Chapter 1 - About these Guidelines

How these guidelines are organised

These guidelines are organised as follows:

• Chapter 1 explains the purpose of the guidelines. Emphasis is given to the six crucial areas of an e-government business case.
• Chapter 2 provides general and background information on e-government business cases.
• Chapters 3 to 9 give a suggested structure of an e-government business case, and more detailed guidelines and suggested approaches to the various sections.

Many topics include references to websites and documents that the reader may pursue for further detailed information.

Read chapters 1 and 2 first - Chapters 1 and 2 provide a broad overview of a business case, and should be reviewed first. The reader can then decide on the extent to which they will need to address the detailed guidance contained in the later chapters.

Purpose of these Guidelines

Purpose

These are guidelines to assist agencies to understand the specific requirements of an e-government business case, but the principles and processes outlined can also be applied to business cases generally.

E-government initiatives

An e-government initiative is any activity which contributes to the outcomes identified in the fourteen work streams of the E-government Strategy 2006. More broadly, e-government initiatives are:

• infrastructure and standards for ICTs, including initiatives that address digital opportunities
• electronic services initiatives (including e-enabled business information and processes) undertaken individually, or jointly, by government agencies.

E-government business cases

These guidelines provide assistance in the preparation and presentation of a quality business case for an e-government initiative.

The guidelines are particularly relevant for agencies meeting the challenge of justifying expenditure for cross-, multi-agency or all-of-government projects. The guidelines acknowledge the additional complexity that occurs with such projects. Readers should use these guidelines to ensure that all necessary areas, as outlined from Chapter 3 onwards, are addressed.

See Six Crucial Areas of an E-government Business Case, later in this chapter.

Robust business cases generally adhere to accepted traditional methodologies, as referred to in these guidelines.

Exclusions

These guidelines do not:

• replace the need for agencies to undertake their own research for the specific business case
• provide comprehensive reference to available project management literature.

The guidelines do not cover the process of preparing any associated Cabinet paper(s). Information on that topic is available in the Cabinet Manual. See the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website - http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/cabinet/manual/

How to Use these Guidelines

Not viewed in isolation

These guidelines should not be viewed in isolation. Each agency remains subject to its own set of imperatives, as may be set out in Cabinet directives, statute, regulation or by way of other ‘best practice’ sector-oriented compilations. An example of the latter is the Ministry of Health Business Case Guidelines for Investment in Information Technology (http://www.moh.govt.nz - search for investment in information).

No guarantee of acceptance

The Guidelines do not document the 'only' or 'approved' way of preparing or presenting a business case, and strict adherence to them will not guarantee acceptance of any particular business case.

Provide rationale if departing from guidelines

It is expected that agencies presenting an e-government business case to the State Services Commission (SSC) for comment will have either covered the areas included in the guidelines, or will have reasons for the adoption of alternative presentations.

Non-consideration of the thrust of the guidelines, however, does mean that the presenter or presenting agency will need to have prepared the rationale supporting the departure from what is considered good practice for government agencies. The rationale needs to be documented and be available for scrutiny.

Amount of detail required

Not all business cases will require the full amount of the detail covered in these Guidelines. The time and effort spent on the business case should be commensurate with the cost of the activity, its value for various stakeholders, and the level of risk involved.

The first two chapters provide an overview of what is required, with a summary of what should be provided and the various accountabilities. A reading of these chapters should help to determine the depth of detail needed for a business case.

Six Crucial Areas of an E-government Business Case

Introduction

The e-government project business case has six distinct areas that should be addressed.

These are the key areas which should be addressed in an e-government business case, in context and at an appropriate level of detail.

• Alignment (with strategy)
• Costs, Benefits and Timeframes
• Funding
• Risk (including Issues and Mitigations)
• Privacy
• Governance

Detailed information

Topics are addressed in detail in later chapters of this document:

• Alignment - Chapter 4, Section 4.1
• Costs, Benefits and Timeframes - Chapter 5, Sections 5.2-5.4
• Funding - Chapter 5, Section 5.5
• Risk - Chapter 5, Section 5.6
• Privacy - Chapter 5, Section 5.7
• Governance - Chapter 5, Section 5.9

Provide reason for omitting

Where a particular topic is not considered relevant or appropriate to the particular business case, comment on the reason for omitting that section should either be:

• included in the case, perhaps by way of annex
• available for review as a separate document.