DINUM Interdepartmental Digital Management is rethinking its strategy and actions. On March 9, the company unveiled its new roadmap. In the spirit of the “startup nation” dear to President Macron, the roadmap is inspired by the codes of startups and the private sector more broadly.
Example: collaborative building, here with a public digital ecosystem. The new direction of DINUM is determined by the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Civil Service and its supervisory authorities.
The public start-up approach as a model
In light of the new five-year term, the latter “wanted to give it a clear and ambitious course for a digital life for the public to become a powerful lever to make the state more efficient, simple and sovereign.”
These basic principles have yet to be put into practice. Thus, DINUM’s actions will revolve around four priorities. The first concerns the transformation of organizations and ways of working.
To carry out public digital projects, the management intends, in particular, to draw inspiration from the beta.gouv public start-up approach. The key is to adopt a method that encourages experimentation, iteration, and then scaling.
Considered effective, this approach “deserves wider application by all administrations”. The composition of project teams should develop in parallel. DINUM intends to move away from annual projects and work separately in favor of interdisciplinary teams and incremental developments.
Remedy for excesses of large projects
It lays out a different course of action with respect to project management: “measurements of impact over time, rather than pure search for solutions” will be required. How to mitigate or prevent excesses that are typical for large IT projects? Previous measures taken in this area (Articles 3 and 4 of the DINUM Decree) had a “relative” impact.
For a significant number of projects, including the most important ones, the original framework is not respected, the state DSI notes. This results in an average delay of 26% and an average budget overrun of 24%.
“These drifts are increasing with several projects of several tens of millions of euros with obvious difficulties,” she elaborates further. Therefore, it is extremely important to act. In this way, DSI will go beyond its role as a trusted third party in large projects.
It now offers “punctual digital intervention team support.” This team, which is in the service of ministries, consists of multidisciplinary specialists, including agile coaches.
DINUM HRD digital sector
Reducing abuse will also include strengthening internal skills. In a February circular, the government urged administrations to reduce their consumption of external services and develop their in-house skills. This orientation is also included in the DINUM roadmap.
As such, his second priority is “significantly strengthening digital skills in the state.” The transformation of the administration requires “possessing sufficient skills in quantity and quality”.
So the challenge for the coming years will be to attract, hire and retain digital talent, which is a challenge in itself. However, management believes that new project management practices will contribute to public appeal. DINUM will also take on a new role as HRD for the digital sector.
Like individuals, the administration is also pushing for the need to improve its data assets. “Efficient” use of data should provide efficiency and simplicity for taxpayers and agents.
Finally, in the roadmap, the government reaffirms its commitment to digital sovereignty. The aim here is to encourage the consolidation of developments, in particular based on open source. This doctrine aims to “ensure the control, stability and independence of the state information system”.
To roll out its roadmap and take on new responsibilities, DINUM needs more resources. It should involve the recruitment of 40 agents in 2023 and 2024, in addition to the current 180 employees, as well as an increase in its loans (5.2 million euros this year).