FutureGov caught up with Kang to talk about the highlights of his tenure, the biggest challenges he faced and the things he would have done differently if he had a chance.
Dawn of a new MasterPlan
Kang joined IDA just as Singapore Government’s third five-year masterplan was coming to an end. “It was very timely as we were reviewing iGov2010, which focused on whole-of-government integration, and studying what should go into the new masterplan,” he said.
“The fourth masterplan, eGov2015, is about being a collaborative government that co-creates and connects with the private sector and citizens,” shared Kang, who played a key role in its development. “There was a big change in focus to designing services that are citizen-centric. The three strategic thrusts were Co-create, Connect and Catalysing whole-of-government transformation.”
The Singapore government wanted to tap on the collective intelligence of its people and businesses by providing a platform to encourage greater co-creation of new e-services. “The opening up of government data through data.gov.sg is one such initiative. Both the Government and the private sector have vast amounts of good data. There is a multiplier effect when you combine data from multiple sources. For example, citizens can access information on road traffic condition, car park availability and cost. You can even find the nearest cafe to grab a cup of coffee while you wait for the traffic jam to clear,” he commented.
“That was also the time we saw the growing importance of social media and the need for the Government to embrace it,” Kang continued. “The cultural change was not easy. Traditionally, an agency had seven days to reply to a letter - that gave you sufficient time to circulate a memo and gather consensus. With social media, you don’t have the same luxury of time. Governments cannot ignore these channels because citizens are on these social networks.”
Greatest achievement: Building internal capabilities
To catalyse whole-of-government transformation through innovative and sustainable technologies, the Singapore government needed to build and strengthen its internal organisational capabilities.
“In 2009, there were pockets of architects within the organisation. They were the ones who built the previous networks and systems; fortunately, they were still around. I added to that pool by hiring external talent and gradually grew this group of enterprise, network and identity architects,” he recalled.
“There was a huge demand from the agencies for development services. The benefit of having internal talent became even more obvious when we developed the Standard Operating Environment, designed entirely in-house,” Kang added.
The next wave of initiatives was around agile development and user experience design. Kang wanted to provide agencies with agile expertise, resources and tools to enable a shorter turnaround time for the development of innovative applications and solutions. User experience design will be key in ensuring that services, web sites and apps are accessible, usable, useful, and credible.
The agile development’s iterative approach allows for the gathering of constant user feedback to enhance the usability of solutions launched, especially towards citizen-centric applications, such as government e-services, web sites and mobile applications.
“On hindsight, building internal capabilities was one of the best decisions I’ve made during my time in this office. Technical expertise is important to ensure good control, resilience and forward planning,” he said. “For critical systems, you need a pool of deep-skilled staff who are able to effectively assess and manage IT vendors. You also need expertise to make sure your system design is robust and responsive should anything go wrong.”
Break more rules for innovation
The challenge is rarely the technology, it is the people, noted Kang. “Governments are huge and sometimes bureaucratic organisations. If you go through proper process, either it will not happen, or when it does, it is several years too late, or on such a minute scale that it doesn’t make an impact.”
“There are policies and procedures that were set in stone years ago that might be irrelevant now. We should be courageous, be ready to challenge these norms, bring it up to our leaders and help these decision makers understand.”
Governments in general are afraid to make mistakes and that can sometimes hinder innovation. “For example, civil servants want to make sure the data is scrubbed of all errors before opening it up, but we must learn to let go. So what if there are a few errors? Citizens’ input and feedback can cleanse the data, perhaps at a faster pace than if we were to do it ourselves. That’s the power of collaboration and collective intelligence.”
When asked what advice he would leave for his successor, Kang said, “Continue to build capabilities, be relentless in addressing challenges that are slowing you down or stopping you in your vision, set a culture that is not afraid to fail, because it is part of the process of achieving success.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kelly Ng
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 03.06.2014
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