Exploring State Chief Information Officers Involvement in

Information Technology Strategic Planning for Remote Collaboration

Shawn Na

, Darlene Russ-Eft

, Linda Naimi

, Scott Hutcheson

and Omar Diaz

SAIC, 12010 Sunset Hills Road, Reston, VA, U.S.A.

Department of Technology Leadership & Innovation, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, U.S.A.

MITRE Corporation, 7525 Colshire Dr, McLean, VA, U.S.A.

Keywords: State Chief Information Officers, Information Technology Strategic Planning, Remote Collaboration.

Abstract: State Chief Information Officers (CIOs) have a vital role in information technology (IT) organizations; this

role leads and sponsors information system (IS) programs, ensures operations, and provides technologies and

digital capabilities for their organizations. Previous studies (Eiras, 2010; Haffke et al., 2016; Mitchell, 2015;

Muller, 2011; Roberts et al., 2014) have discussed CIOs’ effectiveness in organizational management, the

skillset and credentials for the role and responsibilities involved in leading the IT organization. Compliance

with Presidential Executive Orders 13571 and 13576 requires the federal government to undertake appropriate

steps to streamline and improve digital services and to deliver an efficient, effective, and accountable federal

government. At the state government, the CIO position is established in each of the 50 U.S. and is tasked with

overseeing and managing the state information technology (IT) and information system (IS). Investigating

CIOs’ involvement in dealing with IT initiatives in their organizations can identify practices leading to

successful implementations (Porfírio et al., 2021). This research sought to contribute to the body of knowledge

and aimed to highlight the State CIOs’ involvement in IT strategic planning.

1 INTRODUCTION

The term CIO was first used in the early 1980s and

later associated with the main responsibilities of

planning, operating, and managing an organization’s

IT resources, IT investment, and IT management as a

corporate executive leader (Ostrowski & Helfert,

2011). The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 mandated the

position of CIO; this individual would take the steps

necessary to implement and manage IT and processes

through policies and strategic plans to meet

organizational business and mission needs

(Government Accountability Office, 2001). CIOs

exist in many industries, including commercial,

private, and government industries, as well as various

research and academic institutes; they strive for their

organization’s success by meeting their goals and

objectives. However, previous studies have focused

on the CIO role in the private sector and federal

government. Scant research literature pertaining to

State CIOs is available (De Tuya et al., 2020), and

limited information is present about State CIOs

(McCarthy et al., 2021). This research adds to the

understanding of how the State CIO’s involvement in

IT strategic planning led to the execution of strategies

and actions enabling remote collaboration, and it

provides a contribution to the literature and

suggestions for future research

2 PROBLEM

More research is needed concerning IT strategic

planning, given that work to date has shown a high

failure rate in such initiatives (Brown, 2019). State

CIOs need to understand the importance of IT

strategic planning to meet the organization’s business

and technology needs. Despite over 50 years of

research and practice, the track record for IT projects

remains very poor, with a failure rate of over 70% (Li,

2020). Many industry reports emphasize the

importance of drive and the strategic need for IT

investments. Some reports from the U.S. Government

Accountability Office (GAO) cover topics on U.S.

federal government CIOs, and reports from the

National Association of State Chief Information

Officers (NASCIO) covering topics on U.S. state

government CIOs are also available. However, the

Na, S., Russ-Eft, D., Naimi, L., Hutcheson, S. and Diaz, O.

Exploring State Chief Information Ofﬁcers Involvement in Information Technology Strategic Planning for Remote Collaboration.

DOI: 10.5220/0013025100003929

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2025) - Volume 2, pages 785-792

ISBN: 978-989-758-749-8; ISSN: 2184-4992

785

current literature includes limited information about

State CIOs (McCarthy et al., 2021). A gap exists in

the literature pertaining to State CIOs’ involvement

and the implications of IT strategic planning and

remote collaboration during the height of the COVID-

19 pandemic.

3 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH

QUESTIONS

The purpose of this research, with a complete version

appearing in Na (2024), was to investigate State CIOs’

involvement in IT strategic planning for enabling

remote collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A State CIO is appointed in each of the 50 U.S. states

as a senior executive to lead and manage information

technology (IT) and information systems (IS). This

research sought to contribute to the body of

knowledge that addresses the ways in which State

CIOs are involved in IT strategic planning, as not

much is known about this subject area or discussed in

the current literature. Beyond the research scope,

definition, and context, the research findings could

also contribute to studies of State CIOs, for which

limited research exists (De Tuya et al., 2020).

The main research question and sub-questions for

this research were as follows:

1. In what ways were State CIOs involved in IT

strategic planning to enable remote collaboration for

their organization’s remote workforce at the height of

the COVID-19 pandemic?

1a. Identify and categorize State CIOs’

involvement in IT strategic planning to enable remote

collaboration.

1b. Analyze State CIOs’ involvement in IT

strategic planning to enable remote collaboration.

4 LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of the literature review was to provide

background and information on current issues

involving State CIOs. A concept map was generated

to depict the relationships between the subject areas

researched. The literature review showed the current

depth of the subject area of interest and provided

some ideas for the research methods.

