Information Technology Case Study Queensland

Information Technology Case Study

Queensland Government Internet Gateway: A Case Study in Project Management

The 26 separate departments that comprise the Queensland Government had taken completely different and often conflicting approaches to managing their websites, the content included on them, and the critical tasks citizens wanted to take in completing transactions with government agencies. The lack of integration across these systems, the lack of process-based workflows to streamline navigation, and the lack of consistency from a navigation standpoint made the task of working with all these government departments very difficult and time-consuming for citizens. The lack of integration between systems in each of the 26 departments was also causing the entire government to slow down and take more time in completing critical tasks for citizens.

The Queensland Government Internet Gateway was specifically created to overcome these limitations in serving citizens. Instead of focusing on the individual needs of each department as had each of the 26 websites done in the past, the new focus was entirely on the customer or citizen and how to make divisions between departments transparent. To do this an entirely new process-centric and role-based access model had to be created, which required a high level of systems and process integration across all departments. There was also the need to overcome the many variations in graphical interfaces, which were replaced with a single, clean, intuitively easier graphical interface based on the W3C standard. Transactions of all types were integrated at the process level across all departments' systems, making it possible for citizens to complete all activities within a single session on the Internet Gateway. In addition, there was increased levels of personalization and concentration of making each department aligned with the needs of citizens or customers. In short, the orientation of the 26 often myopic-focused department systems has been redefined with a stronger focus on the citizen as customer.

In addition to the systems integration, website redesign, support for a single gateway for completing transactions, the project management sequence of activities ensured the Gateway's success. Starting with the definition of citizen's requirements that served as the foundation for system integration, process integration, development of transaction-based applications, the development of a single enterprise content management system that could serve as a central repository for all 26 departments also was aligned to the needs of citizens. The synchronization of all system improvements and new applications was also defined to proven, reliable technology standards. The next phase of the project was to define development, common graphical interface, integration, and transaction workflow standards as well. As the project was being completed, user feedback in the form of usability testing that concentrated on fine tuning the Service Cluster Navigation Model as well, which was a major improvement in navigation across all previously independent sites. Following usability testing the development of transaction support was accentuated and made more transparent across divisions, greater support for the search function, support for multilingual access, integration to Smart Service Queensland, and support for a clear Internet pathway to the Service Directory as well. The project management tasks of ensuring a high level of ownership of the project illustrate how Queensland Government Internet Gateway, working diligently on change management strategies, ensured the adoption and approval of a consistent user experience and interface was also supported. Change management strategies that enabled a high level of ownership across the 26 business units specifically in regard to the use of the content management system, development of the transaction workflows, and the adoption of a single graphical user interface all contributed to the success of the project in changing long-term behaviour.