Senior civil servants don't understand IT needs before signing contracts
Failure to understand project requirements early on leads to delayed delivery and increased costs
Engaging commercial partners on major IT projects is "problematic on all sides," as most senior civil servants don ' t completely grasp the needs of projects before signing contracts.
That ' s according to Yvonne Gallagher, digital director of the National Audit Office (NAO), who says large-scale programmes frequently lack proper planning, analysis, architecture and design before things start for real.
"Often this is actually skipped over," Gallagher said while speaking at the Westminster Forum event on Tuesday, reviewing priorities for the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO).
Many public sector IT contracts are negotiated based on outlined business cases, without clear knowledge of the actual needs. Because contracts are signed too early, the details of the programmes' complexity and needs only begin to emerge after they are underway.
It could take months before all of the requirements are known. By that time, delivery arrangements with inflexible contracts have already been fixed, which hurts both sides.
"I think this is what we see as a major issue that needs more thought."
Gallagher said too few of the most senior civil servants are well-versed in digital transformation projects, which increases their chance of failure.
The NAO said in its report last year that senior government decision makers had to better grasp the commercial, technical, and delivery risks involved with digital programmes to successfully implement digital business transformation.
The Office warned that after 25 years of government initiatives and several efforts to properly implement digital business transformation, there remains a continuing pattern of underperformance.
In many cases, this is the consequence of project and programme managers focusing on technological solutions before thoroughly considering the more basic components of the projects and programmes in question.
The NAO found that a lack of first-hand experience with digital business transformation means that many top officials do not comprehend the technical and delivery risks they are accountable for.
The issues caused as a result of senior management's lack of digital expertise has also extended to the managing and migration from legacy systems.
For example, insiders told The Guardian last month that out-of-date IT systems were causing "chaos" within the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), hampering the government's ability to respond to the Ukraine issue.
They said employees who previously worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID) are still working on two separate security and computer systems, despite the fact that the two departments merged to become the FCDO nearly two years ago.
In December, a whistleblower said poor IT support hindered thousands of Afghan attempts to get help during the fall of Kabul last year.
According to the NAO, the Government's digital programme delivery could be improved by reviewing and applying lessons learned from previous failures and achievements by the CDDO, the Government Digital Service, and the Cabinet Office.
Megan Lee, CDDO director of strategy performance and operations, also speaking at the Westminster Forum, said that CDDO had established a group of permanent secretaries, the most senior civil servants in each Whitehall department.
"Recognising that digital and data is inherently part of how we all do business, we've established a permanent secretary level digital and data board to raise the profile of our agenda across government."
"We're [also] strengthening our links to communities in the transformation space, in the operation space and beyond," she said.