SteveJ-restore-test

In light of the Sir Peter Gershon's Review of the Australian Government’s use of Information and Communication Technology, here's an email I sent to Lindsay Tanner (Finance Minister) prior to the 24-Nov-07 election of the Rudd ALP government. Edited lightly, formatting only. Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:02:40 +1100 From: steve jenkin To: lindsay.tanner.mp@aph.gov.au Subject: Finance, FMAA & ANAO - Good Management: Never any excuse for repeating known errors Here is something very powerful, but simple to implement & run, to amplify your proposed review of government operations and can be used to gain a real advantage over the conservative parties. On 8-Nov I wrote a version via the ALP website. Headline: The Libs talk about being Good Managers, but they have been asleep at the wheel for the last 10+ years. It's not "efficient, effective or ethical" to allow public money to be wasted by repeating known mistakes. Nothing new needs to be enacted - only the poli...

The Gershon Review is good solid stuff that doesn't rock the boat, doesn't challenge current methods & thinking, nor show deep understanding of the field. It has a major omission - it addresses ICT inputs only. ICT is useful only in what it enables others to do or improve - measuring & improving ICT outputs is completely missing from 'Gershon'. It doesn't examine the fundamentals of ICT work: What is that we do? How is Computing/IT special or different to anything else? Why do we do it? Who benefits from our outputs and How? Here are my partial answers to these questions: Computing is a "Cognitive Amplifier" allowing tasks to be done {Cheaper, Better, Quicker, More/Bigger}. IT is done for a Business Benefit. Like Marketing, defining how outputs & outcomes are measured and assessed - both in the macro and micro - is one of the most important initial tasks. Gershon doesn't address outstanding issues of the IT Profession: improving individu...