Change Management Plan for ICT Projects in Victoria

This essay focuses on coming up with a change management plan for the ICT projects in Victoria, using Kotter's change model and the ValIt framework. It discusses the need for change, the key stakeholders involved, the vision and strategy, and the steps to sustain the change.

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Introduction
The Victoria Auditor General’s Office (VAGO) has significantly failed in clearing out
the benefits of the ICT projects which it has invested in. This has led to discontent in the
public. The main concern in this regard is the fact that the government has not been able to
make the public realize the benefits of the money that has been spent on the ICT project, with
the help of the money spent by the taxpayers. An alternative even suggested that an IT
dashboard system be installed. However, even that installation proved to be ineffective in
identifying the performances of the ICT projects, and all it inferred was lack luster
governance. Data pertaining to the case study suggests that a very insignificant portion of the
ICT projects actually have identified goals and KPI’s, which do not imply a large success of
the investment made on the overall projects. This essay focuses on coming up with a change
management plan for the case, by initiating the ValIt framework, through Kotter’s change
model. The discussion in the essay will be considering the change model first, followed by
the ValIt framework.
Discussion
Kotter’s change model
Sense of urgency
The first step is to provide a comprehensive outline of why this issue is of urgent
importance for VAGO, and what its implications could be. It must be made clear to the body
that the public money which is being spent on the investments on the ICT projects by the
government of Victoria is virtually going to waste, since most of them do not have a
significant and comprehensive performance indicator. This is the reason why it is indicative
of lackluster governance by the Victorian government. What this means for the future is that
the public will be discontent over the millions of dollars of public money which the

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government has virtually put to waste (Hibbs and Madsen 1981). This can even give way to
an uprising in the very near future, to urge the government to stop spending on ICT projects
any further and work towards the development of the society through direct funding such as
establishing schools and medical centers. Therefore, what could have been a very potential
way to bring about development in the society through modernization, would go in vain,
including all of the investments thus far. There lies the need to bring about changes in the
implementation, operational, or investment processes in the ICT projects.
The Guiding Team
The key coalition which is required to bring the change forth, is a coalition between
the VAGO and the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO). This
is because the AGIMO is responsible for the investment decisions which are required on ICT
projects, all over Australia (AGIMO 2006). ICT projects are overall working fine in the
context of Australia overall, but faltering in Victoria. This is indicative of the fact that there
exists a gap between how the Australian federal government has been spending on the
projects and how the Victorian government has been spending and monitoring on the projects
(Kim, Ho and Riaz 2015). The government must make a proposal to the AGIMO and request
for their assistance, to get an idea about the investment patterns that are ideal in ICT projects,
and the IT dashboard systems which would be providing ideal monitoring procedures and
KPI’s pertaining to the same.
Vision and strategy
The vision in this context is to come up with an effective monitoring method for the
ICT projects that have been invested upon by the government to make sure that the projects
are running effectively and providing a good value for the public money that is has been and
is being spent on such projects. Therefore, the goal is to make sure that the ICT projects bring

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about the intended development in the Victorian community, and also figure out how
effective it has exactly been in doing so.
The strategy has to be an innovative one, since the major KPI system in the form of an
IT dashboard system has either indicated negative results for a majority of the projects, or has
been ineffective in being able to identify the performances of the projects at all. Therefore, a
survey needs to be conducted. Every ICT project has an office that looks after the project’s
operations (Kim, Ho and Riaz 2015). A survey needs to be conducted in each of those
offices, and attempt at finding out the effectiveness of the projects, using the KPI’s identified
for evaluating the effectiveness of those projects. The main thing which has to be considered
as a KPI is the number of people served/benefited. If the results from the survey do not
coincide with the results obtained from the IT dashboard, data must be compared to identify
the gaps which exist in the monitoring systems of the IT dashboard. However, if the
effectiveness of the projects really do not meet up to the mark, the Victorian government
must request for assistance from the AGIMO, to determine the steps which it requires to
follow for the purpose of ensuring proper investment patterns and operations for the projects.
The projects should be well marketed to the public as well. This is because public awareness
about government initiatives help in public indulgence, which is the key for the success of
government projects (DePaula and Dincelli 2016).
Communicating the vision
The vision should be communicated to the key internal stakeholders involved in the
project. Namely, these are the members of the ministry of information and technology of the
Victorian government, and also the members of the AGIMO. This is because these are the
two bodies who would be primarily responsible for achieving the intended success in the
initiative. The main thing which has to be noted in this regard is the fact that the
communication process is to initiate from the government of Victoria, to the AGIMO, and

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following a loop of feedbacks thereafter. The main elements which have to be communicated
are:
 Investment patterns.
 Equipment used.
 Performance indicators.
 Strategy for identifying loopholes.
 Drawbacks.
Removing obstacles
The main obstacle which can be considered in this case is the fact that the general
public might pose restrictions on the government to spend further on a project which is not
proving to be effective in any way. Marketing for the similar project, and risking further
waste of money might not go very well with the general taxpayers. Australia also has the
Liberal party at the federal level and the ruling party in Victoria is the ALP (Gauja et al.
2018). Therefore, some members of the Victorian government might also resist requesting for
assistance from an opposition party. Therefore, to mitigate that risk, the strategy should be
communicated in such a way to the internal members of the Victorian government that the
sense of urgency becomes the topmost priority. It should be made clear that lack of public
confidence in the government as a result of the ineffective expenditure on the ICT projects
can lead them to switch their votes in the next elections, thereby throwing them out of office.
This would act as a fear element for the resisting forces to subside and let the change be
initiated.
Generate short term wins
Short term wins are necessary for a team to get motivated by the feeling that a change
is working in a system. To assure this, areas which are the easiest to survey and analyze will

