E-Government Project Failure: Myth and Reality An Epic Tale of the Sri Lankan IFMIS Carolyne Stanforth Centre for Development Informatics University of Manchester, UK http://www.manchester.ac.uk/cdi Centre for Development Informatics

Research Overview Research Aim: To investigate the perceived failure – and later success – of an e-government project targeted at improved governance Research Undertaken: Interpretive case study of the Ministry of Finance’s Modernisation Programme (1999 – 2004), designed to be driven by an integrated financial management information system (IFMIS)

Research Findings Academic Finding: Longitudinal analysis of the building of the actor-networks reveals a more complex situation than a snapshot evaluation of project failure Practical Recommendation: Careful consideration needs to be given to the management of the interface between the global (resource providing) network with the local network of implementing agents

Further Information Heeks, R. and Stanforth, C. (2007), Understanding e-government project trajectories from an actor-network perspective, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(2), pp. 165 - 177 eTransparency case studies prepared by two Ministry of Finance officials (case numbers 6 and 10 on www.egov4dev.org/transparency/case) Contact carolyne.m.stanforth@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk