Edinburgh Napier University

  eGovernment is a relatively new, but rapidly expanding, domain; mainly due to the perceived outcomes that it may bring to the public administration. Founded on the premise that eGovernment programmes may increase efficiency and effectiveness, decrease costs and enhance the quality of public services, governments invest heavily on such implementations. But here is a perplexing contrast; so far, many of such projects experience a high failure rate. That is realised in many facets; endless delays, and excessive costs, or complete cancellations are frequently observed. The reasons behind that can be many.
However, such situation may be avoided or at least better handled through appropriate risk-based methods applied during the early stages of eGovernment project considerations. Within that context this thesis investigates the modelling of risk for eGovernment projects at the early, pre-proposal stages. The interpretative qualitative study described in this thesis provides a 'first stab' in a previously weakly explored, but important, area of eGovernment research. It is therefore the main objective of this thesis to examine the relevance of risk modelling during the pre-proposal phase of eGovernment service projects. To achieve that objective, this thesis devises and employs a risk modelling tool; a design that incorporates an e5ervke model and eGovernment risk taxonomy, allowing its users to identify pertinent project risk statements that may be exploited at later risk assessment exercises.
So as to accomplish the defined objective, this thesis is arranged in an order that covers all stages of the research process. These include an understanding of the eGovernment domain by expanding - amongst others - on the various eGovernment modelling, evolution, and evaluation methods as well as a discussion on eGovernment benefits, and its failure factors.
Equally, a part is dedicated on elaborating upon eGovernment risk and the existing methods to model it. A prototype risk modelling tool is developed in order to be used as a probe that is assessed and evaluated in the field by domain experts and practitioners. The thesis concludes by gathering qualitative data and analysing the grounded findings received from a series of interviews and workshops.
With reference to the findings addressing the thesis' main research question, the conducted study shows that risk modelling has effectively no applicability during the pre-proposal stages of eGovernment service projects. This study argues that although
risk modelling has a recognised value, employing it is really futile at such early phase. It is primarily so, because at that point risk does not appear to carry enough weight to influence the decision-making process. Equally, this research finds that it is the political leadership that hands down the project ideas and the IT/IS project management staff simply implement. Even if risk modelling tools were employed by the ITIIS project management staff, the risk modelling output would be pointless as they have limited input into the decision-making process.
The study's findings also led this thesis to produce a conceptual framework for risk modelling, as well as relevant lessons to be learnt. The thesis elaborates on what risk modelling is expected to deliver and how it should look like. The findings have also
further enhanced the risk modelling tool developed for this research, and generally propose new avenues for further research work in the domain.