Adapting for Inertia
Delivering Large Government ICT Projects in Australia and New Zealand
Abstract
Despite much learning and research over many decades, large ICT
software projects have continued to experience poor outcomes or fallen short of
original expectations—some spectacularly so. This is the case in the Australian
and New Zealand public sectors, even though these projects operate within
historically developed institutional frameworks that provide the rules,
guidelines and controls, and aim to consistently improve outcomes. Something is
amiss. In Adapting for Inertia, Grant Douglas questions the effectiveness of
these institutional frameworks in governing large ICT software projects in the
Australian and New Zealand public sectors. He also gauges the perspectives of a
large number of actors in projects in both sectors and examines two case studies
in detail. The main narrative to emerge is that the institutional frameworks are
in a state of inertia: they are failing to adapt, owing to various institutional
factors—all of which have public policy implications. Sadly, Douglas finds, this
inertia is likely to continue. If there is difficulty in changing the capacity
to govern, he proposes, policymakers should look to change the nature of what is
to be governed.
Keywords
Governance of government ICT projects; Institutional framework for government ICT projects; Public policy for government ICT projects; Large government ICT projects; Large ICT projects in the Australian and New Zealand public sectorsDOI
10.22459/AI.2023ISBN
9781760466107, 9781760466091, 9781760466107Publisher
ANU PressPublisher website
https://press.anu.edu.au/Publication date and place
Canberra, 2023Imprint
ANU PressClassification
Political science and theory
Public administration
Organizational theory and behaviour