Irish E-gov Project Failures

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    Public Sector Governance and Administrative Power in Ireland:

    Comparative Case Studies of Government-run ICT Projects

    Roberta Stapleton

    School of Computer Science and Statistics

    Trinity College,

    Dublin

    [email protected]

    KeywordsAdministrative power, e-government, governance, ICT, power, projects, public sector, turf wars,

    sources of power, success

    1. Introduction

    This research will examine the relationship between administrative power, IT project

    governance and difficulties with major public sector information and communications technology

    (ICT) projects. It is anticipated that, resulting from this research, a framework for improving the

    success rate and reducing the risk in public sector ICT projects will be developed.

    By and large Irish government ICT projects have been successful, but there has been a numberof cases where major projects have seriously overrun on both time and budget. Some of these

    projects have had to be terminated resulting in a large waste of taxpayers monies. The desired

    outcomes for any government ICT project may include improved efficiency, reduced

    administration time, lower process costs, improved communication or dissemination of

    information, increased productivity and better quality customer service. But they may also

    include compliance with legislation, responding to political pressure from stakeholder groups,

    delivering certain public values (such as fairness or equality of access) and so on. This can

    mean that the criteria that determine whether a project has been successful are often many and

    sometimes conflicting.

    Reasons cited for the failure of public sector ICT projects are numerous. They include poor

    project management skills, the scale of public sector projects, the nature of the procurement

    process, vulnerability to policy swings and mission creep as well as the presence of a large

    number of stakeholders. The latter can lead to power struggles and territorial game playing. This

    research will focus on this latter phenomenon, i.e. administrative power as a constituent factor in

    the difficulties and/or failure of government-run ICT projects. To date there has been little study

    conducted into the reasons for these failures. This is in part because it can be difficult to

    research as people dont want to talk about failures. It is hoped that this research will go some

    way towards closing this gap in our knowledge.

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    This paper provides a brief background to the research question and then the tentative research

    question is presented.

    2. Background

    While Ireland has, in comparison with some countries, a reasonably good track record with

    public ICT investment there is a number of examples of government-run ICT projects in Ireland

    that have either failed to deliver the expected return on investment, been abandoned, were

    completed late or over budget. This research will focus on four such projects PULSE, PPARS,

    REACH and Mobhaile.

    PULSE

    PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) is a computer system used by the Irishpolice force (An Garda Sochna). The system was introduced in November 1999. The contract

    for the system was awarded to Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and is managed by a

    directorate of three senior police officers (Garda) and an Accenture consultant. The system is

    run by the PULSE Project teams of the IT section of An Garda Sochna. The original estimated

    cost of Pulse in 1993 was in the region of 46.4 million, but by the time it was actually put in

    place, it had risen to 61.3 million. Between 2001 and 2006, Garda authorities have spent an

    average of 12.88 million each year on improving and maintaining this system which is currently

    available in only 319 of 703 Garda stations.

    PPARS

    PPARS (Personnel Payroll and Related Systems) was a project that set out to develop

    information support systems to underpin the Human Resource management needs of the Irish

    Health sector. This system has the distinction of being the most expensive failure to date in Irish

    public sector ICT. In December 2005, a report published by the Irish Comptroller and Auditor

    General, Mr John Purcell, found that the total cost incurred on the project as of August 31 2005

    was around 131 million.

    Tracing the history of the PPARS system, which was first mooted in 1995, the report says a

    fixed price contract for implementation services was awarded to the firm Bull Information

    Systems Ltd in 1998 at a budgeted cost of just over 9 million. The system was abandoned in

    2005 without fulfilling the requirements. Some estimates have put the final cost of this project inexcess of 180 million.

    REACH

    Reach was established by the Government to develop a strategy for the integration of public

    services and to develop and implement the framework for electronic government. Reach was

    mandated to procure and build the Public Service Broker, which was to have been an integrated

    set of processes, systems and procedures designed to provide a standard means of access to

    public services. In 2007 Reach also became the subject of an investigation by the Irish

    Comptroller and Auditor General which found a variety of problems with the project. After a

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    series of further setbacks and delays the project was finally abandoned by the government in

    December 2009 and the 37 million invested to date was largely written off although a few

    components of the system were salvaged, notably a system for Pay As You Earn taxpayers.

