The day after Barak Obama was inaugurated, one of his first acts was to issue a memorandum to government departments and agencies on the subject of transparency and open government.

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.  We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Information technology (IT) organizations are increasingly faced with reducing the costs of current systems; elimination of multi-year, multi-million dollar, multi-consultant projects; absorbing required maintenance expenses; and delivering new systems faster, with lower risk, and at lower costs. CIOs are being asked to do more with less and stakeholders are demanding results in months—not years.