Building eGovernment Websites

Planning

Why Is Planning Important?

You will agree that if a government agency decides to produce a new publication, or introduces a new system for paying tax, or an innovation in the way it works, it would be good practice to plan the operation as effectively and efficiently as possible, in order to reduce the risk of possible failures and the waste of public funds (if not worse) they generate.

The same can be said for websites. Building, developing and maintaining successful sites are all operations that require a good deal of investment in terms of time and money: government agencies considering the adoption of a website as one of their communication tools should therefore make sure that the operation is planned appropriately, by giving particular attention to both the agency's and the users' communication needs, and producing a sustainable and realistic project, in accordance with the (sometimes scarce) resources at their disposal.

Planning your website properly will increase the chances of success, and save you a lot of money and resources - which can be scarce in the context you work in. So, before you even start to design and implement a website, sit down with colleagues, management, and (if possible) the potential users of the site, and discuss/agree on a plan to turn the project into reality with the resources you have at your disposal.

Page Author: Andrea Bardelli Danieli. Last updated on 19 October, 2008.
Please contact richard.heeks@manchester.ac.uk with comments and suggestions.