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BOOK EXCERPT
Powering Up By KATHERINE BARRETT and RICHARD GREENE
Powering Up utilizes the largest existing base of information about city and state information technology practices to deliver a complete guide to managing technology in the public sector. Written without reliance on foggy jargon, the book is aimed at both government managers — in and out of IT — and students who will someday work in government. It takes a direct approach to crucial topics of technology management, including management structure, planning, procurement, implementation and evaluation.
In Public Administration Review, Dr. Genie N.L. Stowers of San Francisco State University writes that the criteria the book uses to identify best (and failed) practices “alone make this book worth reading thoroughly, for the criteria provide an outstanding framework for evaluating information technology in any setting.” Dr. Stowers adds: “Powering Up makes an important contribution ... as an intelligent, concise, and interesting introduction to the issues in this increasingly important field.”
The book is chock-full of short anecdotes, direct quotes and lengthier case studies that utilize the in-depth information garnered through the Government Performance Project, a study that included interviews with IT practitioners in all 50 states and the nation’s 35 largest cities. The GPP is a collaborative effort between Governing Magazine and the Maxwell School of Public Affairs and Citizenship at Syracuse University, and is has been funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, a husband-and-wife team, are special project editors and management columnists at Governing. They oversee the magazine’s involvement in the Government Performance Project. The first such effort, covering the nation’s 50 states, was a National Magazine Award finalist and received the Washington Monthly’s award for journalism.
Their work has also appeared in a number of other publications including Financial World, Newsweek, Readers’ Digest, Forbes, Ladies’ Home Journal, Glamour, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Advertising Age, Harper’s and Working Woman. Other books by the couple include Frankly, My Dear... (Fireside Books), The Man Behind the Magic (Viking) and The Prudential Financial Planning Guide (Macmillan).
A full chapter excerpted from the book:
To order Powering Up, click here.
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As Michigan’s chief information officer, George Boersma, put it, “Powering Up is the first of its kind, a timely, systematic, high-quality and much needed IT management manual disguised as a thoroughly readable, even entertaining discussion of IT challenges and opportunities.”
Barrett and Greene’s work has been quoted and referenced in a variety of state, city and federal documents, including the federal Government Performance Results Act. They have also served as members of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board task force on service efforts and accomplishments reporting.