ITS Challenges and Solutions for Small and Medium Agencies

The authors’ experience during oversight of over 100 ITS projects indicates that many small and medium-sized agencies are not able to maintain sufficient in-house ITS expertise to implement most ITS projects. The expertise needed includes traditional project-management skills, plus systems-engineering skills for the technology aspects. This often results in projects that are over budget, and/or late, and/or do not achieve their objectives. Some agencies succeeded by hiring a separate contractor or sharing in-house IT staff to perform Project Management and Systems Engineering functions. This paper identifies the ingredients for their success, and problems they encountered. It also explores other innovative solutions to this problem.