RMIT School of Business IT and Logistics

Posted: August 27th, 2021

RMIT School of Business IT and Logistics

INTE2412 Assignment Submission Sheet         

	Family Name, Personal Name(s)
	Student Number
	Telephone Number
	E-mail Address
	Tutor
	Course Coordinator
	Assignment Title
	Date Due	DD/MM/YYYY
	Date Submitted	DD/MM/YYYY
Submission Check	(Tick)
Citations and reference list All necessary evidence has been referenced, and all citations comply with the preferred style guide.	(      )
Page margins, paragraph, and line spacing Submission conforms to the formatting requirements set out in the course guide or the assignment submission specifications.	(      )
Electronic submission Using appropriate file naming conventions set out in the course guide or the assignment submission specifications.	(      )

Table of Contents

1.    Introduction. 3

2.    Case Study on Strengthening ICT Governance to Accommodate New Challenges. 3

2.1.     Prevailing Character of IT Governance and Change Management Practices. 5

2.2.     Existing Scope to Strengthen Governance Processes. 8

2.3.         Examining Governance and IT Service Management (ITSM) Processes. 9

3.    Relevant Questions for Determining Current State-of-the-Art 10

4.    Findings. 10

5.    Conclusion and Recommendations. 11

References List 13

Assessment Task 3: Victorian ICT Governance Case Study

1.      Introduction

In recognition of the most recent learning curve involving the digital transformation that has swept across the Victorian IT public sector, there is a need to occasion a proper investigation into the ongoing projects. With the conduction of an annual audit by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO), there has been a high record of incomplete projects (Victorian Government, 2020). Such a high number of incomplete projects have revealed the weaknesses of government leadership and governance. However, such an issue necessitated the execution of an ICT Governance Education Program in 2015 to resolve fast project delivery. The employment of such an ICT dashboard across the whole Victorian IT dashboard is meant to enhance project timing without delays. More so, it aims to strengthen the capacity of the Victorian Public Service alongside the Victorian Government IT strategy of 2016-2020 (Victorian Government, 2020). Therefore, the paper seeks to analyze the ICT governance and training program designed for the public sector at various executive levels to strengthen management, leading to the accommodation of new challenges.

2.      Case Study on Strengthening ICT Governance to Accommodate New Challenges

The Victorian government ICT dashboard has recently been characterized by a very high number of incomplete projects. Specifically, only 17 completed projects out of 247 were reported during the 1st quarter of FY 2017-2018 (Victorian Government, 2020). There have recently been 39 completed projects out of 274 reported projects during the 4th quarter of FY 2019-2020 (Victorian Government, 2020). Notably, such a high number of incomplete projects must be associated with prolonged decision-making processes, which have, however, occasioned completion delays. With such long delays in completing projects, the Victorian government resorted to ICT investments to strengthen governance (Victorian Government, 2020). Notably, the government has recently aligned a series of initiative actions as follows.

Figure 1. Status of active projects in the Victorian ICT dashboard

The government has embarked on creating an ICT dashboard for keeping track of all the project activities. The ICT dashboard is a database that plots the progress of the ongoing projects throughout government departments. As much as the initiation of such action has brought about some improvements regarding public projects’ accountability, there still are a few pressing challenges (Victorian Government, 2020). Specifically, there are performance challenges of the project based on costly overruns. Also, a few commissioners from the Public Service Board have expressed their doubts on the ICT dashboard system’s capacity to meet the present governance system’s goals and objectives (Victorian Government, 2020). Therefore, the commissioners’ thoughts seem influenced by recent discussions about cognitive biases in decision-making processes.

Figure 2. Status of inactive projects in the Victorian ICT dashboard

Concerning cognitive biases in decision-making, commissioners need to embrace IT governance’s prevailing character and change management practices. Notably, five organizational decision-making elements help impact IT governance and change management practices (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020).

Figure 3. Components of the Victorian IT governance

First, there is a need for a high-quality gathering of information to avoid instances of volatility, complexity, ambiguity, and complexity. To avoid volatility, there is a need to focus on the agility to deal with information uncertainty. Likewise, it is essential to address information gathering’s complexity to restructure governance experimentation (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). Therefore, managers in any governance setting need to regard multi-varied options, whether short or long-term. Indeed, gathering information from the environment could have caused commissioners to be entirely focused on immediate cognitive biases at the expense of broader decision-making processes (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). Thus, the overall qualities of ICT governance require that the Victorian government officials look more closely at varied binary outcomes before embarking on a particular choice.

