To deliver digital business change effectively, senior
government decision makers need to better understand the
business, technical and delivery risks associated with digital
programmes, a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has
found.
Transformation of public services is increasingly led by
digitally enabled business change. It is essential that public
bodies deliver high quality digital services in a time when our
way of life is increasingly digital.
Despite 25 years of government strategies and countless
attempts to deliver digital business change successfully, there
is a consistent pattern of underperformance. This
underperformance is often the result of decision makers fixing on
technology solutions before fundamental aspects of projects and
programmes are sufficiently thought through.
The NAO found that only a small proportion of senior
officials in government have first-hand experience of digital
business change and as a result many lack sufficient
understanding of the technical and delivery risks for which they
are responsible. Many of the problems that occur in large digital
operational change programmes stem from senior decision-makers'
inability to understand the issues and make the decisions
required to implement digital change in an effective way.
Pressures on public finances mean there is an urgent need
for those designing and delivering digital business change
programmes to learn from past mistakes. Our work shows that there
are six vital areas decision-makers need to get right if they are
to stand the best chance of delivering these projects
successfully:
-
understanding aim, ambition and risk;
-
engaging commercial partners;
-
approach to legacy systems1 and data;
-
using the right mix of capability;
-
choice of delivery method;
-
and effective funding mechanisms.
The NAO recommends that the Central Digital and Data
Office, along with the Government Digital Service and the Cabinet
Office, reviews and applies lessons learned from past failures
and successes to improve government's delivery of digital
programmes. They should revise existing training programmes to
better equip decision-makers who are responsible for digital
transformation programmes. Individual departments and public
bodies should ensure that senior digital, data and technology
colleagues have greater influence on digital change
programmes.
, the head of
the NAO, said:
"Whilst digital leaders bring much needed expertise
to the public sector, they often struggle to get the
understanding and support they need from senior decision-makers,
who lack knowledge in this area.
"There has been a consistent pattern of
underperformance in delivering digital business change, often
resulting from decisions on technology being taken too early,
before the business problem is properly
understood.
"Government must learn from past experience and
better equip senior leaders if it is to improve its track record
of delivering digital change."
- ENDS -
Notes for Editors
-
Legacy systems are systems and applications that have
been operationally embedded within a business function but
superseded by newer and more effective technologies or changed
business and new data needs. The commonly used government
definition of legacy is any hardware, software or business
process which meets one or more of the following criteria:
being considered an end-of-life product; being no longer
supported by the supplier; being impossible to update; being
considered to be above what is considered an acceptable risk
threshold; and being no longer cost effective
