For this programme to be successful in any Arts Organisation it is essential that it has the commitment of senior management within that organisation.

As you will see from the outline that follows, the programme is not trivial, but nor are the benefits. The programme is likely to affect everyone in the organisation in some way, most significantly the IT staff and senior management. Depending on the size and constitution of the Arts Organisation, senior management for these purposes means the trustees or the managers whose areas of responsibility are dependent on the information and systems running on the organisation’s ICT. There will be some tough decisions to make, especially in terms of the sustainability of some systems and technology and the risks involved. In particular, the IT staff will require senior management support to address some of the more important disciplines and initiatives that will required, some of which have their roots imbedded in legislation, for example the Data Protection Act. To provide this support, senior management will also need to be briefed and we will be attempting to provide this perspective as well as a more detailed perspective for those who require further information.

Please do not sign up for the programme if you are not prepared as an organisation to provide this commitment.

The content of this programme is based on a simplified version of certain key international and national standards, for example, BS15000 for IT operations management, Prince2 for project management, ISO17799 for information security and Investors in People for IT training and development. Our "mission" will be to introduce these standards and indeed, other important IT management issues, in a structured and easily understood form. The main reasons for this is that these standards have evolved over many years and they represent current best practice, but also that a large amount of educational material already exists for them, including relevant training courses should these be required.

One last point before we outline the programme. "IT" is convenient shorthand for a complex subject. In this programme we will use the term in a broad sense. More specifically "IT Management" will be interpreted to mean the management of Information, Systems and Technology. A similar point applies to the abbreviation ICT. However, here ICT will be interpreted to mean only the "technology" in Information, Systems and Technology. Let us look now at an outline of the programme by each dimension.

In addition the programme is supported by this website with the "members enclosure" which will contain all the material presented at the workshops with references to other sources of information and related topics.

Finally, each participating Arts Organisation will have access to an "IT friend" who will provide advice or help identify who can give appropriate advice and who may also be able to organise other pro bono support. Unfortunately limited resources in the WCIT Arts Panel means that the numbers of participating Arts Organisations it can support will be limited and hence membership of the programme will be limited