Government IT Projects Research Articles

Institutional challenges in agile adoption: Evidence from a public sector IT project

Agile is emerging as a promising approach in governments, with the potential to significantly enhance project management when implemented effectively. Despite its potential merits, it has not yet become a mainstream approach in government IT projects, primarily due to the incongruence between Agile practices and conventional methods of project funding, governance, and management. In order to contribute to our understanding of Agile in public sector practice, this study examines an extensive IT program in the UK defense sector which adopted Agile. We applied institutional logics as a theoretical lens to understand the complex dynamics within this environment, investigating the change mechanisms and the enduring tensions and conflicts. Our analysis of interview data revealed the key change mechanisms “mission collaborator” and “one team culture”. Unresolved tensions in our case setting encompass public value versus cost, project approval, policy, governance, and culture.

Towards a sociomaterial approach to inter-organizational boundaries: How information systems elicit relevant knowledge in government outsourcing

This article furthers a sociomaterial framework to examine inter-organizational boundaries in government IT projects. It engages in a dialogue with the practice theory-based approach to boundary spanning and utilizes analytical tools and epistemologies drawn from the social studies of technology. It aims to contribute to a situated, material understanding of inter-organizational boundaries. We argue that boundaries in outsourcing relationships can be de facto enacted through definitions of what counts as relevant knowledge. Information systems have a key role in eliciting such definitions, thus establishing knowledge asymmetries and regimes of inclusion and exclusion. The article responds to the call to value the role of artefacts in IT research. Furthermore, it eventually shows that understanding knowledge asymmetries triggered at the micro-level of information systems can help to examine macro-scale transformations between the public and the private sectors. To illustrate the framework, two ethnographic case studies of governmental IT projects are discussed. The first case concerns a permit and licence submission service in Italy. The second case analyses a 20-year-long database integration carried on at the Dutch land registry. In the first case, information systems made relevant a form of knowledge developed by contractors; in the second case, the integration process valued knowledge developed in-house. Three sets of implications are drawn for the theory and practice of inter-organizational IT projects. To conclude, the article focuses on inter-organizational boundaries involving the public and the private sectors and foresees a novel interdisciplinary research direction at the confluence of information systems and political studies.

IT Project Failures, Causes and Cures

We have known for decades that IT projects often fail. The usual explanation is that the cause is poor project management, poor cost estimation, poor requirements, etc. But how can we prevent these causes? To answer this question, it is not sufficient to know that there was poor project management, etc. Would it suffice to educate better project managers? And what would we have to teach them that they don't learn today? We have to know what actually took place in the projects, identify the root causes, and find ways to prevent them (cures). This is similar to accident investigations in aviation. This paper reports the results of five accident investigations of large government IT projects in Denmark. We identified 37 root causes and 22 potential cures. Surprisingly, only one of the causes is programming-related. Each project suffered from around 15 of the causes. Twenty-seven of the causes are not reported in the research literature on IT project failures (e.g. surprises with system integration and wrong estimate of human performance). Half of the cures are familiar to developers, but were ignored in the specific project (example: usability test). The rest are unfamiliar (e.g. problem-oriented requirements and monitoring remaining work).

Three enduring government IT failures: Costly consequences continue for years - [Spectral Lines

Large, costly government IT project failures often hit the media with a splash but quickly drop from public view. That's because the aftereffects of these failures linger on for years and years, long after the media has moved on to cover newer, greener disasters. As a reminder, here are three spectacular IT project failures that occurred over the past decade, and why the ramifications of each are still being felt today.

Panel: Peculiarities in Human Factors Consulting on Government Projects

This panel will provide a forum for ruminating about the unique challenges that arise for human factors consultants when working on government projects. Even practitioners who are well-experienced in the private, non-profit, or academic sectors, frequently encounter obstacles when offering their services to government agencies. Government contracting involves its own set of terminology, business practices, and procurement procedures. We have assembled a panel of well-experienced human factors engineering consultants to identify and discuss such peculiarities They each have considerable recent experience in federal government IT projects as well as a history that includes project work in other business sectors. Drawing upon that experience we will ask them to discuss what makes government consulting different. The audience will have ample opportunities to pose questions to the panelists about the challenges faced in government human factors and user experience consulting work and how they have dealt with those challenges.

