e-Government for Developing Nations

Greetings from the National Centre for Information Systems Research (NCISR) at the Australian National University in Canberra. I am taking part in a planning meeting for teaching e-Government to public servants. This is in conjunction with the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC). BPATC is the official trainer for civil servants of the Bangladesh government and also trains senior staff in other public organisations. ANU previously provided a course for Bangladesh with part funding support from AusAID (with a book of the course published "ICT Management Handbook - A Guide for Government officers in Bangladesh".). The intention is to build on this with new and expanded courses. This may include some of my course-ware on Electronic Data Management and Green ICT.

In the past it was assumed that a lack of IT infrastructure was holding back e-Government in developing countries. However, ANU research shows that it is a lack of knowledge of how to use the technology for the business of government. In particular administrators need to understand this is not just about replacing manual clerical systems with computers, but also changing their decision making processes.

Very little technical infrastructure is needed to implement e-Government. Developing nations are skipping over generations of technology and adopting wireless mobile cloud based systems. This technology can be used by government, if appropriate security policies are observed. The expensive and cumbersome infrastructure of desktop computers, servers and bespoke software can be avoided, by agencies using mobile computers and free open source software.

However, the hardware and software is not the main issue, it is training staff to do the business of government differently. In that respect developing nations are not necessarily behind western countries. The solution for both is the same: empower key staff with education.

One issue which is common across the world is how to structure a course for working people. An ANU course is normally over 13 weeks, requiring about 8 hours of time from the student each week (some in class and some personal study). Courses can alternatively be run intensively over a number of weeks. This much study can be daunting, particularity for people who have not undertaken formal study for some years. It is therefore tempting to provide very short non-assessed courses, but these may not deliver the needed rigour and not be able to allow the students to demonstrate that they have learned what was expected.

Other issues are the delivery mode of materials, such as use of Powerpoint and a text book. In my view electronic formats and online delivery have advantages, but access to the technology will have to be considered carefully. One approach would be to supply the student with a netbook computer with built in wireless access for the course. The netbook would cost about a few hundred dollars and the data access abut $10.

eGovernment in Developing Nations

Greetings from the completion ceremony for the eGovernment capacity building through knowledge transfer in Bangladesh project (PSLP eGov), being held at the Australian National University in Canberra. Present are His Excellency HE Lt Gen Masud Uddin Chowdhury, The High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Australia and dignitaries of the ICT community including AGIMO, NICTA, Professor Gregor who oversaw the project and Ahmed Imran who did much of the work. The project involved preparing training materiel for Bangladesh government officials and conducting training forums. One of the more useful output is the "ICT Management Handbook: A Guide for Government officers in Bangladesh". The handbook is based on AGIMO's handbook for the Australian Public Service. There are other items from the course available on the web. It is likely that the program will be expanded to other developing nations through AusAid. Also later versions may include a component on sustainability from my ANU Green ICT course.

ICT Management Workshop/Training Resources

Module 1

4 Introduction to eGovernment [PDF]

4 eGovernment Management Lifecycle [PDF]

Further Readings

• IT Doesn't Matter, Nicholas G. Carr
• ROI in the public sector: myths and realities
• eGovernment, Public Sector reform, and Poverty Reduction
• Traditional ROI Measures Will Fail in Government
• eGovernment Legislation, Regulation and Policy
• eGovernment Services
• eGovernment Resources (UNECA)
• The ICT Investment Framework

Module 2

4 ICT Business Case [PDF]

Further Readings

• A Guide to ICT Sourcing for Australian Government Agencies. Developing and Executing an ICT Sourcing Strategy. Second Edition. September 2007. AS/NZS 4360:2004 Risk Management
• Business Case Guide. A Guide to developing ICT business cases with comprehensive planning and analysis of the project’s demand, value and costs. September 2006.

