Assignment-2 | Aditya Singh | 2017IMG-006 | E-Governance

1. Discuss the strategic framework for improving E-Governance Performance under the
following headings

a. List the possible framework and how their synthesis is recommended

A1. (a) The synthesized strategic framework for improving the performance of e-governance
projects is presented in the Fig below

Fig: Synthesized recommended strategic framework

The framework is arrived at by converging qualitative and quantitative analyses of six agriculture-
related e-governance projects. It is pertinent to point out here that the focus of the base study being
on managerial issues, the technology-related aspects have not been considered in the analysis which
has led to the evolution of this framework. The quantitative analysis led to identification of 17
significant strategic variables which influence performance of e-governance. The quantitative
analysis also brought out four micro-level frameworks epicting the influence of identified strategic
variables on the constituent variables of performance, viz. efficiency, transparency, interactivity and
decision support.
Assignment-2 | Aditya Singh | 2017IMG-006 | E-Governance

The ‘Changing Situation’ has been tested as predictor of performance in case of planners,
implementers as well as beneficiaries. The first embedded micro-variable, perception about ‘Changing
user needs (CHN)’, is a dominant variable influencing performance in case of planners and
implementers. The second embedded micro-variable, ‘Feedback loop (FDL)’, is a dominant variable
influencing performance in case of all three actor types. . The third micro-variable, ‘Smooth access to
service (SAS)’ is a dominant influencing variable in case of implementers and beneficiaries The last
micro-variable, ‘Mission awareness (MAW)’ is related to implementers and is interpreted as
influencing performance in terms of ‘Committed Organizational Efforts’.

Strategic planning encompasses three macro-variables pertaining to planners. These macro-

variables, viz. ‘Extent of Planning (EXPLN)’, ‘Comprehensive of Strategy Formulation (COMPSF)’,
‘Flexibility of Processes (FP)’, have been tested as predictors of performance. Within the respective
macro-variables, the dominant micro-variables ‘Program planning elements (PPE)’, ‘Provisions for
obtaining feedback (FDPROV)’ and the ‘Change mechanisms (CM)’ in processes are found to be
influencing performance.

Strategic Implementation encompasses the macro-variables ‘Effectiveness of Strategy

Implementation (EFFSI)’ and ‘Competence level of Actors (CL)’ which have been tested as
predictors of performance. Within ‘Effectiveness of Strategy Implementation’, the dominant micro-
variables ‘Strategic coherence among planners and implementers (STCO)’ and ‘Involvement of
stakeholders in strategy implementation (INSTSI)’ are found to be influencing performance.

Performance of e-governance projects is the outcome variable as per the research objectives.
Performance of projects has been conceived in terms of efficiency, transparency, interactivity and
decision support. It has been found that the three groups have difference of opinion about the project
performance. The synthesized recommended strategic framework presents an integrated view for
improving performance from the perspectives of all the three actor types. The perceptions of these
different actor segments about benefits accruing from a project should synchronize and these need to
be of highest order. The commonalities in macro-/micro-level validated relationships based on the
opinion surveys of planners, implementers and beneficiaries.

b. What are the implementation frameworks that need to considered during operationlize the
recommended framework
A1.(b) The implementation of the synthesized strategic framework can be understood from the
perspective of the three key actor groups:
1. Planners
2. Implementers
3. Beneficiaries
Assignment-2 | Aditya Singh | 2017IMG-006 | E-Governance

The implementation considerations are in terms of respective identified strategic variables.

1.b.1 Planning-Level Considerations

Planners need to keep in view the expected outcome from an e-governance project while
preparing project plan. The performance parameters should be clearly identified in terms of
expected improvement in efficiency, transparency, interactivity and decision support. These
aspects must be prioritized as per their relevance in the project situation and metrics for
measuring them need to be defined for assessing the outcome from time to time. An e-
governance project plan has to be adaptable and effective for ensuring better performance.
Adequate consideration of program planning elements (affected societal sectors, objectives,
needs, activities, constraints, alterables, objective measures, activity measures and agencies) in
the plan will help in avoiding deadlock like situations in the projects. Adequate provision needs
to be kept for obtaining feedback from internal and external actors as it will attract these actors to
use the service and create better value for all from the project efforts. Planners need to consider
introducing change mechanisms in the e-governance processes. Further, for better performance
of an e-governance project, planners need to be alert about changing needs of beneficiaries
through periodic assessment of their needs; they need to remain in contact with implementers and
beneficiaries for bridging planners–beneficiaries gap, and they need to act on feedback from
beneficiaries and other stakeholders for customized service offerings and ensuring participatory
governance.

1.b.2 Implementation-Level Considerations

Effective implementation of strategy is expected to improve performance of an e-governance
project. There has to be coherence among planners and implementers in terms of clarity of
directions from planners to implementers, frequent progress
reviews by seniors, defining service timelines in the action plan, ensuring that implementers are
able to meet the targets to their satisfaction, ensuring collective efforts of planners, implementers
and supporting vendors, and keeping provision for
regular skill up-gradation of implementers as per their requirements. With this, performance is
expected to improve through shared project ownership between planners and implementers, and
innovative use of IT by implementers. It is required to ensure adequate involvement of
stakeholders during implementation as their owning up of project is expected to improve
performance. Implementers need to be fully aware of project mission as shared mission is
expected to improve performance through committed organizational efforts. It is further required
to ensure implementers’ smooth access to service, their ability to use service, maintaining contact
with beneficiaries and implementing feedback mechanisms through them.
Assignment-2 | Aditya Singh | 2017IMG-006 | E-Governance

These measures are expected to improve performance in terms of participatory governance,

shared project ownership and innovative use of IT, bridging planners– beneficiaries gaps and
customized offerings, respectively.