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be surveyed first, and the data will be compared to the IT dashboard system. The reason for
the discrepancy between both of the data should be identified to ensure that the dashboard is
reprogrammed in an appropriate manner, and investment patterns would be developed
accordingly. This would be the first milestone, which would keep the team motivated by the
feeling that the change has been successful in the implementation process.
Sustaining acceleration
After the motivation factor has been established in the body to bring about the change,
it should be ensured that the momentum is sustained. To achieve this, more officials should
be tasked with the survey and analysis, and the results should be disclosed on a regular basis
to sustain the motivation. It is at this point of time that the negotiations with the federal
government should commence.
Sustaining change
Last but not the least, the new behavioral patterns in monitoring and investing should
be documented and institutionalized. In other words, the benefits of the change should be
communicated to the relevant stakeholders, and it should be made clear why exactly the new
form of operations is beneficial, and thereby, the new practice should be permanently,
replacing the old practice.
The focus should be on investments. Investing on the right equipment and adopting
the most appropriate KPIs to monitor the performance and estimate the ROI to assess the
effectiveness of the projects, which have been invested upon. The main purpose of the change
is to let the public know that their money which they pay to the government in the form of
taxes is not being utilized in vain.

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The ValIt
The ValIt framework is used to establish a relationship between government and IT
business, providing recommendations on how investments should be done on various IT
related projects (IT Governance Institute 2008). The framework provides the government
with the appropriate management for investment portfolios. These are required by businesses,
and primarily by governments to determine the patterns in which they should be managing
their investments (Cater-Steel 2008). From the above discussion, it is evident about how the
Victorian government should go about managing their investments, and the change in the
operational structure of the systems has also been recommended. This provides for an
appropriate ValIt framework. To be more specific and just, the framework has seven
principles in total. They are as follows:
1. Investments should be managed in portfolios.
2. Will outline the full scope of the actions and activities which are required to achieve a
value proposition.
3. Investments to be managed through their economic life cycle.
4. Different categories of investment will be managed and evaluated accordingly.
5. Key metrics to be identified for performance indication.
6. Engaging all stakeholders and assigning responsibility to them for the various
activities.
7. Monitoring, evaluating and improving (Wilkin et al. 2012).
A close look at the changes suggested through Kotter’s model of change would indicate
that the above principles do coincide with the recommendations.
 Investments have been categorized into surveying, marketing, and also acquisition
of appropriate systems.

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 The various activities associated with the change are surveying, data analysis, data
comparison, modifying KPI in IT dashboards, marketing, and consultation with
stakeholders.
 The change policy has been made clear regarding the sustainability throughout the
operations of the ICT projects.
 Suggestions have been made on how to modify existing KPIs, as well as
recommending metrics like number of people benefited.
 Recommendations have been made on how stakeholders should be engaged into
the process, and how they should be handled to minimize risks.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the change strategy incorporated in the process,
eventually initiates the ValIt framework.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the main thing which the body
should consider adopting, is to incorporate surveys, to initiate change. The results should be
compared to the data provided through the IT dashboards, and the changes in the KPI systems
should be made accordingly for more accurate results. If the primary data through the survey
does indicate that the projects have been ineffective, it should be ensured that the Victorian
government tries to take assistance from the AGIMO for the purpose of proper guidance on
implementation and operations. Recommendations have also been made on the acquisition of
proper equipment. Short term goals should be set to keep the team motivated enough to work
with the change, and this should be treated as an initiation for the change to sustain and
institutionalize itself. The entire recommendations for the strategic change has been through
Kotter’s model of change, which eventually links to the initiation for a ValIt framework.

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References
AGIMO, 2006. Australian Government Information Interoperability Framework.
Cater-Steel, A. ed., 2008. Information Technology Governance and Service Management:
Frameworks and Adaptations: Frameworks and Adaptations. IGI Global.
DePaula, N. and Dincelli, E., 2016, June. An empirical analysis of local government social
media communication: Models of e-government interactivity and public relations. In
Proceedings of the 17th international digital government research conference on digital
government research (pp. 348-356). ACM.
Gauja, A., Mills, S., Miragliotta, N., Tham, J.C., Nwokora, Z. and Anderson, M., 2018. The
Impact of Political Finance Regulation on Party Organisation. Parliamentary Affairs.
Hibbs, D.A. and Madsen, H.J., 1981. Public reactions to the growth of taxation and
government expenditure. World Politics, 33(3), pp.413-435.
IT Governance Institute, 2008. Enterprise Value: Governance of IT Investments, the Val IT
Framework, Version 2. 0. ISACA.
Kim, K.S., Ho, S.Y. and Riaz, A., 2015, July. ICT Business Case Approach in Public-Sector:
A Case Study of the Australian Federal Government. In PACIS (p. 190).
Wilkin, C., Campbell, J., Moore, S. and Van Grembergen, W., 2012. Co-creating value from
IT in a contracted public sector service environment: Perspectives on COBIT and Val IT.
Journal of Information Systems, 27(1), pp.283-306.

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