Government organizations differ from private sector organizations in a number of ways. These differences must be considered in the design and implementation of information systems. Caudle et al. (1991) indicate that government has multiple, conflicting, and often intangible goals and that government is substantially affected by red tape and politics. These features or characteristics must be taken into account in the management of information systems. Based on a national survey of public information managers, a lag in information systems development was identified as compared to the private sector. The analysis also showed that middle-level public sector managers are critical for information system development, small government agencies are more interested in IS transfer than large agencies, governments with a lot of red tape tend to have flexible information systems, and local government information system issues tend to be driven by transaction processing while state and federal governments use information technology to support their oversight missions.