IT Governance

Purpose:
This project aims to have you:

• Research a relevant case study to:
  – determine the prevailing character of prevailing IT governance and change management practices
  -consider what scope, if any, exists to strengthen governance processes
  -examine governance and IT Service Management (ITSM) processes to ascertain which elements might most usefully be applied to offer adequate oversight of such IT operations in future.
• Pose evaluative questions that allow you to determine the current-state-of-the art of the issue that you have investigated.
• Identify up-to-date sources and evidence that support your analysis.
• Hone investigative skills.
• Present your findings effectively.

Task:

Case Context

This case is a simulation exercise. Wherever possible, it uses real sources including  government documents and relevant governance frameworks. The challenges set down for resolution in the assignment are fictitious being created for educational purposes. Nonetheless, the matters involved are important contemporary governance matters.

The Case: Strengthening ICT governance to accommodate new challenges

In recent years, the Victorian Government has sought to strengthen governance involving ICT investments. One of its initiatives has involved the creation of an ICT dashboard. This database seeks to plot the progress of current ICT projects in government departments.   See the Victorian Government IT Dashboard (Links to an external site.).

While this initiative has seen some improvement in the public accountability of projects, there is still concern about project performance as measured by timely completions and costly overruns. Several Public Service Board Commissioners, however, are concerned about whether or not the dashboard system offers a fit for purpose governance system for ICT.

The Commissioners in their deliberations have been influenced by recent discussions about the impact of cognitive bias on decision-making.  For instance, they have come across several informative articles in the business press.

Victoria has sought to enhance its project management involving ICT by publishing several guidelines (Links to an external site.). On inspection, however, the Commissioners have noticed that much of the advice offered appears to dwell on standard project management processes. Insufficient focus seems to centre on the realities of decision-making behaviour in organisations. Likewise, scant consideration seems to be given to knowing-doing gaps that can frustrate effective governance.

As a consequence, the Commissioners are now interested in receiving advice about how such project ventures might be better managed thus improving success rates and lowering public expenditures.

In their discussions, the Public Service Board Commissioners also have started to become worried about the governance processes involving AI applications that are likely to be implemented in the near future. In the past, the state’s management of conventional ICT has been problematic and often lagging in effective execution. A recent articles in Forbes have tweaked their attention. In turn, a current interview between two governance experts published inYouTube (Links to an external site.)has heightened the Commissioners’ interest.

The Commissioners therefore are keen to adopt a more proactive stance when it comes to dealing with important emerging technologies that will be harnessed in government departments. Again, the Commissioners want to receive advice on how the state should prepare to deal with governance of AI systems.

In this assignment, you should consider yourself to be the selected government officer tasked with preparing the report that needs to deal with the issues of managing cognitive bias and the development of governance practice to deal with rise of artificial intelligence applications. You would be reporting to the relevant Public Service Commissioners.

The report must contain a reference list containing at least ten relevant academic references. This referencing requirement will not be satisfied by including items mentioned in the case study or course notes published in Canvas. All items in the reference list must appear in the body of the report as in text references. The reference list should be formatted using the Harvard bibliographic style. Other styles may be used with the agreement of the course coordinator.  Any such style should be used consistently.