This week, it became clear that Karianne Tung (Labour Party) is the new Minister for IT and Public Administration Policy in the newly established Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Administration. In a brand new press release it is stated that the Minister of Digitalisation and Public Administration will be a driving force in developing new technological solutions that will be developed close to the users.
Jonas Gahr Støre says in the same press release that "increased use of technology and digitalisation affects the everyday lives of each and every one of us, but also society as a whole. It offers enormous opportunities, but also requires knowledge, management and regulation." It sounds both nice and great, but by no means an easy task.
The new "Minister of Digitalization" has a big and important task ahead of him, not only politically, but also in setting the direction for how public ICT projects should be managed and organized. When Karianne Tung and other public bodies are now to work out a new and better digitalization direction for public IT projects, it should be based on the following three principles: User-centric approach, interdisciplinary organization and small modules rather than large monoliths.
The noise around the Health Platform is an illustrative example in the series of failed IT projects.
Adopter a user-centric approach
To ensure that the new technological solutions are developed close to the user, one must obviously adopt a user-centric approach. Although agencies such as NAV and others. have largely adopted the approach, most public IT projects have been driven by technical specification rather than focusing on what value is to be created for users. To change this, you need to shift the focus from technical specification to what value is to be created.
Which target groups or users is the solution for? What core activities do these users want to perform? What needs, pains and issues do they experience in the current situation? And which of these issues do we think it is most valuable to solve? User-centric product development is about identifying the most important issues that are worth solving for the user. It is a delivery model and a way of working that should be the guiding principle for further digitalisation of the public sector.
Think product-oriented. Think interdisciplinary
Different perspectives are a strength, regardless of whether it is in a project group or on a board. Multidisciplinary teams where developers, designers, and business developers work closely are familiar to most people. With an interdisciplinary team that works closely together, you avoid traditional handovers and you get a team that works more efficiently together, makes quick decisions and avoids losing momentum.
Through an agile and agile process, the team can together change focus and course based on input from users or the business. The right mix of skills and the framework conditions under which the team works are crucial to ensure good progress. Shifting focus from delivery areas to product areas is an important principle for interdisciplinary organization. This ensures speed and adaptability so that you get a product- and needs-oriented organization. Here, the public sector has a way to go.
Go from large systems to small modules
The problems associated with the Health Platform are familiar to most people who work in the IT industry. The noise surrounding the Health Platform is an illustrative and not least expensive (close to 4 billion!) example in the series of failed IT projects, both in the public and private sectors. The reason why such projects slip out is of course complex and complex, but often has the same core problem: You build digital solutions on the wrong architecture.
It is still (unfortunately) common to build large monoliths that just grow and grow. The large monolith eventually becomes so large and complex, that all future investments are spent on removing technical debt and correcting errors rather than building new valuable services. The answer, of course, is to build a flexible and scalable digital platform that consists of many small, isolated services – popularly known as microservices. These are services that are independent of each other and that can be changed in line with new/changing needs, often without affecting other parts of the solution.
Such a digital platform ensures that you can move from idea to digital service more easily and quickly. The platform removes unnecessary obstacles, such as not being able to access data from internal systems due to internal organization, old IT systems with various limitations, or long change orders at IT. These are well-known and not least frustrating problems for many, also in large public IT projects.
The best public digital services
"It is absolutely crucial that we succeed in using technology well, among other things to implement the green transition we are in the middle of, and to deal with the challenges that result from the fact that we are getting older. We must facilitate a society where technology serves people.", said Støre in the same press release.
To realize this ambition, we must give the people and organizations that will develop the best public digital services the right framework conditions for success. Business model, organization and technology must work together. Adopting the above points is a big step in the right direction to create what Støre calls "a more efficient state".
Original in print in digi.no 18.10.2023.
