The Governance of Back Office Integration in E-Government: Some Dutch Experiences

Should back office integration in e-government seen as a top down project management problem, emphasising strong leadership, or as a governance problem, focusing on organizing cooperation between information domains? A comparison of four Dutch case studies, shows that successful back office integration is being perceived as managing a process of creating a shared understanding between actors. Although project management methods identify risks in several environments, these environments are not neutral but loosely and closely related arenas with competing rationalities. Essential is the mutual recognition of core values and the interdependency between them (win-win). Interdependency can only be recognized, if actors focus on the nature of the problem and not on the allocation of competences and costs and benefits. Trust and external pressure are favouring cooperation. Moreover, it is important to anticipate on a changing political agenda. Project management methods are not obsolete, but they operate well in a stabilized environment.