An free-wheeling discussion on influencing change in the public sector
Participants: Ellen Grove, Paul Boos, Manish Nandy and 2 others.
"bureaucracy never changes, but advocates do"
Effective advocates are often people who have worked in outside industry
Attributes common to public sector environments (though by no means are they unique to these contexts):
--Lag in tech adoption
--Reluctance to learn/do independent research - reliance on external analysts
--Policies are a substitute for individual discipline?
--Power dynamic may be an impediment to Agile?: "I only have the power to say 'No' "
--Resistance to Open Source Software
Audits:
— often perceived demand for traceability of entire lifecycle, but lack of knowledge of hard requirements for audit trail
— what is 'minimal documentation'?
Adherence to a number of external standards/'best practices':
-- ITIL segregation of duty
-- PMP
-- CMMI
Project initiation/structure:
--Bidding/Proposal process is challenging, emphasizes competition vs. long-term relationships.
--Contract & Procurement strategies based on belief that fixed-price agreements are good risk mitigation approaches
--Budgeting cycles make it hard to break large efforts into incremental chunks of work: $ need to be spent by a certain time or they are lost
--Use of external resources to circumvent bureaucracy and other internal obligations
--Higher level of accountability? vs. distributed/non-existent product ownership.
Risk aversion
-- Perception that risks don't affect public service work
-- Public pressure not to fail
-- No appetite for possible exposure to public criticism - ' where can this exposure help me?'
-- Stakeholders may not want transparency — no wish to reveal system incompetence
-- What is the risk of simplicity?
-- SES level very concerned about risk aversion
How to promote benefits of transparency and collaboration?
Participants: Ellen Grove, Paul Boos, Manish Nandy and 2 others.
"bureaucracy never changes, but advocates do"
Effective advocates are often people who have worked in outside industry
Attributes common to public sector environments (though by no means are they unique to these contexts):
--Lag in tech adoption
--Reluctance to learn/do independent research - reliance on external analysts
--Policies are a substitute for individual discipline?
--Power dynamic may be an impediment to Agile?: "I only have the power to say 'No' "
--Resistance to Open Source Software
Audits:
— often perceived demand for traceability of entire lifecycle, but lack of knowledge of hard requirements for audit trail
— what is 'minimal documentation'?
Adherence to a number of external standards/'best practices':
-- ITIL segregation of duty
-- PMP
-- CMMI
Project initiation/structure:
--Bidding/Proposal process is challenging, emphasizes competition vs. long-term relationships.
--Contract & Procurement strategies based on belief that fixed-price agreements are good risk mitigation approaches
--Budgeting cycles make it hard to break large efforts into incremental chunks of work: $ need to be spent by a certain time or they are lost
--Use of external resources to circumvent bureaucracy and other internal obligations
--Higher level of accountability? vs. distributed/non-existent product ownership.
Risk aversion
-- Perception that risks don't affect public service work
-- Public pressure not to fail
-- No appetite for possible exposure to public criticism - ' where can this exposure help me?'
-- Stakeholders may not want transparency — no wish to reveal system incompetence
-- What is the risk of simplicity?
-- SES level very concerned about risk aversion
How to promote benefits of transparency and collaboration?