    Mobhaile

    Mobhaile is the Irish Translation for "my town" or "my community". The Mobhaile project

    (www.mobhaile.ie) was launched in 2004 for local authorities to use as a portal for citizens to

    access a wide range of local information. By the time Mobhaile was fully live, just seven

    counties were actively using it. The Government spent more than 4 million developing the

    citizen and community information website that was shut down in December 2009.

    The site was intended to give citizens and businesses a single view of information relevant to

    their locality based on three criteria: function, location and time. Many local authorities already

    had this information Mobhailes role was to make it easily accessible to the public on theinternet or by text message. It was also intended to act as a tool for the community and

    voluntary sector to deliver information to citizens.

    3. Research Objectives and Question

    The research objectives are first to understand the lessons to be learned from these projects

    and in particular the role of power and politics in the delays, overruns and failures; secondly, to

    identify all stakeholders and develop an understanding of each stakeholder group; thirdly to use

    these insights to develop a framework for government-run ICT projects. The primary focus ofthe research will be on administrative power and the role that this plays in government-run ICT

    projects and in particular in causing problems for project management and delivery. Apart from

    the waste of public funds involved, delays and failures in the delivery of government ICT

    projects cause inconvenience to citizens when their interactions with Government are negatively

    affected. Such problems are important to politicians, public servants, public service bodies,

    software vendors, users and most of all to the taxpaying citizen. Such an understanding will

    help in planning and managing public sector ICT projects more effectively and reduce the risk of

    delays or failures. The research questions are therefore as follows:

    Main Question

    To what extent are power in general, administrative power in particular and territorial games

    factors in the success or failure of government-run ICT projects?

    Sub-Questions

    In what ways are current ICT development models inappropriate and/or inadequate for

    government projects?

    How can the negative impacts of administrative power battles and territorial games be

    reduced or eliminated in government ICT?

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    What factors need to be considered/added-in/omitted in the design of an ICT development

    model to be applied to government projects?

    4. Literature Review

    In this section, two literatures are reviewed. Firstly there is a brief review of the e-government

    literature followed by a more detailed discussion of the power literature. There is a large

    literature on e-government, but only limited research to date on the causes of public sector ICT

    project failures. ICT failure is difficult to study for a number of fairly obvious reasons, not least

    that people often want to put failure behind them and there is a tendency for post event

    rationalisation. There is an extensive body of research on power generally, but relatively little

    research conducted on the effect administrative power has on the outcome of projects. The

    literature review will cover the areas of governance, project management and power.

    4.1 Defining e-Government

    The purpose of this section is to outline the various (and sometimes conflicting) definitions of e-

    Government, as well as the benefits attributed to its use, and the potential risks for its failure to

    achieve predetermined goals, particularly as a result of administrative power conflicts. There

    has been a considerable volume of work written on e-Government, describing its origins,

    adoption models, limitations, failures, and project management strategies; a number of differing

    views on what e-government is have been expressed over the past two decades. There is for

    example a division of opinion on the origins of e-Government, between the 1960s and the use ofcomputers by Government, and the early 1990s and the use of the internet. e-Government has

    been around since the early 1990s according to some and at least the 1960s according to

    others. For reasons of space, this section sketches out some of the key ideas of this topic

    without getting into great depth. However the terminology is important.

    There are many definitions of e-government. To make things even more confusing, the term e-

    Government has a number of competitors. Amongst these are digital government, online

    government, connected government, transformational government and sometimes (incorrectly)

    as e-governance. Silcock (2001), for example, defines e-Government as the use of technology

    to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business

    partners and employees. She states that it has the power to create a new mode of public

    service where all public organisations deliver a modernised, integrated and seamless service for

    their citizens. A number of other definitions are discussed below.

    The OECD in its 2003 report The e-Government Imperative reported that there were, even at

    that time, many definitions of e-Government, and the term itself is not universally used. They

    found that the differences are not just semantic and may reflect priorities in government

    strategies. They found that the definitions fall into three groups:

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    E-Government is defines as Internet (online) service delivery and other Internet-based

    activity such as e-consultation.

    E-Government is equated to the use of ICTs in government. While the focus is generally on

    the delivery of services and processing, the broadest definition encompasses all aspects of

    government activity.

    E-Government is defined as a capacity to transform public administration through the use of

    ICTs or indeed is used to describe a new form of government built around ICTs. This aspect

    is usually linked to Internet use.

