2012 Victorian Information, Communications & Technology Strategy Review

I recently reviewed the Victorian Information, Communications & Technology (ICT) Strategy which was released for public comment a few weeks ago.

It recognises the changing face of public interactions with government. It also seeks to set policy that will use changes in technology to make government departments work better together to improve the quality and accessibility of data.

The devil will be in the detail of course and I look forward to the more detailed implementation plan and governance.

Of particular note is the commentary surrounding the current gaps in ICT leadership and delivery. This is not unique to Victoria.

In fact across the East and West Coast stories abound of poorly managed ICT projects that run over budget and fail to deliver on expected benefits. Based on current performance ICT risk seems to be growing exponentially.

So what is at the heart of this? Is it scope creep? Is it the delegation of business requirements to junior team members who try to build perfection only to watch it fall over?

Is it commissions driven vendor sales teams who promise the world to win the bid then fail to deploy and uncover ‘out of scope’ issues?

Do we really understand what we are selling and buying anymore? Is it a lack of strategy upfront or poor execution?

Sadly more often than not we will never know because the failures are not effectively reviewed. It certainly seems time to lift the skills and capability of our ICT leadership to ensure that Australian government and business can deliver on efficiencies and be effective.

These will be some of the issues that will exercise the minds of the directors in the new Victorian ICT governance body.

As to how the rest of us will address these issues, I think it is time to make sure that ICT strategy, ICT leadership and management of ICT talent is elevated to the highest levels.

All projects should be closely scrutinised and treated with appropriate risk management.