eGovernment Success or Failure

eGovernment Success or Failure

Why do

eGovernment

projects

succeed or fail

and what to do

to prevent

failure ?

eGovernment Success or Failure

Regine Deleu

Enterprise Strategic Advisor

13 Dec 2013

eGovernment Success or Failure December 13, 2013

1 Executive Summary | Regine Deleu


2 Executive Summary | Regine Deleu

Executive Summary

eGovernment projects tend to need substantial tax money funding. To have a dollar well spent, it

is required that stakeholders create the right environment. eGovernment projects need to be

reality-checked all through the design, implementation and operation. It is essential for the

success of eGovernment projects that the design team build profound knowledge of the gaps

between reality and desired outcome. These gaps are related to eight dimensions: information,

technology, processes, objectives and values, staffing and skills, management systems and

structures, other resources, and the outside world. It is necessary to take measures towards

closing the gaps as early as possible.

eGovernment projects may have clear objectives but if the reality is disregarded it often leads to

failure. Moreover, rectifying an ill-developed eGovernment platform after its implementation will

become an exercise far more costly than had the project been well-planned and gap analysed

from the start.


3 About the Author | Regine Deleu

About the Author

Regine Deleu is an Enterprise Strategic Advisor & Lead Enterprise

Architect working for the New Zealand Government on the

Transformation Mobilisation Programme for All-of-Government. She

has more than 20 years working experience spanning Enterprise,

Solution and Technical Architecture, Project Management, and

Software Engineering.

Regine is also a TOGAF Review Board member, and Advisory Board

member at the Strategy and Enterprise Architecture Society, a non-

profit organization incorporated in North Carolina, USA. The society

disseminates practical knowledge and research through its digital channels. Several committees

work on distilling and publishing practical knowledge and best practices to all participating society

member


4 Introduction | Regine Deleu

Introduction

This paper describes the reasons why eGovernment projects succeed or fail. It is important for

politicians; key stakeholders and enterprise architects to be aware of those potential dangers.

There are ways to identify and prevent potential failures.

eGovernment consists of the digital interactions between government and citizens, government

and businesses, government and employees, and also between government and agencies. It is

the use of technology to enhance access to and delivery of government services. eGovernment is

one of the most powerful tools to spread digital dividend across different social segments of any

country. It has become more and more present around the world.

Most countries have engaged into eGovernment initiatives. Where some eGovernment

implementations have been successful, others have failed in achieving their objectives, ranging

between:

Success: most stakeholder groups attained their major goals and did not experience significant

undesirable outcomes.

Partial failure: major goals were not attained or there were significant undesirable outcomes.

Total failure: the initiative was never implemented or was implemented but immediately

abandoned.

There is little data available about the rates of success and

failure of eGovernment, but according to some studies1, 60

to 80% of eGovernment projects fail.

1 Heeks, Professor of Development Informatics in the Institute for Development and Policy and Management at the University of Manchester.

1 An estimated US$3 trillion was spent during the

first decade of the 21st century on eGovernment

(Gubbins, 2004). Yet recent studies suggest

between 60 to 80% of eGovernment projects fail

leading to "a massive wastage of financial, human

and political resources, and an inability to

deliver the potential benefits of eGovernment to

its beneficiaries" (Heeks, 2006, p. 3).


5 Why do eGovernment projects succeed or fail? | Regine Deleu

Why do eGovernment projects succeed or fail?

To prevent an eGovernment project failure, we need to understand why they fail.

Every project has gaps between the design and the current state. A key factor to success or

failure is the level of difference between the current reality and the model/conception and

assumptions built into the project’s design. The larger the gap, the greater the risk of failure. If the

gap between design and reality can be reduced, the risk of eGovernment failure can be reduced.

Three archetypes of eGovernment failure are identified that highlight the need for better

communication between those who need to use and operate the system, and those who are

brought in to design it:

Hard-soft gaps - Most governmental organisations are dominated by ‘soft’ factors – people,

politics, emotions and culture. eGovernment systems tend to get designed according to harder

notions of machinery, rationality and objectivity thereby missing the soft factor of government

services.

