Management response and action plan for the Evaluation of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's digitization of service delivery through the Digital Service Delivery Platform

Recommendation 1: The CFIA should manage the digitization of service delivery with clear authority.

Management response: Management supports the recommendation and has appointed an authorized executive to optimize digital transformation in the adoption of DSDP with a focus on enhancing the user experience of front-line staff, supporting necessary business process re-engineering and aligning data with CFIA stakeholder needs. Digitization of service delivery encompasses more than the DSDP, therefore Digital Service Branch is developing an Agency Digital Strategy to prioritize and align future efforts of digitally transforming additional services beyond 2025.

Expected deliverables Expected implementation date Accountability
Develop an Agency Digital Strategy with prioritized initiatives for data and digitization that can be scaled, based on available financial resources and capacity. March 2025 Vice President, Digital Services Branch
Appoint an accountable lead for responding to issues raised in the Evaluation of the CFIA's digitization of service delivery through the DSDP. January 2024 Vice President, Operations Branch
Establish a multidisciplinary team with various groups responsible for delivery of components of the digitization of the CFIA's service delivery that leverage DSDP. March 2024 Vice President, Operations Branch
Establish a governance structure to support the adoption of DSDP. June 2024 Vice President, Operations Branch

Recommendation 2: The authorized executive for digital service delivery (from recommendation 1) should create a project plan including a timeline, budget and implementation roadmap in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Service and Digital. The plan would include improvements to the existing user interface and experience for DSDP.

Management response: Management supports the recommendation and has appointed a dedicated executive to optimize digital transformation in the adoption of DSDP with a focus on enhancing the user experience of front-line staff, supporting necessary business process re-engineering, and aligning data with CFIA stakeholder needs. Digitization of service delivery encompasses more than the DSDP, therefore Digital Service Branch is developing an Agency Digital Strategy to prioritize and align future efforts of digitally transforming additional services beyond 2025.

Expected deliverables Expected implementation date Accountability
Build business plan complemented with scalable Information Management and Information Technology (IM/IT) roadmap based off the Agency Digital Strategy with prioritized initiatives for data and digitization. March 2025 Vice President, Digital Services Branch
Focus on enhancing the user experience of front-line staff, and aligning data with CFIA stakeholder needs. June 2024 Vice President, Operations Branch

Recommendation 3: The CFIA should collect and analyze comprehensive user feedback on satisfaction with service delivery through My CFIA.

Management response: Management supports the recommendation however notes that the focus of the evaluation was DSDP and Operations Branch is establishing a multidisciplinary team with an enabling governance structure to support collecting and analyzing user feedback to optimize the adoption of DSDP with a focus on enhancing the user experience of front-line staff.

Expected deliverables Expected implementation date Accountability
Leverage feedback mechanisms such as user engagement sessions, Walk Me and other tools to gather, analyze and implement feedback (where possible). June 2024 Vice President, Operations Branch

Recommendation 4: Going forward, platform development and design should be consistently user-centric, systematically incorporating user feedback from both internal and external users.

Management response: Management supports the recommendation.

Expected deliverables Expected implementation date Accountability
Build user experience (UX) expertise and capacity in the CFIA to support user centred design. March 2025 Vice President, Operations Branch

Recommendation 5: Training should be updated in coordination with planned releases and offered in a timely manner.

Management response: Management supports the recommendation noting that many DSDP Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were updated in March 2023 following the evaluations survey period.

Expected deliverables Expected implementation date Accountability

Operations Branch is establishing a multidisciplinary team to work in collaboration with Operations Branch (Operations Training and National Schools), Human Resources Branch (Learning Directorate), and Digital Services Branch (Platform and Solutions) to ensure an end-user-centric lens is applied to the continuum of systems changes, training development and learning supports with the aim to optimize user-experience. This Learning and Internal User Support (LINUS) working group will work with the project manager to ensure training be updated in coordination with planned releases for enhancing user experience.

LINUS will collaborate with inflight initiatives and projects to provide advice for ensuring training be updated in coordination with planned releases for enhancing user experience.

March 2025 Vice President, Operations Branch

Recommendation 6: That internal support documents are available consistently and well communicated to staff in a timely manner.

Management response: Management supports the recommendation noting that many DSDP Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were updated in March 2023 following the evaluations survey period.

Expected deliverables Expected implementation date Accountability

Operations Branch is establishing a multidisciplinary team to work in collaboration with Operations Branch (Operations Training and National Schools), Human Resources Branch (Learning Directorate), and Digital Services Branch (Platform and Solutions) to ensure an end-user-centric lens is applied to the continuum of systems changes, training development and learning supports with the aim to optimize user-experience. This Learning and Internal User Support (LINUS) working group will work with the project manager to ensure SOPs and learning aids be updated and consistently made accessible to staff in coordination with planned releases for enhancing user experience.

LINUS will collaborate with inflight initiatives and projects to provide advice for ensuring SOPs and learning aids be updated and consistently made accessible to staff in coordination with planned releases for enhancing user experience.

March 2025 Vice President, Operations Branch