LNW case studies help present and future practitioners to better understand the leadership issues and critical decision points in leading ICT and network-enabled initiatives. Case studies are a prime way to gain insight into these practice-level issues. Case studies are developed by researching and documenting the key issues, decisions and challenges a leader or group faced in the movement of major initiative, and harvesting a core set of questions that illuminate lessons learned.
Case Studies
Featured Case Studies
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.
"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of the world’s most advanced and successful combat systems, it finds itself in an ever-escalating spiral of costs and outdated capabilities.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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..."
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.
The Strategy of the Executive Sponsor: Six Images
In this class note, six strategies of executive sponsors navigating cross-boundary change are detailed.
Michigan Economic Development — “Enabling Economic Development through Cross-Boundary Information Technology.”
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.
Case Study Archives: Authored or Coauthored by Jerry Mechling
With Harvey Simon. "Introducing Computer-Based Remote Services in California (Epilogue)." KSG No. 1256.1. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1995. [Order here: http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1256.1.]
With Harvey Simon. "Introducing Computer-Based Remote Services in California." KSG No. 1256.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1995. [Order here: http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1256.0.]
With Susan Rosegrant. "Toxics Release Inventory: Sharing Government Information with the Public." KSG No. 1154.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1992. [Order here:http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1154.0.]
With Esther Scott. "Electronic Benefits System in Ramsey County, Minnesota (Sequel/Epilogue)." KSG No. 1038.1. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1991. [Order here: http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1038.1.]
With Esther Scott. "Electronic Benefits System in Ramsey County, Minnesota." KSG No. 1038.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1991. [Order here: http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1038.0.]
With Philip Holland and Esther Scott. "Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals." KSG No. 1017.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1990. [Order here:http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1017.0.]
"Minnesota Knowledge Systems Center." KSG No. 1015.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1990. [Order here: http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1015.0.]
With Steve Kelman. "Computer Procurement in Metro West." KSG No. 1013.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1990. [Order here: http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1013.0.]
Developed for the Program on Strategic Computing (predecessor of the Leadership for a Networked World Program)
Roberts, Marc, and Harvey Simon. "Info/California: Where Do Electronic Government Tellers Belong? (Epilogue)." KSG No. 1204.1. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1993. [Order here:http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1204.1.]
Roberts, Marc, and Harvey Simon. "Info/California: Where Do Electronic Government Tellers Belong?." KSG No. 1204.0. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government Case Program, 1993. [Order here:http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=1204.0.]
Other Cases Sponsored by Jerry Mechling and the Program on Strategic Computing
Fountain, Jane. The Customer is King: The Service Culture at L.L. Bean. PDF
Fountain, Jane. The Use of 800 Numbers in Government.
Gilbert, Lee. Strategic Systems Planning for the Library of Congress.
Gluckman, Steve. Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN).
Greenberger, Martin. Aiming At The Top: Systems for Executive Support.
Howitt, Arnold. Information Technology Planning in Metropolitan County.
Kaboolian, Linda. Ruthless with Time and Gracious with People?: Teleservice at the SSA.
Kelman, Steve. The Army & REQUEST. PDF
Kelman, Steve. CALS: Linking the Government and its Vendors.
Kelman, Steve. The SEC & EDGAR.
Kelman, Steve. Taxpayer Service at the IRS. PDF
Kelman, Steve. The Computer Acquisition Process: Some Harsh (and Maybe Excessively Negative) Thoughts. PDF
KSG Innovations Program, Rochester Reevaluation.
Luberoff, David. Court Reporting in Kentucky.
Tumin, Zachary. Social Security on the Web. PDF
Papers commissioned for a conference jointly organized by Jerry Mechling with Lewis Branscomb and published in Building Information Infrastructure (McGraw-Hill, 1992):
Branscomb, Lewis. Information Infrastructure for the 1990s: A Public Policy Perspective.
Faulhaber, Gerald. Pricing Internet: The Efficient Subsidy.
Hogan, William. Energy and Information Network Infrastructures.
Kahin, Brian.The NREN as Information Market: Dynamics of Public, Private, and Voluntary Publishing.
Kleinrock, Leonard. Technology Issues in the Design of the NREN.
Klingenstein, Kenneth. A Coming of Age: Design Issues in the Low-end Internet.
Mandelbaum, Richard and Paulette Mandelbaum. The Strategic Future of the Mid-Level Networks.
McGarty, Terrence. Alternative Networking Architectures: Pricing, Policy and Competition.
Perritt, Henry. Market Structures for Electronic Publishing and Electronic Contracting on a National Research and Education Network: Defining Added Value.
Smarr, Larry and Charles Catlett. Life After Internet: Making Room for New Applications.
Pauli, Gernot and Elizabeth McAllister. A Switch for Northern Telecom.
Perritt, Henry H. The Electronic Agency and the Problems it May Cause for Traditional Paradigms of Public Law.
Sparrow, Malcolm. Fraud Control at “Teleflex Health Insurance Company” (A). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. Fraud Control at “Teleflex Health Insurance Company” (B). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. Fraud Control at “Teleflex Health Insurance Company” (C). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. Pioneers in Georgia: The State/EPA Data Sharing Program (A). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. The EPA's Evolving Use of Information: The State/EPA Data Sharing Program (B). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. Implementation in New England: The State/EPA Data Sharing Program (C). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. Missouri Planning for the Next Century: The State/EPA Data Sharing Program (D). PDF
Sparrow, Malcolm. New Jersey — Redefining the Importance of EPA: The State/EPA Data Sharing Program (E). PDF