Private-public gaps - Many IT systems have been designed in the private sector and

shoehorned into a public sector reality which operates very differently. These differences are

large and the likelihood of failure is high.

Country context gaps - Infrastructure and mind-sets are very different across the world. A

system designed for one country may not suitable for another country.

Case studies on eGovernment projects in Kerala,

India, have revealed that numerous factors were

ignored. For instance, the accessibility of those

services to their citizens. These factors depend on

resources, skill-levels, values, beliefs and

motivations. (Madon, 2004)


6 eGovernment Dimension Model (eGDM) | Regine Deleu

eGovernment Dimension Model (eGDM)

eGovernment Dimension Model2 or eGDM provides an understanding of the gaps that can exist

between design and reality. It is based on five levels and eight identified dimensions.

eGovernment Dimension Model (eGDM)

Information - The formal information maintained by the digital system, like birth certificate, tax

calculation, etc. Informal information used by the people involved with the system, like information

communicated verbally to perform a task successfully.

Technology - Mainly focuses on the digital IT but can also cover other information-handling

technologies such as paper or analogue telephones.

Processes - The activities undertaken by the relevant stakeholders for whom the eGovernment

system operates both information-related processes and broader business processes.

Organisation – Consists of people, processes, politics, emotions and culture.

Objectives and values - The Objectives component is often the most important

dimension, since it covers issues of self-interest and organizational strategies; the Values

component covers culture: what stakeholders feel is the right or wrong way of doing

things.

Staffing and skills - Covers the number of staff to implement and operate the

eGovernment system, and the competencies of those staff members and other users.

2 eGDM is an extension on the ITPOSMO Model described by Heeks (2006)


7 eGovernment Dimension Model (eGDM) | Regine Deleu

Management systems and structures - The overall management system required to

organize the operation and use of the eGovernment system, plus the way in which

stakeholder agencies/groups are structured, both formally and informally.

Other resources - The time and money required to implement and operate the

eGovernment system.

Outside world - Covers the country’s citizens, politics, laws, socio-cultural environment, and the

interactions with other countries.


8 eGDM Risk Assessment | Regine Deleu

eGDM Risk Assessment

To prevent an eGovernment failure, we need to know the potential risks. To uncover those

potential risks an eGovernment Risk Assessment is performed by asking a set of questions.

These questions are focussed on the eight dimensions and are intended to rate the size of the

design-reality gap. Assessing whether a gap is 'significant' is a matter for discussion, debate and

judgement. A rating of zero means that there is no difference between design and reality. A rating

of 10 means a radical difference.

eGDM Risk Assessment Rating

Risk Assessment Questions

Some examples of Risk Assessment Questions:

Information

Quality

Design - How complete, accurate, relevant is the information presented?

Reality - What is the quality of information currently in use?

Technology

Computer Software

Design - What are the requirements for computer software for the future?

Reality - What computer software is currently in use?

Processes

Actions/Transactions

Design - What are the designed action/transaction processes?

Reality - What are the action/transaction processes currently in use?

Objectives and values

Key Stakeholder Objectives

Design - What are objectives that other key stakeholders require for the future?

Reality - What are their current objectives?


9 eGDM Risk Assessment | Regine Deleu

Staffing and skills

Technical Skills

Design - What are the technical skills needed to implement the new eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current levels of technical skills?

Management systems and structures

Management Systems

Design - What are the management systems required to successfully implement the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current management systems in place?

Other resources

Ongoing Expenditure

Design - What is the year-on-year expenditure, i.e. recurrent funds, required

implementing and maintaining the new eGovernment?

Reality - What is the availability of money for future years?

Outside world

Legal Measures

Design - What are legal measures, i.e. laws and regulations, required for the future?

Reality - What is the current availability of those legal measures?

An extensive list of Risk Assessment Questions can be found in the Appendix.


10 How to close the Gap | Regine Deleu

How to close the Gap

When the risk assessment shows there is a significant overall design-reality gap, action should be

taken to close the gap to avoid heading for failure. Assessing whether a gap is 'significant' is a

matter for discussion, debate and judgement. Significant gaps do not always mean failure,

however it should give cause for concern and strong governance is needed to manage the

transition to avoid failure.

