Issues in public information systems development: The impact of regionalised organisational structure

Abstract

This thesis highlights the critical impact the effects of regionalised organisational structure and external political pressures have on the development of public sector information systems. Through the extension of a socio-technical systems (STS) model which encompasses these effects, a tool is provided for their investigation and evaluation in past and present information system (IS) developments. The foundations for this model were derived through an in-depth study of a large scale, national public IS development. Despite a large volume of research into the development and implementation of information systems, a high incidence of failure of such projects is still observed. With information systems now commonly integrated into many facets of an organisation’s business processes the costs and consequences of such failures can be far reaching. Given the additional scope and scale of many national public sector projects such consequences can be profound. While public sector IS failure has been studied in the literature, its focus is observed to be primarily that of an examination of e-government systems, neglecting the back-end (non-public facing) support systems. The focus of such studies is predominantly on the public’s interface and interaction with these systems together with their adoption and acceptance by the public. This view is a valid contribution but it does not inform the literature on the full range of unique problems that can be encountered across a complete IS development lifecycle within the public sector. Seeking to investigate these matters further, a collaboration was formed with a UK public body to facilitate the examination of the issues affecting the development and implementation of a national IS project. Onsite observations, interviews and document sampling were used across the development cycle to gather information from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved. The analysis of the data collected from this exercise highlighted a number of factors that were observed to have a significant effect on the project’s ultimate failure. Examination of this analysis from an STS perspective allowed for the extension of an existing STS model. It was extended to encompass the significant adverse effects that an organisational regionalised structure and external political pressure placed on the development of public information systems.