New method for large ICT projects within central government [PhD Rob Meijer, 28 April]

The research of Rob Meijer concerns the set-up and the manner of use of business cases for large, ICT intensive, projects within central government. Besides it was meant to see if there are serious problems at the moment concerning this.

First was tried to get some grip on the term “business case”. Afterwards was studied what the current government policy is concerning the use of business cases. After this four cases were studied. Afterwards study has been made of the subject along three angles, economic science, the science of public administration and the organisation science.

On this basis the most important points for improvement have been formulated. These were the lack of clarity concerning the set-up of a business case, no longer actualising and using the business case after the use for initial decision-making, insufficient involving all stakeholders during the whole project or programme and lacking profit management as part of the business case.

By means of these research results afterwards a new method has been formulated. This has got the name of using the M-index© for business cases.
Use of this method implies a process for periodic appreciating the set-up and the use of business cases by means of a standardised questionnaire.

Afterwards the conclusions have been reviewed. The result of this test was that the four called problems are considered by the consulted experts as the most important.

Concerning the aptitude of the use of M-index© for solving or tackling the problems the results of the tests were that it scores well for all the problems.