Information Systems for Public Management: Design and Implementation

Abstract

The issue of design and implementation of systems in the public sector has received little attention to date. This has resulted in the lack of an appropriate process for the development of systems for public organizations. Thus, a serious problem exists in the public sector. The development and use of systems is becoming a high priority in many organizations, but paradigms for systems development have been derived largely for use in private enterprise. These models are often inappropriate for the public sector, for they fail to address the differences between public and private organizations. Application of these existing models to a public organization has the potential to lead to failure of the system, as well as wasted financial and human resources. The term information system is a generic one. It encompasses both management systems (MIS) and decision support systems (DSS), and is used when refering to both types of systems. Management systems are transaction-based systems that seek to summarize data for routine managerial decision making. Decision support systems provide highly flexible computer modeling frameworks that allow the decision maker or policy analyst to address unstructured and nonroutine managerial problems. The use of computer-based systems in public organizations has been an important topic in the public management literature for some time. The major thrust of research in this area has been on how organizations and managers utilize MIS and how the introduction of MIS has affected the structure and dynamics of the organization. ' In contrast, the design and implementation of MIS and DSS are major areas of research for the business community, and a substantial body of literature exists on these topics for private sector organizations. This literature and the associated prescriptive methodologies can form the basis for developing an appropriate process for both the design and implementation of MIS and DSS in the public sector. Though a few articles in this literature discuss the difficulties associated with systems design in public organizations, only limited attention has been focused on needed differences in the design process for the public sector.2 * The development and use of systems is becoming a high priority in many public organizations, but methods for this development have been designed largely for use in the private sector. These systems development approaches are often inappropriate for the public sector, for they fail to address the differences between public and private organizations. This article addresses this problem by dealing with the theoretical and practical aspects of developing both management systems (MIS) and decision support systems (DSS) for public management. It introduces the reader to the concepts and methods of systems development, provides a review of the relevant literature, describes the primary approach used for systems design and implementation in the private sector, and identifies the problems associated with its use in public organizations. An systems development method appropriate for public management, the Iterative Systems Development Cycle, is proposed and applied to a public organization.