Recommendations for effective digitization (or What we do not recommend to the new government)
Each new set receives a lot of advice when starting. Officials and advisers point to important documents co-authored by them. Lobbyists show that they know how to help and generate ideas to wait. Those who felt left out point out that things need to be done differently. Someone has projects and measures in their drawer that were unjustly neglected in the past. Taking into account all possible goals and conflicting interests has led in the recent past to unrealistic promises, unfulfilled expectations, micro-management, but also to ignoring strategic matters, decisions to add gas and at the same time step on the brakes. A responsible manager should look at the capacities that will realistically be available to him, compare them with the demands placed on him and ask himself the question "WHAT NOT TO DO?". In his contribution, Emil Fitoš will talk about which priorities are not really priorities, which activities are a waste of energy and which promises are better not to make.
The lecture critically identifies the weaknesses of state digitalization: outdated and unclear documents, weak governance, overloaded legislation, and complicated procurement. Instead of more paperwork, it calls for a clear strategy, expertise, and simpler rules. The foundation should be people's knowledge, not just hiring more IT specialists. Sticking to existing concepts makes no sense, according to the speaker. Ministry websites host hundreds of pages from past years, full of generalities that don't help today. Writing new treatises without a unifying strategy would only repeat the mistake. Even the government program mentions new intentions, but there is no concrete content beneath them. The solution is to prepare a new strategy with the help of seasoned experts from digitally advanced countries. Plans that rely on massive recruitment of IT staff into the state will, in his view, fail. More than mere “IT skills,” it is necessary to increase understanding of IT projects among business process owners, methodologists, and key users in public administration. Across-the-board training, for example a three-day course, could be a breakthrough step.Without a strategy, documents are just paper