Figure 4. Change management process (Sellier, Scopelliti & Morewedge KC 2019)

Second, underscoring change management practices in ICT governance necessitates the need for a clear organizational strategy. The Victorian ICT dashboard needs to have an effective organizational direction to compel commissioners to learn relevant and substantial information (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). Notably, such an initiative would avoid some instances of information overload. Organizational strategy implies a set of corporate missions through shared values and vision that each person in the Victorian ICT dashboard must bear towards attaining anticipated goals. With a clear definition of values and vision, the Victorian commissioners can effectively put their scorecards into balance and further monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). Most importantly, the implementation and monitoring of the defined ICT governance strategies would ensure that commissioners are more effective and timely in their decision-making processes. Consequently, executing 30-day KPIs is critical in the Victorian ICT dashboard because it would compel commissioners to be highly competitive in accomplishing projects (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). In the end, it would lead to a high level of accountability, coupled with responsibility.

Third, communication seems the essential factor of reinforcing change management practices in the Victorian IT governance environment (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). The sharing of governance strategy implies the most effective and detailed communication plan between internal and external executives. Specifically, it is precedent for commissioners to encourage internal communication among the topmost executives as a way of solidifying trust. The shared trust would have a multiplier effect on the morale of the entire ICT governance membership (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). There needs to be a horizontal communication where one commissioner passes relevant information about an incomplete project to another colleague. Such communication helps build one’s sense of responsibility for proper governance. Apart from that, the whole idea of communication needs to be iterative but not static so that commissioners have ample time to reflect accurately on cognitive observation. Such reflection on one’s mindset before communicating ensures that one does not pass biased information to taint other parties’ general feelings (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). Thus, seeking feedback after disseminating information is essential for the top team to consider to curb wrong signals.

The next step of initiating change management practices on governance entails an after-action review of the executed strategies (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). In particular, this phase discusses the Victorian ICT dashboard’s capacity to review how the government has managed to respond to the existing challenges like costly overruns. Here, the whole issue is about the need to cut down on the future costs of running a project over a longer lifeline. For example, delayed completion of a project implies that the government keeps allocating subsequent budgets, yet the projects seem stalled (Groysberg & Abbott, 2020). Such an after-action review ensures that budgets are appropriately appropriated, thus reducing the chances of funding long-abandoned projects at the expense of misusing the public coffers. Therefore, the IT support team would conduct a review through an online survey, where members of the public are invited to express their viewpoints about the ongoing projects.

With the formalization of the concept of cognitive bias, Kahneman and Tversky have revealed substantial evidence about the capacity of training to reduce cognitive bias (2019). Thus, the reduced cognitive bias would, in turn, lead to improved decision-making in governance processes. According to the field of psychological science by Sellier, Scopelliti, and Morewedge (2019), a single training impacts cognitive bias positively, reducing it by almost a third. Specifically, training aims to rectify past errors that commissioners might have committed at times of making decisions. Similarly, diversified training interventions like the playing of video games are considered to positively contribute to improved judgment at top levels of government (Sellier, Scopelliti, & Morewedge, 2019). The associated intervention of playing a thoughtful game would give the Victorian government commissioners personalized feedback and coach about their vulnerability to cognitive biases. The coaching can provoke biases among commissioners during the game, thus redefining each one’s level of bias Kahneman & Tversky, 2019). Therefore, the trainers could eventually explain to the commissioners how their particular choices influenced their actions throughout the game (Kahneman & Tversky, 2019). Thus, they help pinpoint the specific strategies applied to help avoid bias and instead practice embracing better opportunities.

2.3.Examining Governance and IT Service Management (ITSM) Processes

Examining governance and IT service management processes are critical in understanding the risks of the decentralized AI system. Despite the complexity of building an AI system from scratch, most pre-established AI models have always been downloaded from the available technology companies (Gordon, 2020). For example, many AI start-ups offer free tool piloting activities relevant to ensuring rapid support of the model building tasks. In this regard, the Victorian IT governance evaluation would entail better access and learning of the AI machine. As a result, such a learning method would reinforce formal discipline and knowledge among the commissioners as they intend to follow the laid down educational training programs (Gordon, 2020). Subsequently, the cross-examination of IT governance through such creative training practices would help inspire commissioners’ ability to accomplish tasks timely and efficiently.

Most importantly, a third-party AI audit is a critical tool for evaluating the input IT governance’s capacity in fulfilling the needs of the Victorian ICT dashboard (Gordon, 2020). There are two sets of audits, namely internal and external. Unlike internal AI auditing, the External one begins with a broader focus on governance and control systems. Specifically, the Victorian government’s IT support team would need to inform the commissioners about developing AI models certification (Gordon, 2020). Apart from that, there is an emergence of ethical practices that would readily compel the Victorian government to regulate AI technology. The commissioners would be cautious not to occasion any disruption that might increase financial costs and prolonged delays. Regulating an AI governance system might seem complicated due to its features, namely transparency, transformation, democratic, and ease of distribution (Gordon, 2020). Moreover, the implementation of AI on the governance system touches on almost all global sectors. Therefore, it implies that any disruptions on the AI algorithms would sustain negative security responses, leading to unfathomable humanity risks.

