Software apps in Government - The Challenges

Low usage

Most state government departments already have modules and apps built for various purposes. These are disconnected apps that have been developed at different points of time by different vendors.

Apps do not have intuitive user interfaces. This drives up the time to train users to use the app. So, when new users are put to use an app the usage drops down. In many cases new users after a particular point of time just use a small percentage of the app.

Apps are Silos

There are many apps that have been built in older technologies and have not grown both with the changing need. These apps have also not kept up with the technological advancements.

Many of the apps have been built in older technologies that do not have effective interoperability. 

Interoperability either through web services or through online data exchange options is not possible. This makes these apps work as silos and increase their maintainability.

Bloatwares

Most apps have bloated in size and complexity due to continuous evolvement over long period of time. This has been the result of a poorly designed system without appropriate requirement specification. A case in point is that there would 500+ reports in a software app of which only 25-30 of them may be used. In most cases the reports will be a replication of the same information in slightly different formats.

Master data duplication

Disconnected apps with independent master data cannot provide an integrated view for decision makers at the top. In many cases there may be more than one software application in the same department but with different sets of master data. The more the disconnected the data is in an environment the more challenging it will be to derive meaningful information across apps. The effort required to integrate and harmonize data across apps in various government departments is enormous. Further, this is not a one-time effort but a continuous work to keep data harmonious across apps.

Failed apps are another major problem. There are apps that are being implemented for more than 2 or 3 years and still not delivered anything significant. In most cases the failures are due to vague or over engineered scope definition or wrong vendor selection. These kind of apps need to be scrapped and redone with a proper requirement specification.