Taking action

To close the gap during the course of the project, the management team can either change the

design of the eGovernment project to bring it closer to the reality, or adapt the current reality to

align it with the design. Transition experts for each dimension are big assets to have in the

eGovernment team. Transition experts can be brought into the organisation, but could also be

domain experts from within the organisation.

Closing the Design-Reality Gap

The best techniques to close the gap will depend on which dimension the gap occurs. These

should not only be desirable but also feasible. There is no point considering options that could

reduce risks in theory, but cannot be implemented in practice. Let’s look at each dimension, the

possible reasons for gaps and the actions that can be taken to close the gaps.

Information

Possible reason for a gap could mean that the design is overloaded with additional information

that will clutter the useful information and people will not be able to handle that amount of

information, or there are shortcomings in availability of information that the design assumed would

be present.

Actions to Take

Undertake a thorough requirements analysis in order to draw out true information needs of

stakeholders.

Use prototyping - getting users to use a test version of the eGovernment system - in order to

help them explain what information they really need.

Explain the data model in business semantics



Technology

There could be a gap if the design assumed the

presence of adequate technology within the

government while, in reality, the government makes

fairly limited use of technology. Or the

telecommunications infrastructure in the country is

somewhat limited. Or the availability of technology is

limited within the country, people lack access to

technology, etc.

Actions to Take

Investigate ways in which government reforms

could be delivered using the existing ICT infrastructure.

Avoid leading-edge technologies in the design if the gap is really big.

Investigate ways in which government reforms could be delivered without ICT.

Investigate opportunities for use of donated or recycled equipment.

Process

Implementing a new process consists of researching of the current process, designing a new

process that is mapped to it and training the people on the process prior to launch. To

successfully implementing a new process requires reinforcing new behaviours to drive adoption.

Without the focus of a plan to drive adoption, the implementation will suffer poor performance and

will then need corrective action. This is usually too late because the drive and enthusiasm that

empowered the change has been lost.

Actions to Take

Consider a two-stage approach: in the first stage, processes are optimised without any change

to ICTs; in the second and later stage, new ICTs are brought in.

Avoid business process reengineering; instead, at most, look at optimisation or minor

modification of existing processes within the eGovernment design.

Keep doing things the same way, only with the addition of some new technology

Objectives and Values

There could be a gap if the design has too many assumptions about rational functioning within

public agencies. The new design’s objectives of greater efficiency did not consider the impact on

jobs. This could lead to failure if many senior officials do not share these values. They are either

happy with the status quo or they have other priority objectives. They support a politicised rather

than rational culture within the government, and are not particularly keen on the spread of ICTs

within government.

Actions to Take

Communicate with stakeholders about the system: sell the true benefits and address the true

negative aspects.

Get key stakeholders to participate in the analysis and/or design of the new eGovernment.

Especially those stakeholders who are regarded as key opinion formers or those vociferous in

their resistance to the eGovernment project.

Here is an example of a technical gap:

Computerise Election Results Management in West Africa.

The design assumes an electronic scoreboard at

national headquarters plus c.350 networked PCs,

with one in each constituency office. The current

reality is no computers in any constituency offices

and c.50 in regional and national offices of the NEC.

Most constituency offices and all at higher levels

have faxes. Twenty constituency offices have no

electricity or phone connection, and 25 have an

inadequate building structure.



Base eGovernment design on a consensus view of all

main stakeholders.

Use prototyping: this helps incorporate stakeholder

objectives in the design, and also helps to make actual

stakeholder objectives more realistic.

If feasible in skill, time and motivational terms, get users

to help develop and build the new eGovernment.

Staffing and Skills

If the design assumes the presence of a whole range of

competencies for both its implementation and its ongoing

operation, the project will fail. For example, it can assume a

reasonable-sized team with good experience of designing

and implementing eGovernment; it can assume good knowledge within that team of public sector

specificities; it can assume some capacities within the government to manage the

implementation; it can assume a set of hands-on IT skills among clerical staff in the government.

In reality, some of those competencies may not be present. The project team can have good

experience, but know little about public sector specificities; the government can have a limited set

of management expertise; and clerical staff can have a few basic IT skills, but lack the higher-

level skills for operation of the eGovernment that would be required.

