When government agencies copy-paste their legacy problems into new software.
Remember when Digital Transformation was the phrase being shoved into every government department?
Legacy systems going digital. Manual processes going online. Application approvals that used to take 3 months — cut down to 2 weeks.
On paper, it was a milestone. Malaysia became known as one of the highest tech adoption countries in the region — social media, work platforms, daily life. Everything digitised.
Everything looked pristine on the outside. Digitalised government administration. Digital-ready citizens.
But something didn’t click.
I Saw It From The Inside
I had the chance to lead a digital transformation project as UX lead designer. The agency was an certification body — a labour-intensive, manual approval process that was long overdue for modernisation.
During discovery sessions, the complexity became obvious immediately. Multilayer approvals flowing through multiple ranks — officer to supervisor to manager to HOD. Layer upon layer of sign-offs.
Even as a non-tech background person, I raised this with my lead developer: this is far more complex than scoped. This will take longer than planned.
That concern got sidelined.
The project was delayed by 6 months and beyond.
But the delay isn’t what I want to talk about.
Copy-Paste Legacy
What I saw — and what I’ve seen one too many times in government agencies — is this:
The old legacy system gets copy-pasted directly into the so-called new digital application.
If the legacy process had 8 layers of approval — the digital version has 8 layers of approval.
Nothing changed. The technology is new. The thinking is old.
And here’s where the real problem reveals itself:
Technology doesn’t make your process better if all you’re doing is digitising the dysfunction.
The Real Resistance Isn’t Technical
This is a human behaviour problem.
Managers fear becoming obsolete. When digital transformation streamlines approvals — suddenly decisions don’t pass through their desk anymore. Everything flows through automated lines of approval.
For a senior manager who built their authority on being the gatekeeper — that’s not efficiency. That’s a threat.
Digital systems record every log, every footprint, every decision. But that transparency doesn’t give these managers assurance. It gives them anxiety. Because the system now shows exactly how much — or how little — value their layer of approval actually adds.
So what do they do?
They insist the digital system mirrors the old process exactly. Every layer preserved. Every sign-off intact. Every bottleneck faithfully recreated in code.
Not because the process needs it. But because their position depends on it.
The System Pays The Price
Eventually the system becomes bloated. Overloaded with logic and workflow that exists to protect hierarchies — not to serve users.
Developers and software architects work late into the night building features nobody needs — just to feed the ignorance of people who refuse to rethink how they work.
The software becomes a monument to the very bureaucracy it was meant to replace.
What Should Have Happened
I’m not blaming the project owner. This situation — more often than not — comes from a “let’s build for chairman” mindset. Design the system to impress the person who signs off. Not the person who uses it daily.
But imagine if before writing a single line of code, the agency had asked one question:
Which of these 8 approval layers actually adds value?
Maybe only 3 do. Build for 3. Let the system handle the rest.
That one conversation — had early enough — would have saved 6 months of delay, thousands of developer hours, and a system that actually works the way digital is supposed to work.
Simpler. Faster. Built for the user, not the hierarchy.
That’s not just digital transformation. That’s actual transformation.
The Real Question
Digital transformation doesn’t start with software. It starts with the people who approve the software.
Senior managers need to transform their mindset and work ethics first. Be the thinking force behind the system — not the obstacle forcing the system to stay within their lines.
The question every government agency should ask before starting any digital transformation project:
Are we digitising a better process — or are we just giving our old problems a new interface?
Because if the answer is the second one — you haven’t transformed anything.
You’ve just made your dysfunction load faster.
P.S. At Majalah BIKIN, I write about human experience, UX, and business psychology — drawn from 30 years across airlines, banking, design, and the field. Read more and follow along.