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Most governments especially in the developing world are moving to e-government, this is to enhance better service delivery to the citizens of their respective countries. But most of the time the change to e-government end up being partially successful or failing completely. The success or failure of the move is always attributed to some various issues.
Un named government from southern Africa decided to come up with a single personnel information system. Currently the office of the civil service has been given the responsibility of employing all employees for the different ministries, but it is the responsibility of the ministries to keep their own records.
After the implementation of the system it was found that the Design-Reality gap totaled to 42. This was attributed to a variety of factors. In terms of information, the data was not accurate and also incomplete. As the director of the office, I would assess the ITPOSMO acronym, as it the only way to be able to understand the difference or the gap.
In terms of the information perspective I would make use of prototyping. This will be done through giving the users a chance to test the application then provide a feedback on what they really want. The gap in the processes can be solved by doing things as they were done before, which in this case in manual entry. Initially clerks were given the duty of amending records except those that were considered as confidential. The gap in Objectives and values can be solved by calling a meeting of all the top management so as to compel those who are withholding any information that is worth sharing to do so.
On staffing and skills, the best way to deal with the situation will be outsourcing of people with know how and have them operate the system. Some staff that were earlier taken for the training and did not take that seriously should be fired and other skilled workers employed.
Evaluation
The issue whether the project was a failure or a success can be determined after a period of about two years after the system is fully implemented. As it stands the system cannot be referred to as a failure or a success. The overall rating of 42 is a warning that the system might fail if something appropriate is not done to reduce the gap. And if nothing is done then the project will be a partial failure. The system is only experiencing some difficulties in certain areas but most of the vital parts are a success. The project was completed within the allocated budget and time frame; employees were also taken for training in time.
Conclusion
The project was an all inclusive one as all the major stake holders participated, thus ensuring that the project becomes a success. The project was guided by experts in various fields such as information system analysts. Even though the project did not perform well in terms of the Design-Reality gap there is still time to work on certain issues that are contributing to the widening gap. Moving from manual to e government is not an easy task; many African countries are trying to switch to the new system so as to be able to offer better services to their citizens. Challenges might be there but with time they will surely overcome them.
Reference
Beckmann, F. v. (2009). Rules of law and laws of ruling on the governance of law. London: Ashgate Pub..Belanger, F., & Carter, L. (2008). Trust And Risk In E-government Adoption. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems,17(2), 165-176.Design-Reality gap . (n.d.). Design-Reality gap . Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://www.catedras.fsoc.uba.ar/rusailh/Unidad%202/Silcock%202001,%20What%20is%20E-gov.pdfKjær, A. M. (2004). Governance. London: Polity Press.Ho, A. T. (2002). Reinventing Local Governments And The E-Government Initiative. Public Administration Review,62(4), 434-444.Williams, C. (2008). Effective management (3rd ed.). New York: Thomson/South-Western
