A report in Government News notes that the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption recently released a report calling on government to more effectively manage its IT projects:
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) this week set out what it calls “five key levers” the watchdog says must be carefully managed “in order for government agencies to minimise the corruption risks involved in managing information technology (IT) contractors.”
“For public sector managers, the oversight of IT projects and engagement of IT contractors is fraught with risks of delays, cost blowouts and failure to achieve project goals,” the ICAC paper says. “The rapidly evolving IT field renders impractical many attempts to directly manage the technical aspects of IT projects – a problem heightened for managers with core expertise that is remote from IT.” They’re not kidding either. The state government has played host to a multitude of errant technology projects over the last decade that have ranged from a courts and legal case management system that delivered little more than write-offs and litigation between the government and suppliers to the bizarre, decade long fiasco Tcard that was supposed to deliver smartcard transport ticketing.
…ICAC says that after consulting chief executives, operations managers, IT managers and auditors “about how to control IT contractors” it found the following consistent key levers:
- linking of business case to project controls
- separating design and build
- guarding the “gateway” through which contractors enter the organisation
- managing the project management
- ensuring a clear exit strategy is in place
The NSW Minister for Finance and Services, Andrew Constance said ICAC’s report “highlights some of the challenges involved in successfully managing IT projects in the public sector.”
