Chronic IT Problems

Network World Fusion reviews six chronic problems that Mark Foreman has identified in federal IT:

1. Paving cowpaths, which describes a trend for agencies to automate management problems instead of using e-business technologies to fix them.
2. Redundant buying, which involves multiple agencies buying the same item independently instead of making use of economies of scale.
3. Poor program management, with few projects delivered on time and on budget.
4. Poor modernization blueprints, with few agencies developing roadmaps for IT investments that improve performance.
5. Islands of automation, which make it difficult for agencies to collaborate on key missions such as homeland security, and for citizens who have to deal with multiple agencies to get service.
6. Poor cybersecurity, whereby IT security was viewed as an IT or funding issue, instead of an agency management issue.

 
Mountain West Economy

An article in the New York Times discusses the impact of the economic downturn on the states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. The impact has been significantly greater in Utah and Colorado due to their increasing reliance on high tech.

  posted by David @ 7:03 AM