[Peetwo]

Cloud Cuckoo Land. Part II - What Newton said  

Dear Barnaby has a fight on his hands, if; and I do stipulate IF he can be bothered. Firstly he must deal with Carmody; who seems to live in a world far removed from this one. You really must read ‘Flashman and the Dragon’ to get a real fix on Cloud Cuckoo Land. The Oxford defines it; and Wiki do a nice little piece on it – but, for my money the Flashman version ‘takes you there’.  

Henneman – in the ‘Winds of change’ wrote:-“I for one would love nothing more than to see two rugged men battle it out, especially if you both did it shirtless in kilts. As a matter of fact, I would even take bets on who would win.”

In primus, I would question whether Carmody, apart from the odd ‘session’ with Aleck, has even a vague grip on the realities he faces. Seriously, has he ever been out of the building into the real air? In the rarefied atmosphere in which Carmody lives, given his apparent total ignorance of what is really happening – on his watch – beneath his vision and (we hope) without his ‘authority’ even rate a mention? Did I just mention without his authority? I did. Well let’s examine that.

You see, without his knowledge or consent to a course of action; probably without even his interest, ‘things’ are occurring which totally and utterly contradict his mindless blathering’s of ‘just culture’ or even promised reform.  Tea and biccie’s with the Rev. Forsyth don’t count. What is happening beneath the top floor does; in real terms, to real people – in real dollars, do much harm without achieving any of his 'stated' intentions of 'sorting things out'.

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” (Poe)

We must ask; has Carmody too fallen under the hypnotic spell of ‘hewhodovoodoo’. It certainly seems like he has. It is, after all, far easier to lay back and accept the hypnotic, subliminal suggestive rather than to deny it credence. Why would you? The lovely walk through the tranquil gardens, behind the swamps; the easy way through a Senate crew audacious inquiries, the totally legal way to lie and bull-shit you’re way through an Estimates hearing, an inquiry or even a ministerial report must be magical music in the deaf ears of a not too wise monkey.

But: Carmody is not only deaf, for convenience; but, to be blind to the absolute total shambles his organisation has created, with ministerial backing, is plain dumb.

Carmody is not blind just for convenience sake. You see - what you can’t see but can deny cannot hurt you. The ‘blind eye’ syndrome works just fine; until of course ‘what you can’t see’ bites you on the arse, then matters become slightly more personal.  

“The cerebral narcissist is as competitive and intolerant of criticism or disagreement as his somatic counterpart. The subjugation and subordination of others demand the establishment of his undisputed intellectual superiority or professional authority. It is a "hidden or tacit competition" (Lowen). The cerebral narcissist aspires to perfection. Thus, even the slightest and most inconsequential challenge to his authority is inflated by him. Hence, the disproportionateness of his reactions.”

All of which leads us to the inevitable questions. Did Carmody ever have real control over his operation? The ‘facts and circumstances’ deny this any possibility of being accurate. Therefore if one end of the dog is moving – the other must be doing the work. Which end of this monstrosity has Carmody got hold off? We must all hope ‘tis the right end, for ‘tuther will bite him hard.

Aye well, my three brass monkey’s sit on the desk, smiling smugly at me while keeping the ‘paperwork’ weighted down. That pile of stuff looks, to a man on a galloping horse, neat and sorted – it ain’t. It’s my ‘too hard’ stack to which, I will, one of theses days attend.

Toot toot.

To follow on from the "K" OBS, please read the following ZD Net article which features a Friday released CASA RFT for farming out it's 'digital transformation':
  

CASA has AU$9m for someone to handle its digital transformation

Australian government entities are catching the transformation bug, but the aviation agency wants someone else to handle it for them.

By Asha McLean | December 21, 2017 -- 23:16 GMT (10:16 AEDT)

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The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has gone to market with a kitty of AU$8.5-AU$9 million to find a partner to deliver its digital transformation.

The request for tender (RFT), published on Friday, is seeking a vendor to lead its customer-focused service delivery transformation (SDT) across four six-month phases.

The vision of the SDT program is to "build and foster a client-centric service delivery culture, with an aligned and committed team to champion service delivery transformation".

CASA was established in mid-1995 as an independent statutory authority under section 8 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 and is a body corporate considered separate from the Commonwealth.

Its primary function is to conduct the safety regulation of civil air operations in Australia and the operation of Australian aircraft overseas.

