How to achieve and sustain government digital transformation by Mik Bracken and Andrew Greenway published by IDB (2018).
“Digital government is rapidly gathering global momentum as an effective way for nations and regions to increase their administrative efficiency, develop resilience and deliver simpler, clearer and better services for their citizens and businesses. This report will summarise the conditions and context needed to make government digital teams succeed and be sustained across different administrations.
This work was commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) from Public Digital, a consultancy made up of the founding members of the UK Government Digital Service. Public Digital was founded in Autumn 2015, and has partnered with governments and large businesses based in over 20 countries to help them successfully deliver digital transformation at scale.
The findings in this report are split into three parts. The first explores the conditions needed to establish a digital team. The second looks at the conditions required to make that team successful. The third concludes with the conditions required to help that team sustain as an institution across different political administrations.
Many of the conditions considered in this report, such as team design, capability, reporting and governance, HR and procurement practices, official-level leadership and political alignment, are present at all three stages. Successful digital institutions are like successful digital services; they iteratively evolve and adapt to changing needs and circumstances. The only guarantee of failure for a digital institution is that it remains static, particularly as the context – political, official, technological and social – changes around it…”
