The project identified a series of management, policy, and technology barriers that public sector managers should consider in their planning and development efforts. The barriers are best described as the accumulated wisdom of the agency personnel who faced the realities of trying to create a Web service within a complex organizational and technological environment.

The project resulted in four practical tools to support agencies in their efforts to use the Web as a service delivery mechanism: a World Wide Web Starter Kit, the Recommended Practices document, a cost/performance model to help estimate the cost and return on investment for Web services, and an online Internet Security Seminar. As a result, New York State now has the distinct advantage of a comprehensive set of best practice tools to guide any state or local agency through the process of Web service design, development, and management. All four products are available on the CTG Web site (http://www.ctg.albany.edu/projects/inettb/isgmn.html).

Six state agency Web site prototypes were created and are being put into production, all on a faster schedule than would otherwise have been possible. Prototyping has allowed the agencies to more easily refine their Web sites and to establish regular procedures for updating their services. The agency Web sites can be found on the WWW at the following addresses:

The Testbed workshops and other group activities generated a supportive network of colleagues likely to continue to share knowledge and experiences in the future. This should further enable the agencies to explore Web-based services, especially opportunities for integrated service initiatives.

Participating agencies began to understand new user-oriented ways of managing and organizing information. The definition and design tools used in the Testbed helped agencies articulate and refine their service goals, intended customers, and resource needs and to view the WWW as a new service delivery mechanism rather than simply a new technology.

Organizational analysis tools used in the Testbed helped agencies recognize the need for a wide range of skills and responsibilities on their development teams. This tended to expand the size and scope of the agency teams which ultimately enhanced their ability to develop effective service-oriented Web sites.

Technical presentations and hands-on tutorials gave agencies concentrated exposure to and practice with new technical tools. This helped them better understand the capabilities and limitations of several kinds of hardware and software. It also allowed them to consider vendor options and cost comparisons before committing to significant purchases.

Corporate partners presented their products and technical insights to the Testbed agencies in a series of formal and informal workshops. Subsequently, hundreds of public officials viewed the results of the application of these tools in the public demonstration and the prototype Web sites.

This project also gave corporate partners the opportunity to better understand government’s needs and concerns with regard to Internet services. Delivering services via the WWW in a government setting raises important questions of equity, access, and responsiveness. Government budget cycles are such that agencies must often take a more incremental approach to Web-based services than their counterparts in the private sector. Hence, corporate partners began to understand how best to package their products and services for this market.

The Center successfully developed, tested, and evaluated a new Testbed methodology. This methodology involves several agencies applying a particular technology to their individual program goals within the context of a shared workshop and peer-support environment. It allows more agencies to participate in projects without compromising the quality of the investigation or the results. Since project results are based on a variety of agencies, they are more generalizable to the larger public sector than are the results of projects that focus on a single agency.

Project results constitute a data set for faculty research and doctoral dissertations in the Information Science program. The data gathered from this project will represent the core findings of one dissertation and will serve to enlighten CTG’s ongoing commitment to the refinement of our IT assessment methodology. In addition, the cost/performance model that was developed from the Testbed is the first such tool to be developed for use in the public sector.

Graduate students gained experience in project management, teaching, and consulting, including opportunities to present technical material, act as mentors for agencies, and organize major portions of the project agenda.