Creating the front door to government: a case study of the Firstgov portal

Library Trends, Fall, 2003 by Patricia Diamond Fletcher

* The president's memo of December 17, 1999, on "Electronic Government";

* The passage of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act in 1998;

* The donation of the Inktomi search engine for a three-year period;

* The small size of the project team; and

* The compressed time frame--ninety days--in which to develop and implement FirstGov.

These factors created the necessary top-level support, the policy framework, and the sense of commitment and urgency to have a successful project. A general theme heard echoed among the respondents was that FirstGov was successful because of personality, commitment, and a good team. While many of the noted critical success factors come as no surprise, the fact that the very brief development schedule was seen as positive represented something new for the federal government. Unlike most information technology projects in government, where procurement and acquisition law often contribute to lengthy, drawn-out, and costly information technology developments, FirstGov was not subject to many of these instances of red tape. The requirement of a ninety-day project development meant that, to be successful, the team had to creatively, while legally, procure the necessary technology to launch the portal on time. This created a sense of urgency that spurred the team to exceed their performance expectations.

The critical success factors sum up the components of the partnership and the development activities well. There was a policy environment in place that was conducive to creating an electronic government portal. There was presidential support and a committed project team. The donation of a search engine significantly cut down the time and expense needed to assess and procure or create a search engine with the necessary capabilities for the portal. This was a very visible, high-impact project, and there was considerable scrutiny from stakeholders and from the press. These pressures served to motivate the team to work harder and faster than many anticipated. Firstgov was launched on time and on budget to visible fanfare.

ASSESSMENT OF THE PORTAL

The FirstGov initiative was seen by many as transformational to the conduct of government. It has received numerous awards since the portal went live in 2000. It has also been embraced by the Bush administration, with Vice President Cheney launching the redesigned portal in February of 2002. Among the awards it has been given are:

* Yahoo! Internet Life magazine's Fifty Most Incredibly Useful Sites, July 2002;

* Pioneer Award, E-Gov 2002, June 2002, and April 2001;

* Industry Advisory Council, E-Gov, and the Federal Chief Information Officer Council's Excellence.Gov Award Finalist, January 2002;

* Government Executive magazine's 2001 Grace Hopper Government Technology Leadership Award, December 2001;

* 2001 Innovations in American Government Award Finalist, August 2001 and Semifinalist, April 2001;

* Federation of Government Information Processing Council's Intergovernmental Solutions Award, June 2001;