As with any organizational initiative, top executive support is needed to explore new areas and overcome organizational inertia. Despite perceived benefits, departmental enthusiasm, and convincing prototypes, if top management does not want a project to proceed, it will not proceed. In general terms, many of the reasons for lack of top executive support can be traced to the barriers previously itemized. Executive support will not be forthcoming if the concept has not been thoroughly examined before proceeding. Many projects can not even be explored without first demonstrating to executive management the anticipated return or benefit.

Recognizing the importance of executive support, CTG made it a threshold criterion for participation in the Testbed. Agency teams needed executive sign-off in their proposals just to be considered for inclusion in the project. Many of the participants stated that “participation in the Testbed provided them credibility to explore new concepts.” One of the findings from the initial training experience was that the trainees were unable to explore using XML within their agencies due to competing priorities. Participation in the Testbed gave them the mandate to experiment.

However, this barrier goes beyond experimentation. As many of the participants recognized throughout the Testbed, organizational change was the major barrier they faced. They needed executive support to require their organizations to change. A Webmaster remarked, “The big cost, so to speak, not that it would necessarily be financial or anything, would be getting those people on board and getting all the management at various levels to actually demand it, allowing us to say, no you need do it this way from now on.” As one technical staff member stated, “An XML for Web site and content management project, if properly executed, can obviate many of these concerns [resistance to change] by addressing them directly to the executive level.”