Responding to the UK Government Digital Strategy
Thursday 24 January 2013
One of the most critical activities influencing the future of UK society is the rapid evolution of government services from a fixed set of closed, slow-moving paper-based transactions toward online digital services focused on encouraging a new kind of interaction between UK citizens and government.
A major milestone in this journey was the publication of the Government Digital Strategy (GDS) at the end of 2012. It lays out the principles and pathway toward the UK government’s “digital by default” strategy.
Swift response to user need, lower costs for the taxpayer, faster delivery of major IT projects and the ability to stay ahead of the curve and make use of the newest technology all seem to be on the government’s wish list. However the team of key academic thinkers have found that the GDS is light on detail and raises a number of issues that need further scrutiny if this wish list is to be delivered.
Launched today on www.ukgaap.org, a major new report by leading academics examines the Government’s digital strategy and highlights key challenges to delivering on the promises of the GDS. This report, designed to be part of an on-going dialogue between government, academics and industry, is part of a larger initiative aimed at a deep investigation into the promise and pitfalls of greater digitization of government services, and the broader move toward “Government as a Platform (GaaP)”.
Please DOWNLOAD the full draft of the report and join the discussion!
The report and has been authored by Alan W Brown, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, John A McDermid, Professor of Software Engineering, Dept. of Computer Science, University of York, Ian Sommerville, Professor of Software Engineering, School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews and Rob Witty, Professor of Software Engineering, Dept. of Informatics and Software Engineering, Cranfield University.
Asked about the goals and intention of this new report, Professor Brown stated that “it is essential the UK government moves faster toward greater innovation in delivering online digital services. However, the rush to “go faster” needs to be balanced with the challenges inherent in delivery of large-scale software-intensive projects. In this report we have applied our experiences in delivering such projects to refine and improve the Government’s approach, and we’re looking forward to continued interaction on this critical UK government initiative as it evolves.”
Professor Sommerville added: "My concerns are that the report skates over the difficulties of delivering this strategy and shows no awareness of the complexity of the interactions between the different technical and organisational systems that are involved".
