From Failure to Success: Using Design-Reality Gap Analysis as a Mid-implementation Assessment Tool for e-Government

e-Government implementation failure in low-income countries is reported to be as high as 85% where 35% being classified as total failures - the project never started or was started but immediately abandoned, and 50% are partial failures - major project goals are not attained or there were undesirable outcomes [5]. Given this rate of failure we wanted to investigate a project with partial failure and draw lessons learned that can be replicated in other projects. This paper looks at a Land Management Information System (LMIS) in Ethiopia that facilitates citizen s request for land information. The project is credited for reducing the delay in retrieving land information, simplifying the process, and reducing the potential for corruption. We use Design-Reality gap model [5] as a theoretical framework to assess the project status. Primary data were collected from four different groups involved in the project including agency representatives from the Federal Government of Ethiopia, officials from the capacity building office of Diredawa City Administration, municipality representatives, and IT professionals. Our analysis revealed the main contributors for the success of the e-Government project and also show the implementation gaps which need due attention in the future to maximize the success of the project. Based on the implementation experiences of this project, list of recommendations are provided for successful execution of possible related initiatives in the future.