    In the context of the OECD e-Government Project, the term e-Government is defined as:

    The use of information and communication technologies, and particularly the Internet, as a tool

    to achieve better government.

    Definitions and terms adopted by individual countries have shifted as priorities change and asprogress is made towards particular objectives. Whatever definition is used, there is general

    agreement that its purpose is to aid in the creation of a transparent, efficient and inexpensive

    interaction between government and citizens, government and business enterprises and the

    relationship between governments (inter-agency relationship).

    4.2 e-Government Research

    A number of scholars have analysed the literature in an attempt to find patterns within the

    research literature which would help define e-government as a research field (Gronlnd 2005,

    2007; Andersen and Henriksen, 2006, Bannister and Connolly 2010). In one of these studies,

    Heeks and Bailur, (2007), used a content analysis of 84 papers in e-government-specific

    research outlets (two journals and one conference series) to better understand the topic of e-

    Government. In their conclusions they list the positive and negative practices they have

    identified:

    Taking what they refer to as a normative perspective, they see some positive features good

    practice within current e-government research:

    Significant recognition of human and other contextual factors that influence or mediate the

    impacts of e-government. Use of a diverse range of ideas from other research domains, including information systems,

    public administration, and political science.

    Reference to other e-government literature in almost all research work.

    Presence of a range of different research methods and broad use of primary data.

    On the other hand, there is what they characterize as narrow practice:

    A strong theme of over-optimism, even hyperbole, and a consequent lack of balance in

    considering the impact of e-government.

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    Dominance of positivist research approaches, alongside absence of statements on research

    philosophy.

    Dominance of a-theoretical approaches that, simultaneously, often fail to provide any

    significant practical recommendations.

    Little use of frameworks of knowledge from governance, and little use from within e-

    government in order to encourage an accumulation of knowledge.

    Dominance of research methods that require no face-to-face engagement with the realities

    of e-government, no statistical analysis, and no longitudinal engagement with e-government

    projects.

    Further, they believe there are too many instances of what they characterize as poor practice:

    Little recognition of underlying perspectives, with weak, confused or even contradictory

    positions about e-government or about the underlying philosophy being espoused. Lack of clarity about underlying assumptions, about methodologies, and about how data

    were gathered for the reported research.

    Lack of rigor in the collection and analysis of data, and in generalization from that data.

    Unsuitable promotion of a writer's own products or services.

    Heeks and Bailur, 2007, also advise those working in the e-Government research domain to:

    Provide clear statements on research methodology and method, and on personal interests

    in any research artifacts.

    Use research methods in a manner that strengthens the qualities (such as validity, reliabilityand generalizability) of the research.

    Avoid inconsistent or weak use of perspectives and approaches, and invalid generalization

    of findings.

    4.3 Models of e-Government

    The primary delivery models of e-Government are often divided into:

    Government-to-Citizen or Government-to-Consumer (G2C)

    Government-to-Business (G2B)

    Government-to-Government (G2G)

    Government-to-Employees (G2E)

    Several studies suggest that within each of these interaction domains, four main types of activity

    take place:

    pushing information over the Internet, e.g: regulatory services, general holidays, public

    hearing schedules, issue briefs, notifications, etc.

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    two-way communications between the agency and the citizen, a business, or another

    government agency. In this model, users can engage in dialogue with agencies and post

    problems, comments, or requests to the agency.

    conducting transactions, e.g.: lodging tax returns, applying for services and grants.

    governance, e.g.: online polling, voting, and campaigning.

    It is also worth noting that while e-government is often thought of as "online government" or

    "Internet-based government," many non-Internet "electronic government" technologies can be

    used in this context. Some non-Internet forms include telephone, fax, PDA, SMS text

    messaging, MMS, wireless networks and services, Bluetooth, CCTV, tracking systems, RFID,

    biometric identification, road traffic management and regulatory enforcement, identity cards,

    smart cards and other Near Field Communication applications; TV and radio-based delivery of

    government services, email, online community facilities, newsgroups and electronic mailing lists,

    online chat, and instant messaging technologies.

    4.4 Potential Benefits and Risks of e-Government

    e-Government is almost universally considered to be beneficial. Some of the widely discussed

    benefits are listed below. However there are some potential downside to e-government and

    these are often overlooked.

