MANAGING PROJECTS

The Relationship between Managing Projects by Using a Method like DSDM, AND THE CMM AND CMMI

[Name]

The Relationship between Managing Projects by Using a Method like DSDM, AND THE CMM AND CMMI

Introduction

It is broadly recognized that a maturity model of electronic government (e-government) can play a significant role in assessing organizational efforts and monitoring activities of a government over the long term (Siau and Long, 2005; Anderson and Henriksen, 2006). Several studies have highlighted what features should be included in each maturity level (Layne and Lee, 2001; Moon, 2002), what critical components of a strategic management process could be identified along stages (Affisco and Soliman, 2006; Anderson and Henriksen, 2006), and how empirical evidence shows the relationship between organizational efforts and impacts of e-government (Reddick, 2004; UN and ASPA, 2002). Although researchers have conceptualized the features and accomplishments of maturity models in various ways, a common view is that assessing maturity levels and managing relevant processes can help governments to improve the visible and invisible performance of e-government (Anderson and Henriksen, 2006).

Despite the importance of exploring a maturity model, current studies on e-government maturity models are still in their infancy and falling behind practitioners' needs (Siau and Long, 2005; Klievink and Janssen, 2009; Claver-Cortes et al., 2008; Gottschalk, 2009). A number of governments still remain at a simple web-presence level (Anderson and Henriksen, 2006). Further, most existing models are mainly result-oriented and web-focused descriptive models (Layne and Lee, 2001; UN and ASPA, 2002; Affisco and Soliman, 2006; Moon, 2002). Too little attention has been paid to theory development on how to advance from one maturity level to the next, as well as how to systematically manage organizational resources at each level. Researchers have also made little effort to develop process-oriented approaches for assessing maturity levels. Consistent with the views of Oh and Pinsonneault (2007), we believe that managing the resources, especially intellectual capital (IC) and IT investment, make an impact on a government's maturity level and performance. We also contend that a process-oriented assessment approach will be beneficial to more objectively evaluate a maturity level and enhance efforts for continuous improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for assessing an e-government maturity level. We employ IC management processes and the capability maturity model integration (CMMI) to improve the short comings of current studies. We believe that these two approaches could enable governments to have a balanced view of both the input factors and the results of the assessment. In our paper, we define e-government as:

[…] a broad-based transformation initiative, enabled by leveraging the capabilities information and communication technology: to develop and deliver high quality, seamless, and integrated public services; to enable effective constituent relationship management; and to support the economic and social development goals of citizens, business, and civil society at local, state, national, and international levels (Grant and Chau, 2005, p. 9).

This paper is organized as follows: in the second section, we look at the theoretical background to explore existing maturity models and discuss IC ...