A garbage can model of government IT project failures in developing countries: The effects of leadership, decision structure and team competence

Government IT projects in developing countries face a number of unique challenges. However, there has been a paucity of research addressing government IT project management in developing countries. Based on the garbage can model, this research discusses and addresses how government IT project in developing countries should be managed from a leadership and decision structure perspective. With samples drawn from 433 IT project participants in Semarang municipal government, Indonesia, this research finds that leadership style is a major predictor of decision structure used in government IT projects. Decision structure, in turn, influences IT project success. Specifically, participative decision structure is positively associated with project success, whereas hierarchical decision structure hurts project performance. Empowering leadership is positively related to participative decision structure, while transactional leadership is positively related to hierarchical decision structure, and laissez-faire leadership is positively associated to specialized decision structure. Finally, team competence moderates the relationship between hierarchical decision structure and project success so that when team competence is low, hierarchical decision making is less negatively related to project success versus when team competence is high. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse of garbage can theory by extending it to include leadership style as a key predictor of decision structure in organized anarchy. The implications for government IT project management in developing countries are also discussed.

A process model for bricolage-based resource co-management for a resource-constrained government IT project

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which central government in resource-constrained environments collaborates with local government to utilize the available resources at hand to set up 300 Digital Opportunity Centers (DOCs) in 168 remote areas in Taiwan through co-management to bricolage new resources and new capabilities, gradually bridging the urban-rural digital divide to co-create values for local development. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopted an in-depth case study. The authors selected Taiwan’s DOC, the largest public information service infrastructure project in Taiwan, to explore issues related to bricolage-based resource co-management. Findings – From the integrating relevant literature, the generic process of bricolage-based resource co-management can be inferred to consist of four major steps. Applying this body of knowledge as a theoretical lens to analyze the case of Taiwan’s DOC, a process model of bricolage-based resource co-management is inductively derived to address the research questions. Research limitations/implications – A common criticism of this methodology is its lack of generalizability since a case study cannot prove itself in a statistical sense. Practical implications – This study is significant in that it provides a comprehensive and empirically supported framework. The authors hope that practitioners who face resource constraints when conducting large-scale IT projects can use the process model developed in this study as a detailed roadmap to identify the most appropriate actions and steps to undertake. Originality/value – This study provides an empirically grounded framework that contributes toward addressing the lack of empirical studies in bricolage-based, resource co-management research.

Implausible promises: the information revolution in the NHS

Linking the UK Coalition Government's Health and Social Care Act to historical trend to 'outsource' government IT projects to privately owned tech firms and to processes of technologisation in the National Health Service, this article explores both the reality and the rhetoric of the government's purported 'information revolution' in the NHS. It takes issue with a view of technological fixes as being merely at the service of scientific, medical, or political masters, and argues for the importance of considering the role of IT in the marketisation of healthcare in the United Kingdom. Technology influences both the way information is gathered and the nature of what is measured, but these processes are rarely subject to any critical review; and once data has been produced, its reduction of complex processes to arithmetical categories can be forgotten, and decisions more easily made through market practices.

Studying eGovernment Trust in Developing Nations: A Case of University and Colleges Admissions and Services in Egypt