    Benefits:

    E-government helps simplify processes and makes access to government information more

    easily accessible for public sector agencies and citizens. The anticipated benefits of e-

    government include efficiency, improved services, better accessibility of public services, and

    more transparency and accountability, democratization, environmental bonuses, speed,

    efficiency, and convenience, public approval.

    The OECD in its 2003 report The e-Government Imperative identified a number of reasons to

    embrace e-Government as a means of reforming public management and contributing to

    broader policy objectives:

    e-Government helps improve efficiency in government. Improving internal operating systems

    financial systems, purchasing and payment arrangements, internal communications andsharing of information and programme processing and delivery arrangements can

    generate operating efficiencies and improve performance.

    Enhanced quality of service has been a major component of public administration reform

    and the use of ICTs to generate improvements in services has been a primary driver for e-

    Government activity.

    ICTs can support more effective outcomes in key policy areas such as health, welfare

    services, security and education. Ultimately, governments and public administrations exist to

    deliver policy outcomes, and ICTs are a major enabler across all major policy areas.

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    Better governance arrangements in themselves will promote economic policy objectives.

    More specific effects may range from impacts on ICT production, e-commerce diffusion and

    business productivity to indirect effects such as reduced fiscal requirements owing ot more

    effective programmes and efficiencies flowing through to the broader economy.

    e-Government can help forward a reform agenda. When aligned with modernisation goals,

    implementing e-Government can help administrations focus on the additional changes

    needed to meet service delivery and good governance concerns.

    e-Government, by improving information flows and encouraging active participation by

    citizens, is increasingly seen as a valuable tool for building trust between governments and

    citizens.

    Risks:

    There are many considerations and potential implications of implementing and designing e-

    government, including disintermediation of the government and its citizens, impacts oneconomic, social, and political factors, vulnerability to cyber attacks, and disturbances to the

    status quo in these areas, hyper-surveillance, cost, inaccessibility, false sense of transparency

    and accountability.

    It is hoped that the design of a model to limit the occurrence of turf wars during e-Government

    projects will reduce the risk and extent of possible failures attributed to this factor. In order to

    achieve this goal it is necessary to examine the topic of power.

    5. Power

    5.1 The complexity of Power

    This section provides definitions of power, and presents a brief discussion on the sources of

    power, with the focus on political power and administrative power.

    The nature of power and the determinants for who can exert it is a subject matter relevant to a

    cross section of fields. The variety of contexts in which power plays a role and the number of

    disciplines in which it is defined and discussed make it a challenging topic to synthesise in a

    short section. The role of power is a topical and relevant subject matter, for government,

    industry and academia as well as e-government projects. The literature on this subject matter isextensive and eclectic, authors have progressively added to the volume of knowledge,

    analysing previous work to modify and add theories as the nature of organisations, networks,

    States and personal power has evolved. This has ensured that theories remain relevant.

    A useful definition of power (though far from the only one) is that it is a measure of an entity's

    (e.g. person, organisation, country) ability to control the environment around itself, including the

    behaviour of other entities. The terms authority and influence are often used for power. Often,

    the study of power in a society is simply referred to as politics.

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    As already noted, power has been defined in many ways. To take an arbitrary starting point,

    Mechanic (1962) wrote that power was "any force that results in behavior which would not have

    occurred if the force had not been present" (1962:351). This definition has its limitations. There

    may be instances when a behaviour which is attributed to occurring due to a force being present

    may have occurred due to another factor. As a result this definition has been further developed

    by several scholars. Mechanic also notes that most categorizations of sources of power

    distinguish between personal and structural sources. Personal sources of power can be

    obtained from individual attributes such as experience, seniority, education, and professional

    activity particularly for lower-level organization members lacking formal authority who obtain

    power by making themselves difficult to replace. Structural sources, in turn, can be divided into

    those derived from formal and informal structures.

    All organizations function on, inter alia, the basis of the interdependent activities of various

    departments. As such they have a formal power structure that is usually denoted in theorganizational chart. Hierarchies in these structures denote formal power or authorization given

    to individuals as determined by their particular job designation. The higher up one is in the

    structure, the more formal power one has. However in most organisations there is a parallel

    organizational chart where the power structure may not necessarily be similar to the formal

    one. This is the informal power structure, which may at times exercise considerably more

    influence than the formal one. Hierarchical, or legitimate, power (French & Raven, 1959) is

    based on formal authority, which corresponds, although not perfectly, to power, responsibility,

    and discretion over a range of resources (Tushman & Romanelli, 1983).

