When Jim Smith started as Maines chief information officer in 2012, he had never held a management position in the public sector before.
The public sector is unlike anywhere in the private sector, Smith says, due to its high level of turnover. Whether its through elected officials who serve a defined term, or through the departure ofhigh ranking officials who often serve for even shorter periods of time, government can be a tumultuous environment not well-suited to the stability demanded by diligent ITplanning.
But while Smtih entered this environment with a dearth of a certain kind of experience, he alsocame armed with a wealth of knowledge from his work in the private sector that he sayshe knew would serve him well as he surrounded himself with reliable staffto support his visioning efforts.
The first thing I did was build a management team, I really needed people who could execute, Smith says on the latest episode of Priorities.
With his management team nowstabilized, Smith says he turned his focus to project management, which lead the state to embrace agile development . Agile, he says, helpedhis team move forward on modernization and data center consolidation.
This is a change to an organization that had been doing waterfall for a long time, Smith says. [We had to go] from 1990 to modern day.
But ultimately,it comes down toaligning those efforts with the priorities of the very political office that can make long-term IT planningsuch a challenge to begin with.
Here in Maine, our governor is a supporter of using technology to improve citizen communication and citizen services, Smith says. That translates really into his emphasis on ROI and great project management and the right use of citizen dollars.
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Priorities is StateScoops regular podcast that examines the leading strategies, technologies and challenges that state CIOs expect to face this year.
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