INTRODUCTION In the last decade, eGovernment has become one of the most important emerging applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It has the potential of making government more transparent and effective which helps to overcoming the complexity of bureaucracy, increasing the efficiency of the economy, reducing the time taken to receive services and permitting businesses and citizens to connect directly to government information. As result of the perceived importance of eGovernment many developed and developing nations have attempted to initiate and implement eGovernment projects with mixed success. Among these nations very few have succeeded in achieving their set targets, whilst larger number have arguably failed (Heeks & Bhatnagar, 2001); United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs-UNDESA (2003c). According to the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs-UNDESA (2003b) the percentage of failure amongst eGovernment projects worldwide varies from 60% to 80%. A survey conducted on 40 eGovernment projects in developing nations found that 35% of projects were considered as being total failures, 50% were considered of being partial failures and only 15% of the projects could be classed as success (Heeks, 2003a). The problem of failures with eGovernment IT projects - as with any IT project - failure, whatever the type of it, is that it is very costly (Khasawneh & Ibrahim, 2008). As well as the costs incurred from the direct loss of funding (i.e. funds spent without achieving any improvement in the public sector), there are indirect costs such as the loss of time and effort of public sector employees. There is also an unseen cost that can have implications beyond the project itself, which is the loss of trust towards the government itself (Heeks, 2003b). As noted above, one of the key aspects arising from failing projects is the loss of trust towards governments - particularly in respect of IT projects. The result is that eGovernment projects are in danger of losing their customer base (citizens), and will consequently join the list of 'failed government IT projects'. The research presented in this paper investigates the issue of trust and eGovernment projects in developing nation (Egypt) from the point of view of the citizen, with the aim of understanding the impact of trust on their take-up of eGovernment services, and the ultimate objective of improving the success rate of eGovernment projects. The hypotheses set out below have underpinned the research presented: H1: Trust has significant effect on using eGovernment services. H2: Technology trust has significant effect on using eGovernment services. H3: eGovernment trust has significant effect on using eGovernment services. The following sections begin with outlining the context of trust and eGovernment, and proceed to discuss two types of trust that are relevant in the context of eGovernment: trust in technology, and trust in eGovernment. These issues also fall within the scope of eGovernment implemented within developing nation (Egypt). Having set the background the authors introduce the research conducted by describing the method used, the findings from the data and the conclusion drawn from those results. EGOVERNMENT AND TRUST Defining eGovernment trust Trust as general concept can be defined as a set of expectations shared by all those in an exchange (Zucker, 1986). However, defining eGovernment trust is more complicated issue because of the different factors that can affect citizens' trust, as well as the broad range of stakeholders who contribute (to varying extents) to 'trusted eGovernment'. In many cases, personal characteristics, such as age and gender, have significant effect on determining trust for eGovernment. For example, elderly people in many situations prefer paper-based services which they have used for many years, rather than using an eGovernment website (Thomas, 1998). …

The FBI Gets Agile

In the basement of the Hoover building in Washington, DC, FBI employees and contractors are working together to create Sentinel, a case-management software system designed to revolutionize how the FBI gathers, stores, and links its data. Learn how the FBI team used agile methods to transform this time-consuming, expensive, and off-track government IT project into a successful program. The FBI's experience in developing Sentinel provides practical insight into how government agencies and other traditionally nonsoftware-development-focused organizations can exploit agile methodologies.

Protecting vulnerable groups after Soham and Bichard: Is IT the solution, or part of the problem?

Increasing reliance is being placed on IT systems in criminal justice, to deliver ‘joined-up’ justice and to monitor offenders. With the modern emphasis on managing risk of offending, we have seen the creation of various offender registers. Yet there are real concerns. A number of recent government IT projects in criminal justice have been over-ambitious. Initial enthusiasm for setting up systems is not always matched by the finance, staffing and administration necessary to maintain them. Of most concern in the development of these databases, however, is the slide away from basic principles of allegation and proof. Registers and record checks effectively ignore what was once a clear distinction between caution and conviction. Enhanced checks now include access to soft ‘intelligence’ information about a person, which has not been tested in court or otherwise. Access to this material is being made available, not just to criminal justice professionals, but to the wider public.

Better funding for government IT: Views from the front line

When asked to identify the barriers preventing public agencies from more effectively using information technologies, government officials have consistently pointed to two as post important. One is a lack of long-term leadership, including problems involved in getting political and civil service leaders and overseers to commit projects with benefits that are either uncertain, controversal, or long-term. Other, and related, problem is obtaining funding through a budgeting process that is perennially tight and often biased against many of the most valuable governmental IT opportunities. This study focuses on the funding problem, and particularly on ways to improve governement IT budgeting. We find that, while those directly involved in government IT projects, thay have also developed a number of approaches that hold significant promise for the future