The reading from the first week of class by Dawes explains some of the major risks of IT innovation in government. According to Dawes a report published in 1995 stated that “more than 80 percent of systems development projects fail in whole or in part. Most projects cost more, take longer than planned, and fail to achieve all of their goals. One-third are canceled before they are completed.” Some of reasons behind the failure of using IT are:
· Unrealistic expectations
· Lack of organizational support and acceptance
· Failure to evaluate and redesign business processes
· Lack of measurable alignment between organizational goals and project objectives
· Failure to understand the strengths and limitations of new technology
· Projects that are too specialized or ambitious to manage successfully
In addition public sector faces more challenges that could lead to failure in using technology:
· Limited authority to make decisions
· Multiple stakeholders and competing goals
· One year budgets
· Highly regulated procurement
· Little capability to design or operate integrated or government-wide programs
· Extreme risk aversion
The author provides three types of analysis minimize the risks of the IT investments:
· Thoroughly understand both the problem to be solved and its context
· Identify and test possible solutions to the problem
· Evaluate the results of those tests against clear service and performance goals.
The other chapters of the soured sited below is worth reading and highly recommended in order to make a smart IT choice.
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