An Exemplar approach for government process re-engineering in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka is at a stage where it has begun implementing or is about to legin implementation of many large-scale e-go\ernment solutions under the e-Sri Lanka Re Engineering Government program of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka. Most of the e government projects under the e-Sri Lanka program have been designed to first have a Business Process Re-engineering stage, before the commencement of the usual system study stage. Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is a major, important, and time-consuming activity that includes identifying and then making changes to existing management processes, routines and workflows to enhance the efficiency and productivity of the institution and its management. Performing such a BPR activity before the design and implementation of an e- government solution is highly important since most government departments tend to have historically inefficient and highly ingrained management processes, routines and workflows which prevent the execution of government services in an efficient manner. Clearly, the success of a proposed e- government solution is critically dependent on the success of such a BPR endeavor, which would span across all the government entities involved in the e- government solution. This research work focuses on the many major e- government initiatives of the e- Sri Lanka Re- Engineering Government Program in order to study the impact of the different BPR approaches adopted in these initiatives on the final outcomes of the solutions. The research effort is targeted towards identifying the BPR approaches bestsuited for a developing country such as Sri Lanka, which still has significant remnants of historical, colonial government processes. This study discusses an innovative exemplar model for government process reengineering. This exemplar model can also be utilized to evaluate BPR approaches used in e- government initiatives. By leveraging this model, the author intends to clearly identify and categorize different BPR approaches, and then determine the BPR approaches that would be most appropriate in the re-engineering government contexts, of Sri Lanka and similar developing countries.