A whole-of-government approach to information technology strategy management

A recent feature of Electronic Governance programs is the adoption of Whole-of-Government (WG) approach to planning, design, delivery and operation of Information Technology (IT) -related initiatives. The approach is characterized by the integrated and coordinated pursuit by government agencies of shared objectives concerning service delivery, citizen engagement, public policy development, and others. Adopting a WG approach requires a clear understanding of the coordination needs and the dominant organizational culture of the agencies involved. This paper discusses the outcomes of a study and subsequent development of a Whole-of-Government IT Strategy Management (WG-ITSM) framework conducted as part of an e-governance standardization program in a city-state in South-East Asia (Macao SAR). The study aimed at establishing the WG requirements for ITSM practices in government, with the WG-ITSM framework enabling the development and management of integrated IT strategies to fulfill such requirements. The framework comprises a set of conceptual, process and integration models covering government-wide IT strategy management, IT strategy process and cross-agency IT strategy integration respectively, and supporting tools. The framework has been validated through pilot exercises involving three government agencies. The paper also presents the validation results and discusses critical success factors for implementing the proposed approach.