I dropped by the OGP office to meet fellow ERP X beta testers. had hoped this would be the path we took instead of the current ERP 2.0.
My sense is that ERP 2.0 is already too deeply entrenched to change course. But that is also why ERP X is a real lesson in how government should operate in a Singapore that is supposed to be agile, fast-paced, and tech-savvy.
For people in tech, this all sounds very familiar: start small, test in the real world, learn quickly, and adjust based on what you actually find. Don’t spend years locking into a system, only to discover too late what people love or hate about it.
And it is not just about the tax money spent. It is also about the time, energy, and public sector capacity that a poorly thought out half-billion dollar project consumes.
One thing I’d like to see more of is the Government running public beta programmes like this, especially for digital services and technology. There’s simply no substitute for real-world feedback from the people who will actually use the product.
I’m also encouraged to see that there are teams within Government building products with genuine pride, conviction, and a strong sense of responsibility towards taxpayer’s money.
I also shared that the traditional Government approach of awarding large, monolithic software tenders is becoming increasingly unsuited to today’s pace of technology.
Agile, experimental, user-centred ways of working should be the default, especially for projects that affect the whole country. This includes also how Government contracts vendors. If ERP X leaves behind anything, I hope it is this lesson.