CASE STUDIES
The Leadership for a Networked World Program and the Harvard Policy Group on Network-Enabled Services and Government conducts research and develops and distributes thought leadership on critical issues of technology driven innovation and governance for the public sector.
Featured Case Studies
Michigan Economic Development — “Enabling Economic Development through Cross-Boundary Information Technology.”
The Michigan economic development case exemplifies the issues in complex cross-boundary technology initiatives, namely: idea generation, strategic planning, governance, and sustainability of change. This case is designed to train the current and future leaders of similar IT-based cross-boundary initiatives by having them think through the choices and tradeoffs involved in enabling economic growth through reforms driven by information technology and spread across a spectrum of government programs and services.
The case is available online: Michigan Economic Development Case.
OneCleveland
The new global economy has not been kind to many U.S. cities. Great manufacturing centers across the nation have become shells of their old selves, and urban leaders struggle to attract new employers and create new economic opportunities. The key to success, most agree, is an “information economy” — one based on innovation and technology. But how do you build that? How do you bring together all the major players — from the public, for-profit, and nonprofit sectors — and persuade them to buy in? What role should government play in such a cross-boundary initiative, upfront and in the long run? This case study looks at how Cleveland, one of America’s most impoverished cities, has leveraged OneCleveland, a major “ultra-broadband” and Wi-Fi project led by Case Western Reserve University, to reposition itself as a hub of high-tech innovation.
The case is available online: OneCleveland Case.
"We're Making Them Reefs" - The Quest for Open Architecture in the United States Navy
The United States Navy has an usual battle on its hands. After years of closed system development of some of the world’s most advanced and successful combat systems, it finds itself in an ever-escalating spiral of costs and outdated capabilities. It searches for a new path – open architecture. Captain James J. Shannon and Mr. William Johnson have charge of initiative. As they move to reset the Navy’s trajectory towards enterprise-wide open architecture, Shannon and Johnson discover that persuasion is everything; compliance is relative, cover from above essential – and progress possible.
The case is available online: Making Them Reefs.
Grants.Gov
Charles Havekost, HHS CIO and Program Manager of the Grants.Gov initiative, strives to unify all Federal grants-making onto a single “find and apply” platform. He encounters a community with a track record of well-known false starts and failures, and a cacophony of voices all arguing that standardization is impossible – or at least that their agencies’ have unique and non-standard requirements that must be addressed. Facing time pressures, he finds a path through the thicket of objections that brings together several platforms which most agencies have previously signed off on or now use. Blazing a trail to success at the last minute, Havekost organizes the major agencies into concordance on a standardized “find and apply” format for all Federal grants-making.
The case is available online: Grants.gov.
From 'Need to Know' to 'Need to Share': The Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative
As Director of Information Policy for the Department of Defense’s Chief Information Officer, Michael Krieger is responsible for “standing up” Communities of Interest to make rapid progress that will demonstrate “net-centric” solutions to cross-domain information sharing barriers. He encounters the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) initiative, a joint undertaking of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. The MDA is poised to affirm an 18-month “concept of operations” that will scope an effort to share data widely about all ships, cargos and crews on the world’s oceans. Krieger offers to demonstrate a new web-service enabled information sharing capability in half that time. Coast Guard Admiral Joe Nimmich endorses both efforts, and Krieger begins his work.
This case is available online here: Maritime Domain Awareness
LA-JRIC: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Global War on Terror
The Los Angeles Police Department is concerned to improve its intelligence analysis of terrorist threats to the region. With many law enforcement agencies operating, and much information, there is no concerted effort to gather, analyze and disseminate threat information. Many obstacles exist to such collaboration. In this case, LAPD Captain Gary Williams, Assistant Chief John Miller, and Chief of Police William Bratton each play a role in leading the Department through the thicket of relations with the FBI, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, and other agencies of government to create the Los Angeles Joint Regional Information Center.
This case is available at: LA JRIC Final Rev. 10.19.07.pdf
Washington State Digital Archives
Deputy State Archivist Adam Jansen is assigned to launch the State of Washington’s digital archive initiative. He must choose a technical and an operating approach. As he does so, Jansen must balance the implementation requirements of the state, customer service issues for citizen access to records, the archivists’ ethos to “make no changes that cannot be undone”, and territoriality issues among participating agencies.
This case is available at: Washington State Digital Archives
Iowa's Recovery Center
Iowa CIO John Gillispie sees opportunity to standardize the state's continuity capabilities and assure reliability by developing a shared service recovery center for state agencies. The challenge of breaking even in center operations looms large as Gillispie discovers that state agencies balk at paying for power and other costs -- and resist standardizing to levels Gillispie deems important.
This case is available at: Iowa Recovery Center Ver 5.21.07.pdf
MITA and Medicaid Transformation
US Department of Health and Human Service's Rick Friedman leads a complex, slowly unwinding effort to transform the staid claims processing architecture of Medicaid information systems (MIS). The states and the Federal government all have new health information needs which only a transformation of MIS in each of 50 states can provide. Having made progress and steadily gained followers, Friedman's effort seems likely to lapse without a final infusion of resources and support.
This case is available at: MITA.pdf
"Automate or Perish": William von Raab and the US Customs Service
Under President Ronald Reagan, US Customs Commissioner William von Raab saw nothing but doom ahead from an overwhelmed Customs Service - cutbacks on inspectors, increased drug enforcement duties, and delays on entry of commercial goods, all creating congestion, costs and chaos in American ports. Could the entire system be automated - saving time, money and staff? The case tells the story of the advent of the Automated Commercial Environment , led by von Raab under his battle flag, "Automate or perish..."
This case is available at: Automate or Perish
Social Security on the Web: The Case of the Online PEBES
The Social Security Administration makes its first and boldest move to the world wide web -- only to discover that the Internet holds both risk and promise - and not everyone is ready for it.
This case is available at: Social Security on the Web
The Strategy of the Executive Sponsor: Six Images
In this class note, six strategies of executive sponsors navigating cross-boundary change are detailed.
This note is available at: Six Images of Executive Sponsors.pdf