| | july 20148CIOReviewopinionin myFrom Consolidation to Consensus: Creating an Environment that Serves the EnterpriseBy Karen Robinson, CIO, State of TexasThere's no doubt about it--this is an exciting, innovative time to be involved in government technology. But if you've served the public for more than just a few years, my guess is that you've had an IT project or two that didn't go as planned. Goals didn't get met. The investment didn't produce. Your stakeholders, whether internal or external to your organization, became disillusioned. Sometimes, the solution lies not with the technology, but with gaining the consensus needed to move a project in a positive direction. My role as CIO for the State of Texas operates hand-in-hand with my role as executive director for the Texas Department of Information Resources, the IT agency for our state. My agency's role is to serve, guide, coach, and advise other state agencies though product and service offerings and policy development. When I assumed the role of CIO in 2009, I also inherited a $1 billion statewide data center consolidation project. The goal of the project was to pursue technology efficiencies, reliabilities, and cost savings by consolidating the data centers of 28 independent state agencies into two updated data centers. The project was floundering. To say it was a Texas-sized problem couldn't have been more accurate.There were several dynamics at play: Our state agency customers--those statutorily designated to participate--felt this project and its requirements had been thrown at them, that they hadn't been made part of the team, and that they had no voice in the process. We had both small and large agencies involved across a spectrum of services, along with a wide variety of technology and business needs. While this was obviously a technology-heavy project, business motivators were not communicated, so the project's purpose and its potential benefits to individual agencies and to the state seemed more like window dressing than true drivers. And of course, a project of this magnitude had its share of technology issues. In a large project with severe points of contention, it is critical to create an environment that fosters teamwork, vulnerability, and transparency. Developing a culture of consensus--where all parties value solving issues to pursue common goals--is a key ingredient to changing the direction of a flailing IT project, or even supporting the success of a well performing one. Karen Robinson
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