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ABSTRACT

Over the last fifteen years the role of IT in transforming state government has received greater attention due to state performance rankings, budget crises, and technology changes. States are facing serious challenges realizing the benefits of technological innovation. To that end, improving IT governance was listed as a top priority by State Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for 2009 [5]. Although advice about IT governance is abundant, many public sector IT leaders and managers do not have answers to their primary question: How do I make IT governance in my state align with the overall governance of the state? What they are finding is that no one framework or strategy works perfectly in each state. There is no cookie cutter method that can be applied; therefore, states are focusing more attention and improvement efforts on creating IT governance within their state's context. Through Web site searches and analysis of official documents, this paper presents a point in time picture of state level IT governance practices in 10 states. In addition, through interviews with top IT officials in selected states, we discuss some of their insights from the states' experiences.

REFERENCES

• 1: Considine, M, and J. M. Lewis (2003). Bureaucracy, Network, or Enterprise? Comparing Models of Governance in Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Public Administration Review 63(2): 131--140.
• 2: Deloitte. (2004). CIO 2.0: The changing role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in government---and why it matters to leaders in the public sector. DOI= http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_ps_CIObook.pdf.
• 3: General Services Administration (GSA). (2008). The Role of the Government Chief Information Officer. Intergovernmental Solutions Newsletter. Vol. 21. Retrieved from www.gsa.gov/intergovnewsletter.
• 4: IT Governance Institute. (2003). Retrieved from http://www.itgi.org/.
• 5: National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) (2005). 2004-05 Compendium of Digital Government in the States. Retrieved from http://www.nascio.org/.
• 6: Ryan R. Peterson , Ramon O'Callaghan , Pieter M. A. Ribbers, Information technology governance by design: investigating hybrid configurations and integration mechanisms, Proceedings of the twenty first international conference on Information systems, p.435-452, December 2000, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• 7: V. Sambamurthy , Robert W. Zmud, Arrangements for information technology governance: a theory of multiple contingencies, MIS Quarterly, v.23 n.2, p.261-290, June 1999 [doi>10.2307/249754]
• 8: Taylor, Paul W. (2009). Slipping Away? State CIOs are still on firm ground, but for how long? Public CIO. February/March 2009. p. 44.
• 9: Peter Weill , Jeanne Ross, IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 2004

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Management techniques (e.g., PERT/CPM)

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.3 Organizational Impacts
          Subjects: Reengineering
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Strategic information systems planning
      K.6.4 System Management
          Subjects: Centralization/decentralization

General Terms:
Management

Keywords:
IT governance, public management