Actions to Take

Outsource contracts in order to improve the current reality of available competencies, although

this could increase other gaps.

Train staff to improve current reality of competencies.

Improve recruitment and retention techniques to reduce competency/staff turnover.

Hire new staff to expand the volume of current competencies.

Management Systems and Structures

The gap reveals that the design requires too much organizational change. If the organization

change is too radical, people may deny the need to restructure. They want to save their jobs.

Internal political motives or the desire to hold on to long-held traditions could cause failure.

Actions to Take

Re-assess the existing management systems and structure and re-align them with the future

systems.

Re-demonstrate and discuss the cost and benefits with the stakeholders for each of the areas

with gaps.

Other Resources

There can be a number of reasons why there is a gap between design and reality in this

dimension.

It could be that there was no clear cost framework for the eGovernment project. The cost and

effort of the project is being underestimated.

The gap could be mainly about quality. Even the best designer can't produce as good a result with

mock-ups as could be achieved with multiple iterations with real life prototype and user feedback.

It could also be that the time to market is slower. Instead of spending all that time in design

phase, implementation could already have produced the first minimum viable product with the

Here is an example of an objectives gap:

Electronic networking for Ministry of Education in

East Asia

The design assumes a relatively open

organisational culture in which information is

shared quite readily; it also assumes an objective

of improving the quality of decision making

within the Ministry. While key stakeholders in

reality share the objective to some degree, there

is an 'information is power' culture at present

that discourages the open sharing of many types

of information.



most valuable features in it. Detailed design can also slow down implementation by drawing

attention on preparing for implementing low value features that should not be implemented at all.

The estimation of the effort is very difficult if it is only based on the design. Inaccurate estimates

or no estimates at all lead into designing features that are more expensive to implement than their

real business value.

The more accurate the document or pilot is, the more it draws attention to details early in the

project when the focus should be on the big picture.

Actions to Take

Prioritise eGovernment services that maximise revenue generation for government, e.g. tax,

fees, fines, etc.

Seek additional financing from donor or central government agencies.

Take out loans from private sector institutions.

Get private firms to develop, own and operate the eGovernment services.

Charge business for the use of eGovernment services.

Scale-down ambitions of the eGovernment project.

Extend timescales of the eGovernment project.

Negotiate central/shared agency IT agreements to reduce hardware and software costs.

Use 'one for all' contracts that are reusable.

Use project management techniques to reduce waste and delays.

Outsource contracts in order to reduce time and possibly costs.

Make use of open source software.


14 Appendix: Risk Assessment Questions | Regine Deleu

Appendix: Risk Assessment Questions

Information

Quantity

Design - How much information will be needed?

Reality - What is the quantity of information currently used?

Quality

Design - How complete, accurate, relevant, timely and appropriate is the information

presented?

Reality - What is the quality of information currently in use?

Flows

Design - How will information move from one person/office/organisation to another?

Reality - How does information move currently from one person/office/organisation to

another?

Informal Information

Design - Does the design include the capture of informal information that is used by

individuals?

Reality - How is the informal information currently in use?

Benefits

Design - Does the design include the capture of the benefits of the future information?

Reality – What are the benefits of the current information?

External Stakeholders

Design - How does the design handle information used by other key stakeholders, i.e.

public sector clients, suppliers, or other collaborators?

Reality - What information is currently in use by these External Stakeholders?

Technology

Computer Software

Design - What are the requirements for computer software for the future?

Reality - What computer software is currently in use?

Computer Hardware

Design - What are the amount and type requirements for computer hardware for the new

eGovernment technology?

Reality - What computer hardware is currently in use?

Telecommunications

Design - What are the requirements for telecommunication systems for the future?

Reality - What telecommunication systems are currently in use?

Other Technology

Design - What are the requirements for other technology for the future?

Reality - What other technology are currently in use?




Design - What are the requirements for ICT used by other key stakeholders for the

future?

Reality - What ICT is currently in use by these external stakeholders?

Processes

Information Handling

Design - What are the core information-handling processes, i.e. used to capture, input,

and store, process and output data, needed for the new eGovernment?

Reality - What core information-handling processes are currently in use?

