The United States has taken actions to make its public financial management more transparent for citizens so as to provide them with a window into public sector management of financial resources. In response to this effort, the White House has released open source codes for IT Dashboard and Techstat Toolkit.  

Development of the IT Dashboard was an important step towards making projects more transparent and establishing accountability for their management. The release of the two source codes serves as a model for other government programmes on how to reduce costs and increase government effectiveness. This is achieved by using tools from other services that have similar requirements without having to create applications from the beginning. This software can improve the effectiveness of public sector IT applications. In this way, it facilitates public services in knowing what software projects are under development in the public sector, so as to avoid duplication by other such bodies. As a result, a sharper picture is available on Federal Government IT investments.

Techstat Toolkit model is deployed to accelerate the release cycle of a programme that is being delayed. It is a strictly defined process, where users decide whether it is feasible to carry on with a project over time, or to propose measures that need to be implemented in order to keep a project on track and completed within a reasonable time frame. The group that monitors the Techstat procedure does not interfere with development, but rather determines how to stay the course on a project or to terminate it.

GFOSS strongly encourages Greek stakeholders to adopt American best practices for the computerisation of the Public Administration.

Background information:

The Greek Free / Open Source Software Society (GFOSS) is a non-profit organisation whose major goal is to promote the use and development of FOSS for the Greek education, Public Administration and business sectors. One of its initiatives is to provide reliable and timely information about FOSS issues both in Greece and internationally.  

Note: The original article in Greek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Further information:

• Original news article - Greek Free / Open Source Software Society (in Greek)
• IT Dashboard
• Techstat Toolkit