There will always be competing priorities in any organization or unit. The best way to accommodate this situation is to understand those priorities and communicate among each other to ensure effective decisions can be made for the entire organization. Competing interests often became shared goals when a broader understanding (beyond individual silo perspectives) is achieved. Ignoring the competing priorities or focusing only on one perspective more often leads to the turf conflicts and other barriers identified by the Testbed teams.

A Testbed member from a program area expressed the real advantages of addressing all the organizational priorities: “It opened up a good rapport [with the IT unit]. And I think that they see things from a different perspective on their end too, that it isn’t just about the technical end; it is about the content.” And a technical team member echoed that sentiment as well: “The willingness of people to examine those ideas and change their policies on that, is probably the number one hurdle for getting things done the cleanest, easiest way.”