Decisions

Design - What are the designed decision processes? How? Who? When?

Reality - What are the decision processes currently in use?

Actions/Transactions

Design - What are the designed action/transaction processes, e.g. putting decisions into

action?

Reality - What are the action/transaction processes currently in use?

Other Processes

Design - What other work processes are needed to successfully implement the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What other work processes are currently in use?

Informal Processes

Design - What is the design for informal processes? Those used by individuals for

personal or hidden purposes.

Reality - What informal processes are currently in use?

Benefits

Design - Does the design include the capture of the benefits of the future processes?

Reality – What are the benefits of the current processes?


Design - What are the requirements for processes used by other key stakeholders?

Reality - What processes are currently in use by these external stakeholders?

Objectives and values

Operational Staff Objectives

Design - What are the future objectives, i.e. goals or strategies, which key members of

the operational staff require?


Senior Officials Objectives

Design - What are the objectives that key senior officials require for successful

implementation of the new eGovernment?




Key Stakeholder Objectives

Design - What are objectives that other key stakeholders require for the future?


Operational Staff Values

Design - What are the organisational and cultural values that key members of the

operational staff require to successfully implement the new eGovernment?

Reality - What are their current values?

Senior Officials Values

Design - What are the values that key senior officials required for the future?


Key Stakeholder Values

Design - What are the values that other key stakeholders need for the future?


Benefits

Design - Does the design include the capture of the benefits of the future objectives and

values?

Reality – What are the benefits of the current objectives and values?

Staffing and skills

Staff Numbers

Design - What staffing numbers are required to successfully implement the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current staffing numbers?

Technical Skills

Design - What are the technical skills needed to implement the new eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current levels of technical skills?

Management Skills

Design - What are the management skills required for the future?

Reality - What are the current levels of management skills?

Operational Skills

Design - What are the operational skills required to successfully implementing the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current levels of operational skills?

Other Skills

Design - What other skills, like interpersonal skills, are required for the future?

Reality - What other skills are their currently?

Knowledge

Design - What is the awareness and knowledge needed for the new eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current levels of awareness and knowledge about eGovernment?




Design - What are the staffing, skills and knowledge that other key stakeholders need for

the new eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current levels of staffing, skills and knowledge in these external

stakeholders?

Management systems and structures

Management Systems

Design - What are the management systems required to successfully implement the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current management systems in place?

Management Structures

Design - What are the management structures required to successfully implement the

new eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current management structures in place?

Informal Systems & Structures

Design - What are the informal systems and structures needed for the future? Those

informal systems run by individuals for their own interests.

Reality - What are the current informal systems and structures today?


Design - What are the management systems and structures that other key stakeholders

require to successfully implement of the new eGovernment?

Reality - What are the current management systems and structures of these external

stakeholders?

Other resources

Initial Investment

Design - What is the initial investment capital required for the new eGovernment?

Reality - What is the availability of money for investment?

Ongoing Expenditure

Design - What is the year-on-year expenditure, recurrent funds, required implementing

and maintaining the new eGovernment?

Reality - What is the availability of money for future years?

Time

Design - What is the time required, i.e. person-months and/or elapsed time, for the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What is the availability of time?

Other Resources

Design - What other resources are required to successfully implement the new

eGovernment?

Reality - What is the availability of those other resources?



Future Innovations

Design - What is the investment money required for future innovations of the

eGovernment?

Reality - What is the availability of money for investment for future innovations?

Outside world

Legal Measures

Design - What are legal measures, i.e. laws and regulations, required for the future?

Reality - What is the current availability of those legal measures?

Other Contextual Factors

Design - What are the other contextual factors required for the future? Contextual factors

could be political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological.

Reality - What is the current availability of those other contextual factors?

Government agencies must often contend with

one-year budget cycles, this leads to unpredicted

budget and costs, changing scope, changing

stakeholders. One-year budgets are common in

many national and state governments, and this

type of budgeting affects the potential results of

long-term IT initiatives. Federal systems, as in

the United States, present additional challenges

derived from the particularities of the

relationships between different levels of

governments and the formal checks and balances

among the executive, legislative, and judicial

branches.

eGovernment Success or Failure

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