E-government: A comparison of strategies in local authorities in the UK and Norway

In Europe almost all countries have implemented some form of e-government, not to mention the UK and Norway which are now both well into their sixth year of e-government implementation. These six years have seen various strategic plans formulated, implemented and also intermittently postponed in the two countries. Although time may result in the amplification of e-government experience for Norway and the UK, the postponement of implementation deadlines indicates that not only political and social issues, but also strategic and organisational issues need to be addressed when formulating plans for deploying e-government. Using empirical research this paper examines the strategies adopted by the UK and Norway in the context of aligning central and local government plans for implementing e-government services. While technical, political and social issues are considered as key areas to be addressed in any e-government exploitation plan; this paper examines how different perspectives on e-government definition, strategy, awareness and related organisational change influence implementation. The need to align central and local e-government plans, guidelines for local level implementation, user centred solutions, strong leadership and a common understanding of the definition of e-government are highlighted in the paper as some of the key components of good e-government implementation practice

Empirical modelling for participative business process reengineering

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new broad approach to computing - Empirical Modelling (EM) - and to propose a way of applying this approach for system development so as to avoid the limitations of conventional approaches and integrate system development with business process reengineering (BPR). Based on the concepts of agency, observable and dependency, EM is an experiencebased approach to modelling with computers in which the modeller interacts with an artefact through continuous observations and experiments. It is a natural way of working for business process modelling because the modeller is involved in, and takes account of, the real world context. It is also adaptable to a rapidly changing environment as the computer-based models serve as creative artefacts with which the modeller can interact in a situated and open-ended manner. This thesis motivates and illustrates the EM approach to new concepts of participative BPR and participative process modelling. That is, different groups of people, with different perceptions, competencies and requirements, can be involved during the process of system development and BPR, rather than just being involved at an early stage. This concept aims to address the well-known high failure rate of BPR. A framework SPORE (situated process of requirements engineering), which has been proposed to guide the process of cultivating requirements in a situated manner, is extended to participative BPR (i.e. to support many users in a distributed environment). Two levels of modelling are proposed for the integration of contextual understanding and system development. A comparison between EM and object-orientation is also provided to give insight into how EM differs from current methodologies and to point out the potential of EM in system development and BPR. The ISMs (interactive situation models), built using the principles and tools of EM, are used to form artefacts during the modelling process. A warehouse and logistics management system is taken as an illustrative case study for applying this framework

Understanding the polarized perspectives in BIM enabled projects

Successful implementation and use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) require consideration of people issues. Two polarised views of BIM are shown from the literature based on technology-centred or human-centred perspectives each of which acknowledges the other but subsumes this into their view. Indeed it is the way that each adopts the other that is problematic. This paper demonstrates that acknowledging these differences and working with them better addresses the management of the implementation of BIM. Empirical findings, from in-depth interviews in a multi-disciplinary engineering company, show that individuals use BIM but are confused by its role depending on their job and perspective. Given this, collaboration and development are held back by the un-expressed differences. It is argued that recognising these differences and using them in a balanced way is essential for the successful adoption of BIM

A Systemic Approach to Object Oriented Business Process (Re)-engineering

Corporate restructuring, referred to in many circles as Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), Enterprise Engineering , or Business Engineering has become a significant management concern of the 1990\u27s. Hammer and Champy[2] define it as the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed . BPR requires that enterprises take a comprehensive review of their entire existing operation and redesign it in a way that uses new technology. This has become an imperative for western business, not just because of challenges mounted from Asia (Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc.) nor due to the changing face of the third world consumer markets, butbecause time has come for it to change. Business Process Re-engineering is the means to effect such change