans as well as the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), the CIO-C strategic plan, the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Program Management Office’s (PMO) action plan, and the strategic plans of several non-profit, public service organizations.

As part of this effort, it is requested that the AIC lead the recruitment from these organization’s to get them actively involved in the review and continued development of StratML.  

I’m going to talk a little bit about each of these phases in more detail.

Phase 2A
Incorporate additional, optional (non-core) elements to produce a complete vocabulary and schema for strategic plans. 
Phase 2B 
Demonstrate and test the additional elements with a number of agency strategic plans.
Phase 3A
Extend the vocabulary and schema to include the elements of performance plans and reports. 
Phase 3B
Test the additional elements with their own agency performance plans and reports.  
Engage industry partners to demonstrate the ability to use the resulting XML documents to aggregate, index, and provide for cross-agency queries and analyses of such reports, in coordination with the Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) process and the ExpectMore.gov site.
Phase 4A
Draft a User’s Guide for StratML for consideration by OMB for potential adoption as a government-wide standard. 
Phase 4B
Seek agency volunteers to pilot and test usage of the Guide.
Phase 5
Compile a report on the results of the first four phases and seek AIC, CIO C, CFO-C, and OMB approval of the entire vocabulary and schema for incorporation in NIEM and issuance of the User’s Guide along with policy governing its usage by all Executive branch agencies

## Strategic Plan Schema & Rendering

- Phase 1A elements and definitions for the core strategic plan were created using GEFEG XML editing software.
- Phase 1B goal and objective statements were rendered in XML using:
- Business Web Software’s AchieveForms
- Microsoft InfoPath
- Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) fillable form
- Microsoft Word
- XOPUS

## Search & Discovery Prototype

- Mark Logic Corporation created a prototype to demonstrate the following capabilities:
**Ingest:**  The 100+ sample strategic plans rendered in XML were ingested instantaneously, without the need of any especial configuration changes or pre-processing steps.  As they were loaded, these documents were automatically indexed, and the various XML tags were identified.
**Query:**  Once ingested, an XQuery application that utilizes the native structure of the rendered plans to query the different parts of the strategic plans was developed.
**Manipulate:**  The prototype allows users to build synthetic documents based on selected sections of different plans.

**Notes:**
Just the tip of the iceberg.  Available on a select basis to users.  If you would like to access to the prototype, please contact me.  

Query notes: For example, the prototype combined the ability to perform full text searches constrained to specific sections (e.g., goals, objectives) or simultaneous querying of multiple sections of the plan.  Users of the prototype can view specific sections of the plan that match a query – or the entire rendered plan in a tree view.  Based on this basic infrastructure, the prototype demonstrates the ability to bookmark and add user annotations related to the plans they query.

The MarkLogic StratML prototype demonstrates the following benefits of StratML:
- The standardization of the data elements associated with a strategic plan, based on XML, greatly facilitates the process of ingestion, management, discovery and searching of strategic plans.  Government officials and citizens will be able to access strategic plan information with a great degree of uniformity, flexibility and accuracy. 

- StratML facilitates the quick repurposing of strategic plan-related information into other products, such as performance plans, with a high degree of granularity. 

## Slide 12

**Notes:**
Plan Elements: Timeframe and the publish date of the strategic plan.  
Submitter Elements: Information about the author or submitter of the strategic plan.  
Organization Elements: Information about the submitting organization including its mission and vision statements.
Goal Elements: Goal statement(s) and resources that support the organization’s mission.
Objective Elements: Objective statement(s) that supports goal(s). 

## StratML Core Schema & Vocabulary

- Summary & Results Whitepaper Appendix C
- http://xml.gov/stratml/SummaryAndResultsWhitePaper20070906.pdf

## StratML Contact Information

- Adam Schwartz
- Government Printing Office
- (202) 512-2055
- aschwartz@gpo.gov
- Owen Ambur
- Department of the Interior (Retired)
- Owen.Ambur@verizon.net
- Betsy A. Fanning
- AIIM
- Director, Standards & Content
- BFANNING@AIIM.ORG
- _[http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm](http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm)_