Re: Your govmu.org account

From: Vy-Shane Sin Fat <shane_at_node.mu>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 15:10:22 +0800

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 2:12 PM, S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> At 22:12 24-06-2015, Vy-Shane Sin Fat wrote:
>
>> What do you mean by "development in the cloud"?
>>
>
> It's like doing software development with limited understanding of what it
> will produce.


I see. I just wanted to clarify since the word "cloud" is thrown around
liberally in this list, usually to mean something negative. But that's a
conversation for another topic.


> For me, this goes beyond technical issues. It's been clear for quite some
>> time now that the government isn't taking ownership of the nation's IT.
>>
>> Let's look at this one isolated case:
>>
>> - No ownership of branding.
>> - No administrative ownership (e.g. the Government doesn't even own the
>> Apple account used to publish the iOS app, have effectively zero control
>> over the app and can be held to ransom).
>> - No ownership of infrastructure.
>> - No ownership of the project. Clearly, since the issue reported by Ish
>> should never have passed acceptance testing.
>>
>
> The points which you listed are considered as part of the issues for a
> technology project.
>

They could be part of any project, whether related to technology or not.

I asked about whether there were any technical specifications for the
> Government Portal. The reply I got is that it is included in the tender.
> The details of the tender are not published on the National Computer Board
> web site. How can there be acceptance testing if there aren't any
> specifications to comply with?
>
> This happens so often that it can only be called a cultural problem in
>> our government. A blatant lack of ownership by project stakeholders,
>> leading to management failures. The technical problems are merely the
>> symptoms.
>>
>
> It is unlikely that decision-makers will understand how poor decisions can
> hamper the success of a project if they have a poor understanding of
> technology.
>

Yes, they basically opt out of making decisions at that point. I don't
expect the decision maker to know the ins and outs of iTunes Connect, but I
do expect them to want to own their own project. When no one asks the
question "So, who controls when and how the app gets published to the App
Store?", they don't even know that they have a problem.

 Culture -> Management -> Technical failures
>>
>
> Yes.
>
> It will take more than a decade to turn this ship around.
>>
>
> Yes.
>
> Regards,
> S. Moonesamy
>
>
Received on Thu Jun 25 2015 - 07:11:05 PST