This case depicts Singapore’s TraceTogether (TT) story, beginning in early 2020 when COVID-19 was spreading globally with ravaging effects. TT was the world’s first national application of a digital contact-tracing tool. Remarkably, the initial version of TT was developed and launched in just eight weeks. The increasing adoption of TT (both as a mobile app and as a hardware token) enabled the early identification and isolation of infected cases much faster than manual tracing.
Part A of the case covers the related events and decision-making until the launch of the TT app on 20 March 2020. Part B covers the subsequent development efforts, version upgrades, follow-on releases and other issues until November 2021.
The ability of the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) to respond quickly to this unforeseen crisis was germinated about 7 years prior. Chan Cheow Hoe, Deputy CEO led the transition to a bimodal IT organisation which was internally capable of exploratory and rapid software development, and recently Jason Bay, Senior Director, led the overall effort to create and launch the TT app.
As Singapore’s COVID-19 situation was changing dynamically, so were the national response policies and the TT app. In August 2021, government officials announced that Singapore would begin the adjustment of living with COVID-19 as an endemic. Yet, as of November 2021, the situation was still highly volatile with the emergence of the Omicron variant.
To this end, what would the future hold for TT? Should the health authority sunset TT to assuage concerns of national surveillance? Should they encourage the population to keep using TT as uncertainties remained due to the emergence of new COVID-19 variants? Could a subset of TT’s capabilities be repurposed for other national initiatives? What new types of foundational capabilities and supporting infrastructure should GovTech start putting in place now to prepare in advance for the next big unknown?
Students should be able to utilise the concept of a bimodal organisation for building a Mode 2 organisation for exploratory software development, adopt the Digital Product Management framework for software development, and apply the transformational leadership style for leading organizations during uncertain times. This case is suitable for undergraduate, post-graduate and executive education courses on Information Technology management, digital product management and digital transformation.
Inspection copies and teaching notes are available for university faculty. To receive an inspection copy and teaching note, please email cmpshop [at] smu.edu.sg with your registered faculty email ID and a link to your contact information on the faculty directory at your university as verification. An inspection copy and teaching note will then be sent to your faculty email account.
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SMU Faculty/Staff can download the case & teaching note on iNet with your SMU login ID & Password via the following links:
· The Case Part A (SMU-21-0045)
· The Case Part B (SMU-21-0045)
For purchase of the case and supplementary materials via The Case Centre, please access the following links:
· The Case Part A (SMU-21-0045)
· The Case Part B (SMU-21-0045)
For purchase of the case and supplementary materials via Harvard Business Publishing, please access the following links:
· The Case Part A (SMU-21-0045)
SMU Faculty/Staff can download the case & teaching note on iNet with your SMU login ID & Password via the following links:
· The Case Part A (SMU-21-0045)
· The Case Part B (SMU-21-0045)
For purchase of the case and supplementary materials via The Case Centre, please access the following links:
· The Case Part A (SMU-21-0045)
· The Case Part B (SMU-21-0045)
For purchase of the case and supplementary materials via Harvard Business Publishing, please access the following links:
· The Case Part A (SMU-21-0045)
(Please note you are purchasing the case only.)
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