DESCRIPTION
As part of my graduate program at the University of Washington, I participated in a group project to assist the City of Bothell Information Technology Manager with an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of the eCityGov alliance.
eCityGov is an “Inter-local agency” founded by 9 Puget Sound cities in 2001. The goal of the agency is to provide, “easy-to-find, consistent services, regardless of which city is responsible for providing the service.” eCityGov provides 7 applications ranging from building permits to park events.
The purpose of this study was to establish the feasibility of continued membership in the eCityGov Alliance by answering the following questions:
- What is the current cost of the eCityGov applications?
- What impact will the coming annexation have on those costs?
- What is the current usage level (both by internal city users and the public) of the eCityGov applications?
- Are the eCityGov applications meeting the needs of the internal city users and managers?
We took a 4 part approach to ensure depth and accuracy in our recommendation:
- Literature review
- User surveys
- Cost projection
- Usage data analysis
The final recommendation was provided in both a report and a presentation to Joe Sherman, the project sponsor and the Information Services Manager at the City of Bothell.
ROLE
This was a small team so I served as a taskmaster, interviewer, writer, presenter.
TEAM
- Mike Barta
- Kristopher Dane
- Tim Ruppell
