A critical review of the Namibian Government IS/T Projects assessments for readiness before deployment– a STOPE view

Abstract

The Namibian government, similar to other governments around the world recognises the criticality and usefulness of Information Systems and Technologies (IS/T) in managing its business processes. As a result, the government has invested in various IS/T projects, which are often designed, developed, and implemented through its various line ministries. However, most of the government IS/T projects are not successfully deployed as they are abandoned during the process of implementation. On the other hand, the implemented IS/T projects are not being fully utilised for their intended purposes. The shortcomings as mentioned above could be attributed to the failure or lack of conducting assessments for readiness before deploying IS/T projects. As a result, the government is not gaining the return on investment (ROI) from IS/T projects and the failure of these projects impedes the government’s goals of providing digital services to its citizens and business partners.This study uses the STOPE framework as a lens to explore and understand the extent to which the government conducts assessments for readiness before implementing IS/T projects. The study focused on a qualitative case study and employed open-ended questionnaire as a data collection tool. Based on the findings, the study offers recommendations towards improving readiness assessments for IS/T projects.