Published in the IRPP’s series on state capacity: “Ending the IT Megaproject Curse: Delivering Government Technology Systems That Actually Work”

This week the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) published a memo that I wrote as part of their series on state capacity. The series is titled Capacity for Change: Designing a Public Service Built to Deliver and I’m thrilled that the IRPP has put together a focused look at how to improve state capacity in Canada. State capacity has been on my mind for some time – essentially, are our public service institutions able to effectively deliver on the priorities of our elected leaders and the needs of Canadians? (Often: no.) The memo I wrote is focused on government technology capacity and how to improve it, building on some of the earlier research that I did with Prof. Amanda Clarke. (Prof. Clarke also co-wrote a memo that is part of the same series – Dismantling Ottawa’s Costly Web of Rules: How to Build a Functioning Federal Accountability Regime. It’s a must-read.) In this memo, I look at how past technology modernization efforts have gone sideways – mostly, ill-fated…

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