CTG staff said the research will develop a series of models to help researchers and government professionals better understand the social and technical processes that make up cross-organizational integration initiatives.
The study, Modeling Information Integration Initiatives, is funded by NSF's Information Technology Research Program, one of the largest and most competitive research programs sponsored by the agency.
The research team includes eight University at Albany scholars from a range of disciplines including public policy, public administration, information science, information management, computer science and organizational communication.
"Government information integration initiatives are embedded in complex environments that include business processes, technical infrastructure, public policies, organizational culture and a political context," said CTG Director Sharon Dawes. "By looking at information integration initiatives from all of these perspectives, we are more likely to get a full picture of what makes them succeed or fail."
The project will be carried out in three phases, according to Theresa Pardo, the project leader and CTG deputy director. In the first phase, CTG will partner with the New York State Police and the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation on mission-critical integration initiatives.
In phase two, CTG will lead a series of field investigations in which researchers will examine similar integration projects in several other states. Phase three will include a national survey designed to validate the models of integration developed based on the results of phase one and two.
"As with all of our work, this project has been designed to produce results that can help people in government working on similar types of initiatives," said Dawes. "The better we understand the many facets of a successful integration project, the more helpful our results will be to future government policy initiatives that depend on information integration."