    Alternative forms of power depend on a variety of factors including personality, personal

    relationships, extra organisational relationships (e.g. membership of the same golf club) and

    control of certain resources which may be inside or outside the organisation. Galbraith (1983)

    summarises the types of power as being "Condign" (based on force), "Compensatory" (through

    the use of various resources) or "Conditioned" (the result of persuasion), and their sources as

    "Personality" (individuals), "Property" (their material resources) and "Organisational" (whoever

    sits at the top of an organisational power structure). .

    5.2 Sources of Power

    The source of power through a number of means, some of which are listed below. This list is

    not exhaustive:

    Delegated authority (for example in the democratic process)

    Social class (material wealth can equal power)

    Personal or group charisma

    Ascribed power (acting on perceived or assumed abilities)

    Expertise (ability, skills)

    Persuasion (direct, indirect, or subliminal)

    Knowledge (granted or withheld, shared or kept secret)

    Celebrity

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    power indicators are then operationalised and measured to compare SDAs. These measures

    are then assessed against variable characteristics of the states to determine their utility as

    comparative state policy indicators.

    Data for his analysis was derived from both primary and secondary sources. Grady designed a

    survey which he then sent to fifty state development agencies. As a reliability check the survey

    responses were validated using interviews with state development officials in seven of the fifty

    states. Finally, a suggestion is made on how these measures might be used to assess the

    effectiveness of state economic development policy-making. Grady concludes that the evidence

    collected during his study suggests that state political leaders have some independent influence

    over their economic futures. He further concludes that a state lagging in economic performance

    could address the problem by increasing its spending and programs in the economic

    development policy area and consolidating its efforts into one administrative unit responsible for

    policy area. While his conclusions are intuitive they are grounded in theory and backed up byanalysis of data collected during his study. Nothing in his conclusions is counter intuitive.

    Rose and Miller (1992) set out another approach to the analysis of political power in terms of

    problematics of government. They argue against an emphasis of the 'problem of the State' in

    political debate and social theory. In their paper a number of conceptual tools are suggested for

    the analysis of the many and varied alliances between political and other authorities that seek to

    govern economic activity, social life and individual conduct. They conclude that modern political

    rationalities and governmental technologies are shown to be intrinsically linked to developments

    in knowledge and to the powers of expertise. In their paper the characteristics of what they

    describe as liberal problematics of government are investigated, and it is argued that they are

    dependent upon technologies for 'governing at a distance', seeking to create locales, entities

    and persons able to operate a regulated autonomy. They argue that political power is exercised

    through a profusion of shifting alliances between diverse authorities in projects to govern a

    multitude of facets of economic activity, social life and individual conduct.

    Kaufman (1969) also addresses the issue of political power and expands on a paper he wrote in

    1956 in which he explored the origins of public administration. In his 1956 paper Kaufman

    examined administrative institutions and the evolution of governmental structures which

    developed through a process of experimentation. This experimentation resulted in a number of

    different forms of governmental structures which academics disagreed upon how best to

    categorise. In an attempt to produce a clear review of these forms Kaufman reviewed the historyof public administration.

    Kaufman surmises that public administrations have been developed to fulfil three values or

    quests: representation, neutral competence and executive leadership. Representation denotes

    universal adult suffrage. Neutral competence was defined as the ability to do the work of

    government expertly and to do it according to explicit, objective standards rather than to

    personal or party or other obligations or loyalties. Executive leadership is the ability to govern

    and make decisions to balance competing claims against each other for the available resources.

    In his paper of 1969 Kaufman declares that over time government institutions have shifted the

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    emphasis between these three values. Government institutions are made up of a number of

    elements (civil servants, public servants, committees, public bodies, etc) each focusing on

    different areas of public interest. As a result, each develops a priority for one of the three values

    above that most benefits their remit. Each element of government institution then uses its centre

    of power to optimise allocation of resources to its public function, such as healthcare, education,

    welfare, etc. This results in a struggle for power which requires management and co-ordination

    at a central level. Kaufman argues that this will result in decentralisation. In order to focus on

    state affairs, government institutions delegate local decision making and resource allocation to

    local authorities. This reduces the level of power of central government and increases power

    available to local authorities. A similar strategy is adopted by large organisations which appoint

    department heads to take responsibility for separate areas, allowing higher managers to focus

    on the overall strategy for the organisation. While Kaufmans arguments are well made, and

    referenced, he draws only on America and as such it is not obvious that his theory can be

    applied in other jurisdictions.

