WIBBI Gateway Reviews were peer-reviewed and published?

- technical architecture which supports the real-world intention

WIBBI the intended real-world outcomes had to be stated in a form that guaranteed that the success or failure could be measured, and that the proposal for an IT solution had to state all the alternative solutions that had been considered, and why they were rejected in favour of the proposed IT solution. WIBBI the project had to be defined as a business change project, not as an IT project, and if all the business costs had to be identified and justified and bid for, not just the technology costs?

WIBBI the proposed technical architecture had to be published for public review for one month before any implementation contracts could be signed, and if anyone could propose a manifestly better architecture in that period then it had to be evaluated before proceeding?

- procurement of technology and tech-based services

WIBBI if procurement was always two-stage, with the first stage involving a Systems Architect (SA) with a role analogous to that of an architect in designing a new building: the SA would help the customer to really understand and capture their business requirements, formalise the requirements and analyse them for consistency and completeness, evaluate alternative solutions, and prepare a high-level design proven to meet the specification, and then move to the customer’s side of the table and help with procuring an implementation, using the formalised specifications and design as the contractual base.

This would eliminate almost all of the specification changes that cause cost escalation and overruns.

- design that works for front line staff and users

WIBBI systems that are designed to be in widespread use were prototyped in small areas first, so that users and staff could input their requirements after working with real examples of the systems?

- basis for participative public services

WIBBI this had been expressed in plain English?

- public data

WIBBI all public data was licensed under Creative Commons?

- personal data

WIBBI UK DP law implemented the letter and spirit of the European DP Directive, as it is interpreted by Germany, for example?

- trust, dignity & legality under human rights & DP law

WIBBI there was a rapid and cheap way to enforce these laws in the UK?

- political engagement, openness and trust in the political process

WIBBI politics stopped being a career and became a period of public service? This could be done by limiting anyone to a maximum of 8 years in either House, or in local Government.

- and above all saving vast, vast amounts of money.

WIBBI the only permissable way to implement a national system was to incrementally increase the scope of a small system that was already working successfully.

WIBBI there were independent, constructive, published stage reviews of major projects, involving independent experts with international reputations.

“courteous and mutually respectful dialogue” hey? So they’re going to stop conflating opposition to totalitarian government with terrorism and paedophilia?

Sorry to be so negative, but I think the government and civil service need more virulent and better directed abuse, not respect and courtesy: we haven’t got to where we are now by beeing nice to the government.

The most important thing to do now? Ensure that /all/ government (and local government) contracts are open to scrutiny by the electors and that civil servants and politicians are made liable for losses on lousy contracts.

“The confusion and barrenness of psychology is not to be explained
by calling it a ‘young science’; its state is not comparable with that
of physics, for instance, in its beginnings. (Rather with that of certain
branches of mathematics. Set theory.) For in psychology there
are experimental methods and conceptual confusion. (As in the other
case conceptual confusion and methods of proof.)

The existence of the experimental method makes us think we have
the means of solving the problems which trouble us; though problem
and method pass one another by.

An investigation is possible in connexion with mathematics which is
entirely analogous to our investigation of psychology. It is just as little
a mathematical investigation as the other is a psychological one
…”

eGovernment is not a software engineering problem. The methods of software engineering pass the problems of eGovernment by. Let’s try to sort out the “conceptual confusion” of eGovernment before we waste any time on the mere methods.

Better hurry up, though. IBM takes on services in Essex as part of £5bn privatisation deal:

“A Conservative council has signed a pioneering deal with IBM worth up to £5.4 billion to manage and provide public services in a new wave of privatisation supported by David Cameron.

“The eight-year deal between the technology giant and Essex County Council is expected to transform the way that public services are provided across the county and save 20 per cent of the authority’s annual £1.2 billion budget within three years …

“IBM was chosen, in part, because of the company’s experience in Canada where it saved “billions of dollars” by streamlining government services. The company set up a one-stop shop where customers could go to one website to get information on all government services, file tax returns, pay vehicle licences and claim benefits.”

IT projects are about changing services, not just implementing new IT – and so it’s key that any strategy recognizes that spending time on (a) user centered design and development; and (b) supporting the roll-out of new systems, with good quality training and capacity building; are just as important for success of systems as is the IT.

Particularly if a strategy encourages a move towards more agile IT, it needs to make sure it looks at building the capacity of front line services and users to respond to agile changes in the platforms and IT they are relying on (and it needs to be able to identify when, for the end user, sticking with something slightly sub-optimal is better than investing time and energy to adapt to new systems).

With a recognition that the key factor standing between the effective operation or failure of most big systems is user time and skill in operating them – we should check for every possible IT investment what the required parallel investment in staff resourcing will be – and also check if, such investment in staff resourcing could yeild the same social outcomes we want without the IT.

1. Politicians
2. Bureaucrats

They are the common denominator for all failed projects.

In an ideal world, there’d be a non-political IT department in Whitehall that would take the government’s proposals and create a system specification that involved everyone affected by it with projected costings before actually starting work, with everything being open to public strutiny and free from political interference.

I think the way this goes forward is:
- we continue to spread the word
- we focus on whether the structure we have set out is right and complete
- if so we focus on one area at a time and I’ll do a blog post for each
- mid Jan CTPR and we will sit down and sort through all the feedback
- then we’ll start offering final versions of each section
- and then do the exec summary and intro at the end

It wd be great to have any artistic, design or creative expression or input. I think – especially in the light of Christina’s comment above – that might be a decisive differentiator.

e-government is a huge new creation. Of course it should be beautiful!

Things will not improve as long as we simply persist in seeking better ways of doing iT.