The federal government information technology productivity paradox: A comparative case study of the GAO Information Technology Performance Management Model

An almost common acceptance is that Large (multi-billion dollar) federal government information technology (IT) programs/projects will encounter significant problems, which result in either cancellation or large cost overruns and/or time delays. The promise of IT driven productivity gains against the reality of mixed results created the IT productivity paradox. This paradox results from uncertain linkages between the quantified and unquantified benefits of IT and the resultant ability or inability to attribute productivity changes to IT. The General Accounting Office (GAO) research developed the GAO IT Performance Management Model (March 1998) in part to alleviate this paradox. This Model was developed by case studies of successful IT programs/projects.; This research is focused in establishing a theoretical basis (adoption and diffusion theory) for the GAO IT Performance Management Model, examining the opposite cases (projects that did not follow GAO Model and then failed) from those used to develop the model (successful projects that established the model) using pattern analysis case studies, and in developing an initial explanation of the federal government IT productivity paradox. It seeks to use the GAO IT Performance Management Model to develop initial explanations of the federal government IT productivity paradox.; This dissertation expanded the practical and theoretical knowledge bases of federal government IT productivity. It tied the GAO IT Performance Management Model to adoption and diffusion theory (and posited that other theories may also underpin the Model). Using the comparative case study approach, four federal agency IT programs/projects and one federal IT initiative were researched and analyzed. The four federal agencies' case studies analysis implied that practices opposite of the model result in failure, while the federal IT initiative was inconclusive. In so doing, the analysis yielded some initial explanations of the federal IT productivity paradox.; The GAO IT Performance Management model provides on methodology to challenge and to change the common perspective and de facto paradigm of the systemic federal government IT productivity paradox. This change will take time but may (will) happen using methodologies such as the GAO IT Performance Management Model.