An Analysis of Design-Reality Gap in Smart city Building: the Case of Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

This paper’s main objective is to propose an appropriate framework to analyse the design/reality gaps in a smart city by considering views from stakeholders within a smart city. Ho Chi Minh City is selected as it is a rapidly developing city with initial plans to implement a smart city, whose six main pillars include Smart Governance, Smart Economy, Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, Smart People, and Smart Living. In the process of transforming a city into a smart one, the design/reality gap is shown as the key reason for failure in several ICT-based projects. Design/reality gaps can be found in five main aspects: Strategy, Technology, Organization, People, and Environment (or STOPE). The differences (or gaps) between where a city is currently at and where it aims to be, regarding these factors can hinder the successful implementation of a smart city. Moreover, smart cities must be built upon the participation of all relevant stakeholders, and not merely a top-down approach. Hence, when looking at these gaps, the perspectives of various stakeholders are considered. Stakeholders may be internal (i.e. public managers and civil servants) and may also be external (i.e. citizens and businesses). If the smart city objectives are poorly understood, conflicts of interest between stakeholders may exist and thus, failure can be unavoidable. Therefore, our framework will be used to investigate what gaps are present in STOPE, from the view of three groups of stakeholders: the government, businesses, and citizens. Out of the 6 pillars of smart city, this paper specifically looks at Smart Governance because Ho Chi Minh City has had plans to develop a shared database that will facilitate better public decision-making. The four characteristics of smart governance are citizen participation in decision-making, public and social services, transparent governance and political strategies & perspectives. Finally, through the framework, our paper explains how the design-reality gaps are related to the many aspects of a smart city in general and smart governance in particular.