Modernizing public sector IT management

[Commentary] Over the past 10 weeks we have featured 22 ideas that represent outdated practices or modes of thinking when it comes to public sector information technology (IT) management. In this closing post, we would like to draw out five salient points to move the conversation ahead.

1) Evidence-driven decisionmaking is required: Several of our posts suggest that we might get a greater return on our technology investments if we relied on evidence as a basis for our decisionmaking rather than relying on outdated ideas masquerading as conventional wisdom.
2) Experimentation and risk-taking is essential: Just like in the private sector, risk-taking is something that we need to instill and value in the public sector.
3) Collaboration across sectors matters: We need to design and harness better collaboration platforms that go beyond the traditional models. Importing rock star CIOs, relying on outsourcing, or engaging students to think meaningfully about IT in the public sector only after they graduate have reached their limits of value. These are all mutually exploitative relationships and need to be redesigned.
4) Governance modes matter: We need to revisit how we govern and become comfortable with balancing goals when it comes to governance. Security is not the enemy of innovation but has to peacefully coexist with it. This calls for more agile governance models that force us to think holistically about the IT programs in our agencies from multiple perspectives.
5) Solving procurement issues: Few things raised as much anger as our discussions on procurement issues, and it is clear: procurement must be solved for government to move forward.