Pain points in e-Governance – 7 : Different Level of Maturity in e-Governance Applications

Different Levels of Maturity in e-Governance Applications

Now in the era of Digital India, every department has adopted e-governance as mandated by Government. Depending on the driving forces applications have designed and developed. Heads of the department are driving forces for such initiatives. If HOD is tech-savvy, he adds a lot of value addition to the application. If HOD is not tech-savvy, he purely depends on consultants or at the mercy of an application development agency. As the posting of the HOD keeps changing, so the application. Over a while, the different applications will be in different maturity levels. 

 A typical e-Governance life cycle is as follows

 In each of the tasks, there are sub-task as below 

  1. e-Governance Strategy Development
    1. Needs Assessment
    2. Define clear vision & objectives
    3. Prioritization of services and projects
    4. Incorporate domestic and global learnings
    5. Identify institutional structures & capacities for implementation
    6. Define funding requirements
    7. Define monitoring and evaluation approach.
  2. Current State Assessment
    1. Critical assessment of current business processes and pain areas
    2. Best practices in similar environments
    3. Assess legal framework and current limitations
    4. Assess current ICT systems and their ability to support plans
    5. Assessment of current capacities at all levels and their preparedness for e-Governance.
  3. Future State Definition
    1. Process reengineering and to–be process definition
    2. Identity IT enablement opportunities and requirements
    3. Define changes to the legal and regulatory environment
    4. Develop People change and capacity building plan
    5. Develop project awareness and communication requirements.
  4. Implementation approach and sourcing
    1. Define implementation approach and phasing plan (functional and geographic)
    2. Assess detailed funding requirements and business model
    3. Develop vendor evaluation and selection criteria
    4. Develop KPIs and performance levels for services and systems
    5. Develop RFP
    6. Bid evaluation and vendor selection
  5. Develop and implement IT system
    1. Definition of detailed functional and technical requirements
    2. System design and development
    3. Software quality assurance, acceptance testing and auditing
    4. Training and capacity building
    5. Change management and project communications
    6. Project documentation
    7. Project go-live
  6. Operate and sustain
    1. System operations and maintenance
    2. Software change management
    3. Rollout services and systems (functionality and geography)
    4. Objectives and benefits evaluation and reinforcement
    5. Sustained change, capacity building and communications.
It is evident that with so many steps in the lifecycle every application will be at a different level. The problem with different levels of maturity it will be difficult to integrate these applications. Hence they tend to work in silos. The moment they work in silos; we tend to keep asking for the same information repeatedly. 

The department needs to identify, where they are and need to start working towards the next step ASAP. As technology keeps changing once in 10 years, departments have to develop new versions. The nodal agency in the state should do continuous assessment and they should help in designing the future state of definition for departments. Nodal Department should also advice department about the suitability of technology and also standards. 

If this happens, then all applications will work in tandem and there won’t be any need for citizens to submit repeated information to the government, for each application.

  Disclaimer: Purely personal opinion.

Comments

  1. Lokesh ShivamoggaJuly 12, 2021 at 5:08 PM

    Sir, Exactly said abt HOD's and regarding life cycle from strategies to operations and sustainability of a project depends on again HOD's, finally all should think as same as initiator of a project thinks

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 12, 2021 at 5:57 PM

    Excellent article. As many services are going online, it is imperative to work towards reducing duplications.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bharat shettyJuly 12, 2021 at 6:29 PM

    Helpful to common citizen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RajuJuly 12, 2021 at 7:13 PM

    Here strategy of Master Data has to brought. This will ensure that we all know what master data is available and which service api can be consumed to get the results, best example can be visualised is aadhaar data is a master data and on top of it we can have the department specific data

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Prabhakar HLJuly 14, 2021 at 9:25 AM

      Yes, Raju, Master data management (MDM) is critical for this to happen.

      Delete
  5. Krishnaveni MothaJuly 12, 2021 at 7:45 PM

    Good article.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RenukaJuly 13, 2021 at 8:27 PM

    This is something that bothered me all the time. Lets hope the end state is something within reach of our working life time.. The problem is not unique to India thought. It is there everywhere

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sathya murthy prakashJuly 14, 2021 at 6:53 AM

    This information is very helpful and useful for all government departments to implement and improve the E-governance project / services

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJuly 14, 2021 at 10:47 AM

    Excellent sir

    ReplyDelete
  9. SuhasJuly 14, 2021 at 10:54 PM

    Sir, I feel Family ID is a baby step towards solving this pain point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Prabhakar HLJuly 16, 2021 at 1:03 PM

      to some extent, by large each department has to adopt and enhance.

      Delete

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