    Whitt (1979) presents another view and outlines the characteristics of three competing models

    of political power: pluralist, elitist, and class-dialectic.

    The Elitist Model: According to the elitist model, political power is held to be concentrated in

    the hands of elites who occupy the top positions in large and increasingly centralized

    institutional hierarchies.

    The Pluralist Model: The pluralist model starts with interest groups as the basic features of

    organized political life. The power of private groups is based mainly on the effective political

    organization of voluntary associations, but also is a function of such individual qualities as

    the political strategies and leadership abilities of party and group leaders. A key concept is

    competition.

    The Class-Dialectic Model: The class-dialectic model holds that political processes must be

    understood in terms of the institutional structure of society and in terms of the relation of

    social classes to each other. The manner in which the basic institutions of society (especially

    the economy) are organized has crucial implications for not only the general character of

    society but also for how classes relate to each other and how political and social power is

    exercised. (1979:83)

    Whitt argues that the latter model has been neglected by mainstream sociology, particularly at

    the empirical level of the community. Using systematic case studies of five related politicaldecisions, his study assesses the relative explanatory power of the three models. The analysis

    demonstrates that the class-dialectic model is highly useful and that it deserves to be treated as

    a serious guide to studies of political power.

    The elitist and class-dialectic models use much larger units of analysis than does the pluralist

    model. These two models also hold that power is much more concentrated than does the

    pluralist model. The pluralist model says that power relations are quite unstable while the elitist

    model presents a stable picture of power relations. The class-dialectic model conceives of

    power as much more stable than does the pluralist model, but somewhat less stable than does

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    the elitist model. Differences concerning the role of the state are clearest between the pluralist

    and elitist models: the pluralist state has autonomy, the elitist state does not. It is not possible to

    classify the class-dialectic position on the issue of state autonomy in a simple way, although it is

    held that the state serves the interests of the dominant class. Whitt suggests an integration of

    the various levels of analysis of political power arguing that the class-dialectic model can

    provide that integration.

    Organisations and public institutions can benefit by understanding the nature of power and how

    it can be exerted to maximise efficiencies. Long (1949) states that: the lifeblood of

    administration is power. He argues that the theory of administration has neglected the problem

    of the sources and adequacy of power. In his 1949 paper Long states that the difficulty of

    coordinating government agencies lies not only in the fact that bureaucratic organizations are

    institutions having survival interests which may conflict with their rational adaptation to over-all

    purpose, but even more in their having roots in society. He argues that the integration of theadministrative structure through an over-all purpose in terms of which tasks and priorities can be

    established is an emergency phenomenon as its realization, only partial at best, has been

    limited to war and the extremity of economic depression. Long (1949) concludes that the

    exploration of the needs and necessities of the present system of government should be a high

    priority task of responsible scholarship. Long (1949) produced logical arguments, in a cohesive

    format. However Long does not provide empirical evidence like a lot of early theoretical papers.

    5.4 Summary

    In summary, as even this brief and as yet incomplete survey shows, there are many

    conceptualisations of power in general and administrative/political (with a small p) power in

    particular. Further work remains to be done on developing a working model of power for this

    research.

    6. Research Design and Methodology

    The proposed approach is qualitative and case based as suits the question. The research will

    be conducted by way of a small number of case studies in the Irish public sector. Provisionallyit is intended to concentrate on the PULSE, PPARS, REACH and Mobhaile projects. The

    research will include semi-structured interviews with civil servants, software vendors and end

    users as well as studying documentary evidence and artefacts.

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    7. Conclusion: Expected Contribution

    This research will improve public sector management practice by providing a framework for

    Government ICT projects, to ensure resources are effectively utilised and risks are minimised.

    The research findings will help governments better manage large ICT projects and reduce the

    risks of overruns and failures arising from power and administrative conflicts.

    Power, its sources, the evolution of organisations and politics in the context of power struggles,

    have provided researchers with considerable material over the last six decades. However there

    has been little written on the area of administrative power or turf wars. It is hoped this research

    will demonstrate that this can be identified as a factor in some e-Government project failures,

    and as a result provide a model or theory to aid in future public sector project management.

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