3.      Relevant Questions for Determining Current State-of-the-Art

• What is the present nomenclature and identity of algorithms for AI governance?
• What are the security risks that would emerge from the AI code itself?
• How does the nature of the self-improvement of the software and hardware impact AI governance?
• Is there a risk and control framework and inventory management process in place to measure and manage the associated AI future risks on humans?
• Are there any incorrect AI outcomes like data bias and the involved risks to be communicated and resolved among the Victorian commissioners? 
• What training is needed to upgrade the Victorian ICT government commissioners’ skills in promoting the AI journey? 

4.      Findings

From the psychological perspective of the training and coaching, it was found that the commissioners who participated in educational programs would show meaningful outcomes. For instance, the study by Kahneman and Tversky (2019) has demonstrated that the individuals who underwent training were 29% less likely to show cognitive bias. Remarkably, training and coaching would sustain a positive impact on commissioners’ cognitive skills, leading to lower chances of poor judgments (Kahneman & Tversky, 2019). Likewise, the experimentation results seemed more or less the same for two types of gender, work experience, GMAT, and GPA scores. Consequently, trained commissioners would have a high propensity for cognitive reflection. Nonetheless, the participants’ validations on making decisions seem improved, leading to a lessening in hypothesis testing (Kahneman & Tversky, 2019). In fact, training would impact both the professional and personal decisions of the Victorian government officials. With the application of machine to machine decision in the ICT department, there was the realization that other departments’ activities seemed slow due to limited optimization of functions(Winfield,& Jirotka, 2018). Therefore, delays in completing projects would lead to a wide variation in the quality of decisions among the Victorian government departments.

The use of games is regarded as more engaging than the application of lectures in reinforcing better cognitive skills among persons. Imperatively, the reason is that games offer intensive practice and personalized feedback as compared to other forms of coaching. Also, training vis-à-vis the use of games seemed practical in intervening instances of biases among the participants, including the commissioners.

Figure 5. Top 5 Victorian ICT project categories

As much research study has demonstrated the capacity of training and coaching to impact cognitive bias, psychological researchers need to conduct multi-field experiments. More research should replicate cognitive bias in other regions that touch on the Victorian commissioners’ lives and livelihoods. Apart from that, emerging security risks exist that involve the employment of AI throughout the Victorian ICT governance dashboard (Pandya, 2019). There are anticipated disruptions of the AI systAI’sif the giver intends to regulate project activities’ access from other users. Therefore, the IT support team needs to inform the commissioners on the most appropriate way of controlling the AI system without jeopardizing humanity’s future.

All in all, the IEEE standards on AI ethical development have suggested that the ICT dashboard support team understands the risks of the machine to machine learning and the attached decisions (Pandya, 2019). Indeed, this would ensure that the Victorian commissioners could effectively comprehend the technical elements of developing AI ethically by keeping humans engaged in decisions. Such a measure would promote transparency in personal data use to advance ICT governance even though many government sectors mature differently (Winfield, & Jirotka, 2018). Consequently, the Victorian government needs to widen its AI attributes by extending machine to machine learning and decision over other departments to ensure timely completion of projects at specified costs. 

References List

Gordon, C 2020, ‘Where is your global organization at in trusted AI?’ Forbes. Available from: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/cindygordon/2020/08/17/where-is-your-global-organization-at-in-trusted-ai/#f085e523cb79>. [14 October 2020].

Groysberg, B & Abbott, S 2020, ‘It is time to reset decision-making in your organization,’ Forbes. Available from: <https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/it-s-time-to-reset-decision-making-in-your-organization >. [14 October 2020].

Kahneman, D & Tversky, 2019, ‘New evidence reveals training can reduce cognitive bias and improve decision-making,’ Forbes. Available from: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/02/25/troubling-trends-towards-artificial-intelligence-governance/>. [14 October 2020].

Pandya, J 2019, ‘Troubling trends towards artificial intelligence governance,’ Forbes. Available from: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/02/25/troubling-trends-towards-artificial-intelligence-governance/>. [14 October 2020].

Sellier, L Scopelliti, I & Morewedge KC 2019, ‘Debiasing training improves decision-making in the field,’ Association File of Psychological Science, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 12-15.

Victorian Government, 2020, Information Technology Strategy. Available from: <https://www.vic.gov.au/information-technology-strategy>. [12 October 2020].

Winfield, A & Jirotka, M 2018, ‘Ethical governance is essential to building trust in robotics and artificial intelligence systems,’ Connect. Sci. vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 242–248.