"The evolution of CASA's ICT environment has resulted in a number of non-integrated 'purpose built' complex systems and siloed information," the RFT reads. "From this, CASA does not have a 'single view of client'."

At the end of the transformation program, CASA wants to have a "client-centric" agency that is "digital by default" and "data-driven". Sparing no industry buzzword, it is seeking a single source of truth and a single view of client; it also wants simplified systems and processes and a "one CASA" culture.

The aviation agency also wants to adopt an agile methodology, which means the transformation's phases will be broken down into sprints.

As part of this customer-centric transformation, CASA is expecting to leverage an identity framework based upon digital standards provided by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), which published draft documentation last month.

Giving clients the "channel of choice" option, any new system or platform will need to be accessible via mobile devices.

CASA wants to migrate disparate datasets and gain a better view on the shadow IT used within its organisation; it also wants to integrate external sources of data such as vehicle registrations, flight log details, incidents, and medical record status of its clients. The agency also wants the facility to conduct data analytics on this data.

Self-service and "robot interactions" -- chatbots -- are also requested by CASA.

The first phase of the transformation, estimated by CASA to cost around AU$670,000, will see service capabilities -- defined as specific segments of the business that will be transformed under the program -- built out.

Phase 1 will see the Remote Piloted Aircraft System -- drone -- service capability transformed, requiring the consolidation of application lodgement, process automation, and customer self-service, among others.

The next phase will see the transformation of the Pilots/Flight Crew and the Maintenance Training Organisations/Personnel service capabilities, with both requiring their own self-service portals, process automation, and channel consolidation.

Similarly, Phase 3, Aircraft Registrations and Commercial Air Operators service capabilities, will require channel consolidation, but also a complete and live aircraft register.

CASA expects to maintain the Adobe Experience Manager it currently uses as its primary digital platform to provide form capability to internal and external users; similarly, its existing Microsoft CRM Dynamics platform will be kept to underpin its single view of client requirement.

The agency is currently in the initial stages of developing its external capability through Microsoft Dynamics 365 on the Microsoft Azure cloud, current instances include a Portal and Enquiries Management applications. Microsoft CRM Dynamics is installed and configured on Microsoft Windows 2012R2 server infrastructure, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 is externally hosted through Microsoft Azure cloud.

CASA also uses the European Aviation Processing software as its central repository that holds details of all civil aviation authorisations including licences, permissions, certifications, and registrations issued to individuals, organisations, aircraft, and aerodromes.

It also allows external users to review a limited subset of information online, but it does not provide an adequate client experience to effectively interact with CASA digitally, the RFT reads.

CASA intends to appoint a digital transformation manager, an SDT program manager, two additional project managers, two SDT change managers, and six UX designers/business analysts. It also wants the successful vendor to train staff and equip them with the tools to create an "enduring internal capability".

The tender closes February 23, 2018.

Now in response to this revelation I note that geek and aviator Mark Newton has created a twitter thread which gets my vote for this week's TTOW (Twitter thread of the week)... :

https://twitter.com/NewtonMark/status/94...7769847809

The 2017-18 projection for @CASABriefing expenditure is $183 million. There are 15408 aircraft registered in Australia. So that’s about $12,000 worth of regulation per aircraft. Now they’re going to piss $9 million up the wall on “digital transformation.”

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Maybe if CASA really wants to be more efficient, they can write regulations which don’t require $132.9 million pa worth of payroll expenses ($9000 per aircraft) to administer. https://infrastructure.gov.au/department/statements/2017_2018/budget/casa3.aspx …

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[url=https://t.co/BuTSs1eNTJ][/url]They only reason they cost so much that efficiency is important is because they write regulations which need thousands of staff for paperwork. They’ve added 40 staff ($7.5 million) this year alone.

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Innovation is inspired by adversity. Perhaps if CASA really wants efficiency, a good way to start would be to say, “We will write regulations that enable us to maintain current safety and increase flying hours with a 50% budget cut.”

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CASA doesn’t do ATC. They don’t do accident investigations. They don’t own and run airports. For small aircraft, they don’t even set training or airworthiness standards. Almost all of their job is paperwork. $12,000 per Australian aircraft worth of paperwork.

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Incidentally, out of those 15408 registered aircraft, a lot of them are slowly rusting in sheds, unairworthy. So for some of them, CASA is spending $12,000 pa on regulations to stop them from flying. (Subcontract it out? I’ll give you a 25% saving @ $9k per aircraft)

Well done Mark - the choccy Santa is in the mail...

MTF...P2