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Finding Public Sector IT Best Practices

I never cease to be amazed at the amount of information available to anyone with the Web, a search engine, and some time to dig. There are huge bodies of work from management consultants which are freely available, especially for the public sector, where laws call for open access.

Associations for government agencies such as the Federal CIO Council, the National Association of Counties, National Association of State Chief Information Officers, local councils of government and the state associations are a great place to start. For example, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has published a guide on e-permitting. Harvard University hosts a site for government innovation. Portland State University published a collection of best practices that includes insight on solving traffic congestion and increasing public transportation ridership.

A great way to start a new project is with research on what has gone on before. We can learn from the successes and failures of others to increase the win probability for our initiatives.

I have posted a more complete list of resources here.

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