Risk Modelling at the Pre-Proposal Stages of eGovernment Service Projects

eGovernment is a relatively new, but rapidly expanding, domain; mainly due to the perceived outcomes that it may bring to the public administration. Founded on the premise that eGovernment programmes may increase efficiency and effectiveness, decrease costs and enhance the quality of public services, governments invest heavily on such implementations. But here is a perplexing contrast; so far, many of such projects experience a high failure rate. That is realised in many facets; endless delays, and excessive costs, or complete cancellations are frequently observed. The reasons behind that can be many. However, such situation may be avoided or at least better handled through appropriate risk-based methods applied during the early stages of eGovernment project considerations. Within that context this thesis investigates the modelling of risk for eGovernment projects at the early, pre-proposal stages. The interpretative qualitative study described in this thesis provides a 'first stab' in a previously weakly explored, but important, area of eGovernment research. It is therefore the main objective of this thesis to examine the relevance of risk modelling during the pre-proposal phase of eGovernment service projects. To achieve that objective, this thesis devises and employs a risk modelling tool; a design that incorporates an e5ervke model and eGovernment risk taxonomy, allowing its users to identify pertinent project risk statements that may be exploited at later risk assessment exercises.So as to accomplish the defined objective, this thesis is arranged in an order that covers all stages of the research process. These include an understanding of the eGovernment domain by expanding - amongst others - on the various eGovernment modelling, evolution, and evaluation methods as well as a discussion on eGovernment benefits, and its failure factors.Equally, a part is dedicated on elaborating upon eGovernment risk and the existing methods to model it. A prototype risk modelling tool is developed in order to be used as a probe that is assessed and evaluated in the field by domain experts and practitioners. The thesis concludes by gathering qualitative data and analysing the grounded findings received from a series of interviews and workshops.With reference to the findings addressing the thesis' main research question, the conducted study shows that risk modelling has effectively no applicability during the pre-proposal stages of eGovernment service projects. This study argues that althoughrisk modelling has a recognised value, employing it is really futile at such early phase. It is primarily so, because at that point risk does not appear to carry enough weight to influence the decision-making process. Equally, this research finds that it is the political leadership that hands down the project ideas and the IT/IS project management staff simply implement. Even if risk modelling tools were employed by the ITIIS project management staff, the risk modelling output would be pointless as they have limited input into the decision-making process. The study's findings also led this thesis to produce a conceptual framework for risk modelling, as well as relevant lessons to be learnt. The thesis elaborates on what risk modelling is expected to deliver and how it should look like. The findings have alsofurther enhanced the risk modelling tool developed for this research, and generally propose new avenues for further research work in the domain

The Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (DGO2022) Intelligent Technologies, Governments and Citizens June 15-17, 2022

The 23rd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research theme is “Intelligent Technologies, Governments and Citizens”. Data and computational algorithms make systems smarter, but should result in smarter government and citizens. Intelligence and smartness affect all kinds of public values - such as fairness, inclusion, equity, transparency, privacy, security, trust, etc., and is not well-understood. These technologies provide immense opportunities and should be used in the light of public values. Society and technology co-evolve and we are looking for new ways to balance between them. Specifically, the conference aims to advance research and practice in this field. The keynotes, presentations, posters and workshops show that the conference theme is very well-chosen and more actual than ever. The challenges posed by new technology have underscored the need to grasp the potential. Digital government brings into focus the realization of public values to improve our society at all levels of government. The conference again shows the importance of the digital government society, which brings together scholars in this field. Dg.o 2022 is fully online and enables to connect to scholars and practitioners around the globe and facilitate global conversations and exchanges via the use of digital technologies. This conference is primarily a live conference for full engagement, keynotes, presentations of research papers, workshops, panels and posters and provides engaging exchange throughout the entire duration of the conference

El Camino de Santiago en los sitios web de las Comunidades Autónomas: análisis del contenido, orientación y encuadres temáticos predominantes

Se analiza el contenido, orientación y encuadres temáticos predominantes de las páginas web sobre el Camino de Santiago en los sitios web de las Comunidades Autónomas. En concreto, se estudian seis dimensiones: datos básicos — nombre, URL, autonomía y tipo de portal—, estructural — localización, dependencia y extensión—, hipertextual —enlaces, destinos, descargas—, interactiva — consultas, trámites, comentarios, redes sociales—, informativa —encuadre, temas, servicios y otros recursos—, y gráfica y multimedia —elementos gráficos, encuadre, fotografía, actantes y otros recursos gráficos como vídeo y sonido—. Existe una gran diferencia entre la información aportada por los distintos portales autonómicos, que correlaciona con su importancia estratégica para la comunidad. El encuadre temático predominante es de carácter turístico, y los aspectos de los Caminos de Santiago que normalmente se resaltan son trayectos o rutas locales, los monumentos y el entorno natural. Los portales poseen una orientación más utilitarista o práctica que centrada en la transmisión de información o documentación para el conocimiento o difusión del tema, sin abandonar éstas

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Implementing the measurement of modern service delivery mechanisms in a selected range of English councils.

This research provides the first thorough investigation into, and analysis of, the literature on e-government metrics and has opened up the topic and literature to the practitioner community. The research focuses on English local government, in response to what the researcher had experienced as haphazard implementation of e-government. Supplementary explorations included official and unofficial reasons for the adoption of e-government, along with the role of politics and Politics – local, national and international. Until this research, the main focus for e-government measurement had been on targets or large and complex analyses suitable only for central government. Instead, this research proposes parsimonious measurement. Such measurement, reliant upon collating citizen feedback across delivery channels, will assist improvement to services and assist channel migration. This had never been examined before. Since the subject of the research was electronic government, an action research methodology was employed, using electronic research instruments to deliver surveys, provide survey results and to house research models and background. The researcher is a practitioner within the field, so the instruments were designed to cross-fertilize the academic and practitioner thinking on the subject. It is expected that the research tool, in the form of the weblog, will continue (in the longer term) to assist professionals in debating the use of metrics. Ongoing research will continue to stretch across the academic and practitioner boundaries. This research makes original contributions to knowledge by revealing the most appropriate mechanism for the management and use of e-government, amongst other mechanisms for service delivery in the public sector, especially considering smaller authorities