Transformational e-Government offered the hope and promise to revitalize and modernize public services; reinvigorate and improve services to citizens, business, and governments; and create an... Show More

Transformational e-Government offered the hope and promise to revitalize and modernize public services; reinvigorate and improve services to citizens, business, and governments; and create an exciting environment for employees to work and contribute. Countries world-wide are inexorably engaged and urged forward by both push-and-pull motivational pressures to use technology to improve democratic participation, social harmony, and economic sustainability. While e-Government's first decade has been much more transactional than transformational, radical changes affecting e-Government are needed in this decade. But progress achieved thus far was not without struggle. The project failure rate is so high that transformational e-Government progress is stalling. This paper identifies a synergistic compendium of ten key challenges that prevent progress in transformational e-Government and assesses the effectiveness of the North American standard for project management, the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), in managing these challenges - and finds it wanting.

On the basis of existing literature and benchmarking efforts for various facets of e-Government (expected benefits, existing barriers, methodological guidelines) the paper identifies a number of... Show More

On the basis of existing literature and benchmarking efforts for various facets of e-Government (expected benefits, existing barriers, methodological guidelines) the paper identifies a number of factors that affect e-Government projects (broader environment, political, funding, public management and service delivery frameworks, customer engagement, technology and effort supply, core processes) and proposes a holistic model for e-Government projects. On the basis of this holistic model, it is argued that realization of the e-Government process and operation of e-Government services exhibit complexity, emergent behaviour, and a number of characteristics of open and complex systems. These arguments, applied on a real example where empirical e-Government good practice is verified ex post via laws and principles governing the behaviour of general open systems, are considered to legitimise systems thinking about e-Government. It is proposed that further pursuing a systemic approach to e-Government projects represents, together with the deeper understanding of user needs, a major direction of further work for e-Government project management.

Research shows that e-Government projects have higher failure rates than similar approaches in the private sector indicating the lack of a method to transfer knowledge and apply best management... Show More

Research shows that e-Government projects have higher failure rates than similar approaches in the private sector indicating the lack of a method to transfer knowledge and apply best management practices in an effective way. After stating the fundamental principles of project management and performing an identification of shortcomings of existing methodologies, that apply to public administration IT projects, the paper presents a conceptual model for e-Government project management that can be structured and adapted to cover all types of relevant projects in an out-of-the-box approach. Being goal oriented and supported by relevant tools, this knowledge base of predefined project components can then be populated and utilised in making more informed decisions for effective project management of e-Government initiatives. This way, the proposed method supports public officials and practitioners in learning from past experience projects and in designing and running e-Government projects in a more systematic manner, thus significantly increasing the likelihood of project success.

This study develops a model to help improve the success rates of e-Government projects. In recent years, several e-Government studies have identified many challenges of e-Government initiatives and... Show More

This study develops a model to help improve the success rates of e-Government projects. In recent years, several e-Government studies have identified many challenges of e-Government initiatives and the critical success factors of such initiatives. Regular audit reviews of project performance provide cost-effective minimization of risks by providing information to management and by helping to take corrective actions in order to ensure a successful project outcome. Despite the potential contributions of audits and risk management to minimize project failure, e-Government and public administration research pay little attention to risk-based project implementation and the specific methods needed to mitigate project challenges. Based on the assumption that project risks are inherent in all phases of the project lifecycle in various dimensions and levels of significance, and that for public sector projects, these risks manifest in four broad categories - stakeholder, institutional, technical and project management risks - the model developed in this research uses a risk-based audit approach to project implementation to provide a comprehensive and methodic tool to systematically improve the success rates of project implementation.

e-Participation has advantages over traditional modes of public participation: independent of time and place, information can be provided and updated at reasonable costs. A broad range of citizens... Show More

e-Participation has advantages over traditional modes of public participation: independent of time and place, information can be provided and updated at reasonable costs. A broad range of citizens can be involved regardless of demographics, family or work situation, thereby broadening the basis for public participation. Thus, public authorities seek to employ social media for the purposes of project management in terms of e-Participation. Nevertheless, social media presents challenges that need to be resolved to be suitable for e-Participation, such as user-friendliness, technical requirements for information preparation, and data protection requirements. Reviewing the literature, it is concluded that although common social media solutions are successful in generating attention for participation projects, they are not necessarily appropriate for conducting the project itself. Therefore, the case of a reference company offering a specialized platform and social network is introduced. It was identified as good practice in recent reports published by the European Commission.