i A STUDY ON THE CHOICE OF FREE & OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR GOVERNMENT SECTOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS IN SRI LANKA MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY K M S P Jayawardena Department of Computer Science & Engineering University of Moratuwa December 2008 ii A STUDY ON THE CHOICE OF FREE & OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR GOVERNMENT SECTOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS IN SRI LANKA By K M S P Jayawardena This Dissertation was submitted to the Department of Computer Science & Engineering of the University of Moratuwa in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration. Department of Computer Science & Engineering University of Moratuwa December 2008 iii DECLARATION “I certify that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgement, any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university, to the best of my knowledge and believe it does not contain any material previously published, written or orally communicated by another person or myself except where due reference is made in the text. I also hereby give consent for my dissertation, if accepted, to be made available for photocopying and for interlibrary loans, and for the title and abstract to be made available to outside organizations” …………………………… ………………………….. Signature of the Candidate Date K M S P Jayawardena The above particulars are correct, to the best of my knowledge. ……………………………. ………………………….. Supervisor Date Prof. Gihan Dias iv ABSTRACT This document presents a study on the selection of software for government sector enterprise applications. Many factors could influence the choice of software in government sector enterprise applications. The research is based on the following problem: what factors influence the choice of software for government sector enterprise applications, in the Sri Lankan context. Information systems (IS) projects in several selected government sector organizations have been studied in depth during the course of the research. Around 30% of the investigated government sector information systems projects have been found to have used FOSS. Several factors have been identified to have affected the choice of software for government sector enterprise IS. Out of these, technical compliance, cost, bidders/developers expertise and maintenance/support options were some of the most commonly indicated factors. Cost was highlighted as an important factor in a majority of the investigated IS. However, the analysis revealed that cost did not influence the choice between FOSS and proprietary software, when implementing the IS. This was quite unusual given the common perception that FOSS is used to lower costs. It was concluded from the analysis that certain other factors including bidders/developers expertise, technical compatibility with legacy proprietary systems and maintenance/support options override the cost factor, when selecting software. Based on the analysis and conclusions, several recommendations have been made to leverage on the benefits of FOSS in government sector enterprise IS. These recommendations include ways to achieve cost advantages, especially in large scale replication. It is recommended to nurture a FOSS ecosystem and to develop internal FOSS expertise within government organizations, in order to leverage on the advantages of FOSS in government sector enterprise IS. Keywords: Enterprise Software, Government, Free and Open Source Software, Software Adoption. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Gihan Dias for his invaluable guidance and constant encouragement. I would also like to thank Mrs Vishaka Nanayakkara and Dr Chandana Gamage for their guidance and advice. This research would not have been possible if not for the sincere help of Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya , the staff at the ICT Agency and government organizations. I wish to thank them for spending their valuable time in order to make this research a success. Finally I wish to thank my parents and family for their constant encouragement. I would especially like to thank my wife Nirasha, for bearing up with me and constantly encouraging me. K M S P Jayawardena MBA/IT/07/9071 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION iii ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the study 1 1.1.1 Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) 1 1.2 The research problem 2 1.3 Research objectives 3 1.4 Significance of the study 3 1.5 Research methodology 3 1.6 Scope of the study 4 1.7 Data collection 4 1.8 Data analysis 4 1.9 Nature and form of results 4 1.10 Structure of this document 4 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1 Success in Enterprise Systems 6 2.1.1 The DeLone and McLean Model 6 2.1.2 Enterprise Success Model 7 2.2 Use of FOSS in the Government Sector 9 2.2.1 Cost Savings 9 2.2.2 Security, stability and privacy 9 2.2.3 Independence 9 2.2.4 Helping domestic industries 9 vii 2.2.5 Innovation 10 2.3 Open Source Adoption 10 2.3.1 Policies 11 2.3.2 Choice set 12 2.3.3 Selection 12 2.3.4 Other Adoption factors 13 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN 14 3.1 Scope of the research 14 3.2 Research strategy and approach 14 3.3 Interview Design 14 3.3.1 A general investigation 15 3.3.2 Technology and Components 15 3.3.3 Specification development and selection 15 3.3.4 Factors affecting the selection 15 3.3.5 Issues, improvements and FOSS 15 Chapter 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS 17 4.1 Spread of the investigated projects 17 4.1.1 Implementation stage of the project 18 4.1.2 ICTA guided and non-ICTA projects 19 4.1.3 The use of FOSS/ Proprietary software in the project 19 4.1.4 Nature of Specifications Development and Implementation 20 4.2 Factor identification 21 Chapter 5: ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS 24 5.1 Technical compliance 25 5.2 Cost 26 viii 5.2.1 Total cost vs. the cost of the IS component 27 5.2.2 Compliance with existing technology 28 5.2.3 Use of unlicensed proprietary software 28 5.2.4 Conclusions 29 5.2.5 Methods of highlighting the cost as an important factor 29 5.3 Bidder/developer expertise 29 5.3.1 GIC Project 30 5.3.2 Internally developed system 31 5.3.3 Conclusions 31 5.4 Support and maintenance 32 5.4.1 Statistical perspective 32 5.4.2 A different scenario 33 5.4.3 Conclusion 33 5.5 Factor summary 33 5.6 Analysis based on specification development and implementation methodology 34 5.6.1 ICTA/SAGE 35 5.6.2 External consultant 37 5.6.3 Developed in-house 37 5.6.4 PPP 38 5.6.5 Summary of analysis by specifications development and implementation 38 Chapter 6: RECOMMENDATIONS 40 6.1 Recommendations on building expertise 40 6.2 Recommendations on developing internal expertise 40 6.2.1 Knowledge sharing 41 ix 6.3 Technical compatibility with legacy systems 41 6.4 Recommendations on developing specifications 41 6.5 Concluding remarks 42 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX A - List of organizations 45 APPENDIX B - List of projects 46 APPENDIX C - Questionnaire 48 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Survey conducted by the CIO magazine (Orzech, D 2002) 2 Figure 2: The Updated D&M Model 7 Figure 3: The Enterprise Success Model 8 Figure 4: Open Source Adoption Model (Kwan and West 2005) 10 Figure 5: Implementation stage of investigated IS 18 Figure 6: Spread of ICTA and non-ICTA projects 19 Figure 7: The use of FOSS components in IS investigated 19 Figure 8: Projects by nature of specifications development 21 Figure 9: Spread of the identified factors among the investigated projects 24 Figure 10: Technology spread of IS that considered technical compliance as an influential factor 26 Figure 11: Technology spread of IS that considered Cost as an influential factor 26 Figure 12: Technology spread of IS that considered bidder/developer expertise as an influential factor 30 Figure 13: Technology spread of IS that considered support and maintenance as an influential factor 32 Figure 14: Factor summary 34 Figure 15: The spread of technology in ICTA/SAGE projects 35 Figure 16: The spread of technology in projects where external consultants were involved 37 Figure 17: The spread of technology in projects that were developed in-house 38 Figure 18: Summary of analysis by specifications development and implementation 39 xi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: List of organizations and organization codes ................................................ 46 Table 2: Investigated IS Projects ................................................................................. 47 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CIO – Chief Innovation Officer CRM – Customer Relationship Management FOSS – Free and Open Source Software HRM – Human Resource Management ICTA – The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka IS – Information System LGN – Lanka Government Network MIS – Management Information System ODBC – Online Database Connection PPP – Private Public Partnerships SAGE – Software Architecture Group of Experts