Multi-Attribute Evaluation of E-Government Projects: Slovenian Approach

2. Methodological Approach

The research work presented in this paper has been conducted in two steps: first, we conducted a comparative review of existent (inter-)national approaches to e-government projects evaluation, followed by development of multi-attribute models for ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of Slovenian e-government projects. Aligned with that, we used two main methodologies.

After identifying general content of existent approaches to e-government projects evaluation, we conducted comparative review in more detail. First, we checked whether the approach supports ex-ante or/and ex-post evaluation, followed by the number of operative parameters comprising each methodology. Followed by that, we analyzed the presence of parameters measuring largeness of target group (i.e., how many users does the service have regardless the channel of usage), as well as current users' profile indicating the level of potential usage of e-service to be implemented (e.g., level of education, region with most users etc.). In addition, we analyzed coverage of intangible/hidden costs and public value dimensions. Four categories of intangible/hidden costs were adopted form EU project eGEP - eGovernment Economics Project (eGEP 2006a, 2006b):

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  Cost of internal reorganization (employees implementing re-organization, output decreases due to the reorganization, costs of reorganization-related consultants);

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  Cost of inter-institutional reorganization and cooperation (meetings of cooperating agencies, travel expenses etc.);

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  Cost of change management (top management involved in change, change management consultants etc.);

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  cost of training (training courses-related costs).