Web Links:

• The Australian Government Information Management Office
• e-Government & Information Management
• ICT Business Case Guide
• ICT investment framework
• Project and program management resources
• The Guide to ICT sourcing
• The IT Governance Institute (ITGI) business case process
• Business Case fitness for purpose checklist
• UK OGC business case process
• Risk Management
• CMMI
• CMMI Models
• CMMI Acquisition
• CMMI Development

Module 3

4 PSLP Project Management [PDF]

Further Readings

Project Management Bodies

• The Project Management Institute
• The Australian Institute of Project Management
  PRINCE2 - the APM Group
• Defining the future of Project Management (Video)

General Project Management Resources
ProjectMinds Gantthead – the online community for IT project managers

Module 4

4 Managing the Outcomes [PDF]

Further Readings

• The Performance Management element of Free Management Library. Provides a good overview of Performance Management and a list of resources and related links
• Wikipedia’s page on Performance Management. Draws important distinction between Performance Management and Performance Measurement. List of resources and further links included.
• The Performance Management advice provided by the Australian Government Information Management Office. Brief, but focused on ICT.
• A comprehensive introduction to Critical Success Factors and how to identify them. Prepared by RapidBI, an independent (apparently) group of business improvement specialists. Includes templates and guidance for creating your own CSFs.
• A brief introduction to Key Performance Indicators by the RapidBI business improvement specialists.
• Wikipedia’s page on Critical Success Factors. Not heavily developed, but good summary. List of resources included.
• Wikipedia’s page on Key Performance Indicators. Not heavily developed, but good summary. Links to repositories of KPIs!
• An online repository of Key Performance Indicators, although none on ICTs specifically.
• Australian Government catalogue of performance indicators for ICT
• An online repository of business-related dashboards that provide details of KPIs in a familiar fashion.
• Wikipedia’s page on Information System Dashboards. Some useful links and ideas on how to present indicator information easily.
• The IT Metrics and Productivity Institute that focuses on metrics for software development, but provides insights into broader ICT performance indicators.
• Introduction to Benefits Realisation Management from a Project management Training group in the UK. Includes some links to further references.
• The UK Office for Government Commerce’s (OGC’s) Benefits Management guide. Excellent overview of Benefits management from a consistently high-quality source of government management advice.
• The UK OGC’s Summary of Benefits management for Senior Managers. Excellent short synopsis.
• A Guideline to building Benefits Realisation Registers for ICT projects created by the NSW Government Chief Information Office in 2004.
• An introduction to the Investment Logic Map concept used within the Victorian Government in Australia. Closely related to benefits realisation and specifically designed to accommodate cross-agency costs and benefits considerations.
• The primary site for the Victorian Government’s Investment Management Standard; a best practice method for managing the investment and realisation of benefits.
• The official website of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. NB: the details of ITIL must be purchased; they are not available free-to-the public.
• Wikipedia’s brief summation of the new version of ITIL
• The ITIL Open Guide—a collaborative community ‘version’ of ITIL.
• The IT Service Management Forum International – primary ‘professional’ body for ITIL practitioners. Closely aligned with the OGC in developing and promulgating ITIL.
• The IT Metrics and Performance Management Institute’s resource page on IT Governance.
• Wikipedia’s view on ICT Governance, which includes a long list of references and external links.
• An Australian ‘Professional’ body that promotes value management. The link points to the organisation’s definitions of Value Management.
• AusAID’s resource on Value Management for Sustainable Development. Points to other international links
• Self-proclaimed as: “the premier international society devoted to the advancement and promotion of the value methodology”

• Weill, P. and J.W. Ross (2004) IT governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, Watertown, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
• Weill, P. and J.W. Ross (2005) “A Matrixed Approach to Designing IT Governance”, Sloan Management Review (46)2, pp. 26-34.

From: "ICT Management Handbook - A Guide for Government officers in Bangladesh", Training Resources, PSLP 2008

Photos by Obaidul Huqe available.

ICT Management Handbook for Developing Nations

At the lunch for Professor Geoff Walsham, at the ANU National Centre for Information Systems Research (NCISR), Ahmed Imran handed me a brochure for the eGovernment capacity building through knowledge transfer in Bangladesh project (PSLP eGov). This is AusAID funded project to improve transparency and efficiency in the Bangladesh public sector. Two deliverables from the project are the report "A Strategic Pathway to Success" and the training course "ICT Management Handbook - A Guide for Government officers in Bangladesh". Unfortunately I was unable to find a copy of "eGovernment for Bangladesh", but the content of the ICT Management course are provided online.

ICT Management is a 14 hour course. It consists of four modules, each 3.5 hours:

1. Introduction to eGovernment
2. The ICT Business Case
3. Project Management
4. Managing the Outcome

Presentation slides and additional readings, are provided for each module. Unfortunately the slides are provided as excessively large PDF files (3.8 Mbytes for eight pages).