Preparing transitions in public services: Payoff dimension, value estimation, schedule and budget computation

• A new methodology to evaluate public service transition projects.
• A service encompassing, meaningful payoff dimension is identified and used to value public sector transition projects.
• Optimizes expected payoff under current and new systems.
• Provides monetary, politically meaningful bounds on the value of the transition.
• Provides guidelines to determine transition schedule with minimal disruptions.

We assess how much a public service transition project is worth. Previously, as suggested by the World Bank, an entire economy model was required to value any single public project. Our approach consists of finding an appropriate transition invariant payoff dimension for the public service being provided and use it to find the optimal level of service before and after the transition takes place. The preceding results and the current budget allow us to obtain bounds on the value of the transition. Total time to complete the task may be as low as two months. The methodology is presented and explained based on its application to the transition from inquisitive to accusatory processes in the justice procurement service in a developing country.