Managing E-Government Application Evolution: A State Government Case

The State Technology Agency (STA) is accountable for delivering e-government services for a state in the United States. One of its major responsibilities is to develop and maintain the state portal. As the result of challenges that it has encountered, the STA has developed a holistic view of state portal applications evolution and management. The case examines the three perspectives of Web application evolution — applications, processes, and services — and illustrates how application evolution dynamics are impacted by their interplay. The STA case also reinforces the importance of defining and applying processes to manage application evolution; it is the execution of application evolution processes that determines whether the services delivered fulfill customers’ expectations, and it is only through monitoring the outcomes of application evolution processes and quality of delivered services that opportunities for improved/enhanced applications are identified. The case also illustrates the importance of integrating tools with evolution processes to deliver/monitor better services and portal applications.