Time Taken to Roll Out Govt Tech Projects (PQ Reply by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean)

Average Time Taken to Roll Out New Government Technology Projects in Past Five Years

Fourteenth Parliament of Singapore – First Session for the Sitting on 12 January 2022

Question

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Prime Minister (a) what is the average time taken to roll out new Government technology projects in the past five years; (b) for projects with a long development duration, whether tender specifications accommodate changes arising from the need to update the technology; and (c) how often are third-party technology professionals and users consulted throughout the development phase.

Answer

Written answer by Mr Teo Chee Hean, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security (for the Prime Minister)

Development times tend to be short for simpler systems, especially those that can reuse existing infrastructure and components from GovTech’s tech stack. For example, SafeEntry was developed within weeks because it was able to tap on components within the National Digital Identity platform. For larger, more complex projects, development times are longer. The average time taken to develop the initial product release for larger projects was between one and two years over the past five years.

For contracts with longer duration, the Government will consider building flexibility into tender specifications to mitigate against technological obsolescence. For example, our website vendors, who are a part of our central bulk tender, are required to notify us when products or services are becoming obsolete and to propose alternatives.

The Government regularly consults industry experts on best practices for project development, such as via the Government’s STACK-X developer conference. Many of our products, such as the Singpass and TraceTogether apps, are developed using the Agile Development Methodology, where we build a Minimum Viable Product and then continually improve it based on user feedback.