Mr Richards on technology, information, and people

Accountability is a word bandied about by policy makers, pundits, and the private sector all the time when speaking about better governance.  Yet what does it truly mean to be accountable?  Areas of responsibility in government are fairly well defined - most of the time.  In those areas, workers are competent to follow up.  However, there needs to be a way of assigning accountability, and then a way of following up to ensure problems are resolved in a timely manner.

A help desk ticket system helps to do that.  It already exists within many government agencies to assist with IT issues.  A problem is identified by an end-user, they log in a help desk ticket, it is assigned to the proper person, then the problem is followed up with and resolved.  This type of system was likely adopted from the private sector where efficient response times are a must.  A help desk system also provides a log for future problem resolution, which is a boon in and of itself.

Help desks can assist with inter-departmental and inter-agency problems that may cross functional areas.  Determining accounting crosswalks for a DoD entity's logistic transaction (i.e. receipt of material into inventory) for an enterprise IT solution is an example.  The accounting crosswalk requires input from numerous financial entities, such as FMO and perhaps DFAS, and then communication back to the DoD entity to ensure compliance.  Technical system issues non-withstanding - which can make compliance much more difficult if not impossible - the DoD entity then follows through with applying the crosswalk.

But how does the financial entity know there is an issue in the first place?  Through a point of contact who may or may not be the most efficient or proactive person?  Why is there not some sort of help desk ticket system so that problems can be identified, accounted for, then followed up with?  This is basic customer service.  

Without a help desk system between agencies, problems can go without recognition or acknowledgement.  Or perhaps, in some ways even more inefficiently, can be worked with fervor by one individual - then upon their departure (reason is immaterial) - all their efforts go to waste.

Now, there are certain applications like SeeClickFix and CitySourced that are rudimentary ways to identify problems for state/local governments. I like the idea behind these apps, and I think they are a good start, but they lack a proper framework in which to make specific people/agencies accountable for getting problems resolved.  They also lack ways in which to assign levels of criticality, and carry data so that problem tickets can be assigned and re-assigned as necessary.  Without these added areas of functionality, issues remain unaccountable - and likely unresolved.

Labels: gov 2.0

posted by Phil  # 11:44 AM