Managing e-service development : comparing two e-government case studies

Purpose – To contribute to a better understanding of the progress and the success vs. failure in e-government development, based on case studies of two inter-organizational e-service projects. Design/Methodology/Approach – The analysis in the paper is made from a) an e-government systems development life-cycle perspective and b) a challenge and success factor perspective. The point of departure is theory and a comparative analysis of two e-government projects. Findings – The main results in this paper are 1) a combination of perspectives (in a project stage and analysis grid) that can serve as a support when managing e-service development and 2) a set of identified crucial success factors within an inter-organizational e-government project including project manager skills and position in the agency organization as well as when and how systems maintenance issues are introduced into a project. Existing theory and perspectives are also criticised based on the present study. Practical implications – Lessons to learn from a challenge and success factors perspective in two different e-government projects, and suggestions to revise an e-government development life-cycle in order to perform a better practice in the field. The revised/developed project stage and analysis grid presented in the paper is one way to deal with the challenges related to the management of e-service development in the public sector. Originality/value – This paper addresses a number of challenges of complexity and risk that e-government initiatives face. It is not an easy matter to realize such initiatives’ potential. A key research issue for the e-government field, as well as the information systems field in general, is to understand why some projects progress to success while others end in failure. This is the niche for the present paper