1.b.3 Beneficiaries-Level Considerations

It is required to ensure smooth access of the beneficiaries to the services offered by an e-
governance project. This is expected to improve performance through participatory governance.
Further, the beneficiaries need to be sensitized for enabling them to use the service features,
provide feedback to the project authorities and pursue for follow-up action by the government.
These measures are expected to improve performance of a project in terms of demand-driven
service, participatory governance and customized offerings, respectively.

c. How to develop strategic framework for higher e-Governance performance

A1.(c) Developing strategic insights into planning and implementation aspects of the e-governance
projects is always a challenging task owing to lack of studies from independent sources on such
aspects of a project. This may often lead to wrong conclusions about the performance of e-
governance. It was, therefore, required to design our analysis carefully to arrive at a strategic
framework for improving performance from the perspective of key actor groups.

The study focused on three broad categories of actors associated with a typical e-governance project:
(i) a small group of senior government officers who are responsible for planning and strategy
formulation, (ii) a relatively larger group of middle and lower level government officers entrusted
with the responsibility of implementation of planned strategy and (iii) a much larger group of the
intended beneficiaries of a project. Among the three categories, actors belonging to the first two
groups have defined roles in a given project setting whereas actors in the third group are the end users
of the service emanating from the project. Actors belonging to third group are concerned only with the
effectiveness of service delivery in terms of their making best use of it as per their requirements.
Intricacies involved in the project execution are of no relevance to them. The competence levels of all
the three categories of actors are expected to be different due to their very positions in a project. It
was, therefore, necessary to keep the distinct nature of respondents into view while designing the
empirical part of the study which aimed at relating performance of e-governance with extent of
planning, comprehensiveness of strategy formulation, effectiveness of strategy implementation,
changing situation, competence level of actors and flexibility of processes.

It has been attempted to methodically handle the complexities introduced in the study due to different
groups of actors and projects belonging to different organizations. The strategic framework for
Assignment-2 | Aditya Singh | 2017IMG-006 | E-Governance

improving e-governance performance has been arrived at by following an evolutionary approach

based on convergence of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The steps involved are as follows:

 Identification of research variables, development of conceptual frameworks for improving e-

governance performance and formulation of hypotheses for empirical validation.
 Opinion survey of planners, implementers and beneficiaries.
 Empirical validation of the conceptual frameworks and identification of significant strategic
variables in the form of a synthesized empirical framework for improving performance.
 Qualitative analysis of the six identified e-governance projects.

Interpretation of synthesized empirical framework in the context of each of the projects and
synthesis of interpretations based on cross-case analysis.

Q2. Elaborate and Discuss the core and supplementing Drivers of E-Governance that contribute
in its performance measures.

A2. The macro-variable ‘Changing Situation’ is likely to drive the performance of

e-governance projects. Its constituent micro-variables are
 changing levels of mission awareness
 changing levels of vision awareness
 smooth access to service
 changing user needs
 presence of feedback loop
Mission awareness: Project officials are expected to contribute better if they have similar
understanding about the project mission. The variable captures awareness level among government
officials about the purpose for which the project has been initiated.

Vision awareness: The variable captures awareness level among government officials about the
roadmap of the project.

Smooth access to service: Users who are privileged to have better means of accessing a service are
likely to be more inclined to use the service and take more advantage from it as compared to those
who have poor access to a service. This micro-variable captures the extent to which an e-governance
service is accessible in a smooth/uninterrupted fashion to the respondent.

Changing user needs: The expectations of users from an ICT-based service keep rising as they
become accustomed to using it. This variable captures the extent to which needs of users are changing
as per perception of government officials.
Assignment-2 | Aditya Singh | 2017IMG-006 | E-Governance

Presence of feedback loop: ICT-based services generally get evolved over a period of time. Constant
feedback from users is important for improving the service. This variable captures extent of feedback
loop in a project. The relevant questions in this context are to what extent an actor provides feedback
on the specific e-governance service and to what extent action is taken on such feedback by actors
operating at higher levels.

‘Changing Situation’ has emerged as a driver of e-governance. At the macro-level, the variable is
observed to be influencing performance from the perspectives all the three categories of respondents,
viz. planners, implementers and beneficiaries who were surveyed as part of the study. Out of various
variables constituting ‘Changing Situation’, the dominant variables influencing performance have
been identified using step-wise regression. The analysis based on the three independent opinion
surveys has revealed such dominant variables influencing performance as ‘Feedback loop’ in case of
all the three actor groups, viz. planners, implementers and beneficiaries, ‘Changing user needs’ in
case of planners and implementers, ‘Mission awareness’ in case of implementers and ‘Smooth access
to service’ in case of implementers and beneficiaries. These linkages are shown-

Fig. Dominant ‘Changing Situation’ variables influencing performance