News article written by Corbett Communications. The statements made or opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Engineers Australia.
The chief digital officer of the Australian government’s Digital Transformation Agency, Paul Shetler, has resigned, following 16 months with the organisation. He penned a parting speech that revealed $1.6 billion is spent on IT each year by the government yet procurement and funding processes that encourage big IT programs with big contracts “drive a culture of blame aversion which creates perverse outcomes and actually increases risk”.
“The history of the past several years of government IT failure is testimony to that,” Shetler wrote.
He said this is further complicated and exacerbated by the lack of technical and contract management expertise in government, with public servants asking vendors to tell them what they think the government should buy. This backs up Engineers Australia’s views that more engineers are needed in government.
“You don't build digital services in the same way that you build bridges,” Shetler said. “How can you test with users, deliver a lean solution quickly, and iterate with what you learn, if you are forced to specify all your requirements upfront? When you’re locked in a big IT contract, changing what you're building comes at a huge expense - in both cost and time.
“We found that government has little visibility over the IT programs that are already in flight. Without a single view of what's going on, it's hard to avoid duplication of effort, hard to see which programs are going to deliver on time, and hard to intervene if something's not working out.”
While the DTA was set up to take the government on a “digital transformation journey” and exists only to “make it easy for people to deal with government”, Shetler acknowledged there has been a fear of digital within the Australian Public Service (APS).
“Over the last 40 years, as we've outsourced technology, there's been a progressive de-skilling of the public service,” he said. “The reliance on consultants is remarkable and the amount spent on them is eye watering. That’s just not necessary if we re-skill the public service.”
Shetler revealed that over the last four decades, “well-meaning politicians” had “often” restructured the government, resulting in IT systems ending up being passed from agency to agency.
“This has created complex webs of systems that cost a lot to operate and take a long time to change,” he revealed. “This creates a vicious cycle because, whenever a new policy needs to be implemented, it’s often easier to build a new system on the side than it is to change the existing legacy system.
“So, you end up with what we have now, unworkable and inefficient systems that meet outdated needs and are expensive and slow to change.”
Shetler warned as people are embracing new services in the private sector, they will become “increasingly intolerant of clunky 20th century service delivery by governments”.
Last week, APS head Dr Martin Parkinson said he was surprised by the level of complacency within the APS in relation to disruptive forces such as public expectations of government services and technology to improve service delivery.
“It seems that many in the APS think that disruption is something that is happening to other people. Conversely, we have a view that innovation is either a buzzword or something that is nice to have,” he said.
Parkinson warned the APS that this was a “false reality, and a dangerous one”.
“It feeds into a concern I’ve expressed previously that we in the APS are at risk of a fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance,” he said.
Parkinson cited some “incredible high profile failures” including the 2016 Census and called for a framework where there is an acceptable level of failure so government can innovate, take risks and create better frameworks to test ideas. He suggested emulating General Electric.
“We should be able to fail fast and then decide to persevere or pivot. That is based on data analytics, and clear-eyed judgement,” Parkinson said. “Did we make a mistake at the outset and this is not something we can rectify? Or is this something that if we take a step back and fine-tune? Is this something we can continue and persevere with?”
DTA interim CEO Nerida O’Loughlin announced Shetler’s resignation on 30 November, saying the agency expected to fill the role he vacated in the new year.
Author: Desi Corbett
Image: Paul Shetler (right) in discussion with Malcolm Turnbull when the PM was Minister for Communications. Source: YouTube.