The literature search process was limited to the

years December 2019 to December 2023 and

included only texts in English. Engineering Village

(Compendex and Inspec), https://www-

engineeringvillage-com/; IEEE Xplore,

https://ieeexplore-ieee-org; and ProQuest

(Dissertation and Theses),

https://www.proquest.com/ were selected for the

relevant literature search. All three databases are used

by researchers and have well-maintained reputations

as sources of literature reviews. Engineering Village

allows literature searches on many sources and can be

filtered by keywords, phrases, language, date range,

and source types. IEEE Xplore is the main source for

any IEEE-affiliated publications, which are scholarly

peer-reviewed articles from IEEE conference

proceedings and journals. ProQuest allows

dissertation searches on the topic of interest from all

affiliated institutes and filtering by dates.

The scope of the sample included database

searches for journal articles, trade journals,

magazines, and dissertations, including IEEE Xplore,

ProQuest, and Engineering Village (Compendex and

Inspec databases). The time period was scoped from

December 2019 to December 2023. The sample was

collected to help prepare for document analysis, and

all types of documents were considered for sample

size. The National Association of State Chief

Information Officers (NASCIO) serves as a

community that provides resources to State CIOs.

Within the resource center, there were numerous

reports and surveys from State CIOs’ inputs and their

involvement in annual events

(https://www.nascio.org/resource-center/). The

information available from this site was examined as

well.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many

government organizations had to shift the work

environment to ensure that staff could work from

remote locations. IT departments were the entities

responsible for ensuring the customers’ IT needs were

met. The State CIO led transformational initiatives as

a system owner and an authorizing owner (AO).

Video conferencing and collaborative team tools

allowed end users to conduct meetings, take notes,

brainstorm, and continue to engage actively online in

a manner similar to typical in-person office meetings

(NASCIO, 2021). This new work environment

paradigm enabled IT organizations to continue to

push for IT initiatives to meet customer needs, which

State CIOs were ultimately responsible for leading

and managing. Brown (2019) emphasized the lack of

academic research, given the growth in practice.

The State CIO has the authority to manage and

govern IT and IS. To ensure technology and security

management of accessibility, connectivity,

interoperability, resiliency, and business continuity to

meet and align with business goals.

IT strategic planning provides a solution to

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strategy, operations, and tactical mindset within

traditional bureaucratic organizations. Collaborative

forecasting and the creation of short-term and long-

term goals help to encourage the organization’s goals

and objectives (Mayer & Mayer, 2020). Typically, an

IT strategic plan is an output of an IT strategic

planning process. IT strategic planning should be an

ongoing exercise as technologies continue to evolve,

and strategy serves as a “placemat” for technological

directions and analysis of IT investment opportunities

(Titthasiri, 2010). A technology strategic plan is

critical for an IT organization to lay out its vision and

goals as well as priorities in technologies to evaluate,

acquire, and implement.

The National Association of State Chief

Information Officers (NASCIO) is a nonprofit

organization that supports networks and resources for

State CIOs. This organization was founded in 1969

and serves to represent State CIOs and IT executives

and managers. NASCIO’s mission is to assist U.S.

state-level governments with excellence in leadership,

business, technology, and management and support

with business and technology innovation, as well as

IT service delivery. They host two conferences a year

that are open to both state-level senior government

executives and representatives from companies and

organizations.

5 METHODS

This research utilized the grounded theory research

method (e.g., Charmaz & Thornberg, 2021; Glaser &

Strauss, 1968). To do so, a comprehensive literature

search on the topic of State CIOs’ involvement in IT

strategic planning was conducted, as described below:

1. Conduct a comprehensive literature search on

the topic of State CIOs, IT strategic planning, and

remote collaboration for the data collection.

2. Conduct the grounded theory analysis from the

data collection with triangulation.

3. Apply computer-assisted qualitative data

analysis software (CAQDAS) to validate the

grounded theory analysis of State CIOs, IT strategic

planning, and remote collaboration.

4. Construct a Course of Action (COA) for the

State CIO's involvement in IT strategic planning.

In qualitative research, the researcher’s

worldview is important to clarify. This study utilized

constructivism and pragmatism. Constructivism as a

worldview assumes that the researcher intends to

examine the views of a research idea being studied

from many perspectives (Kivinen & Riestela, 2003).

This would allow the researcher to construct the

meaning of the research idea being studied through

historical data and to interpret the meanings of

personal and societal experiences. This research

focused on better understanding the knowledge

available and how the world responds.

The research method involved locating records

pertinent to this research topic. Database sources,

including ProQuest, Engineering Village

(Compendex and Inspec databases), and the NASCIO

website online database, were utilized to search for

published articles and related sources. After all

relevant search results were located and examined,

records were reviewed to remove any duplicates.

Only full-text articles were considered for the

research, and any records that did not meet the study

criteria were removed. Study criteria identified for

this research included literature search findings solely

scoped to State CIOs, State CIOs’ involvement in IT

strategic planning, and state-wide IT strategic

planning by State CIOs.

There are two ways to examine document content:

content analysis and thematic analysis. Content

analysis enables the researcher to identify meaning

and relevant passages; thematic analysis provides the

researcher with patterns or themes from document

data (Document Analysis, 2016). The sources of data

were identified using peer-reviewed databases and

documents from the National Association of State

CIOs (NASCIO) website online database. An

iterative research process of document collection and

document analysis was used to identify new insights

and to address the research problem (Busetto et al.,

2020).

In qualitative research, triangulation increases

research data reliability. Its purpose is to find multiple

sources of data evidence (Tellis, 1997). Triangulation

in qualitative research allows cross-checking of

evidence collected from multiple sources and

enhances understanding of the research problem from

a larger perspective (Bhandari, 2022).

The aim of grounded theory is to produce or

construct a process inherent to a subject area of

inquiry and generate a theory grounded in the original

data that will lay a foundation for a framework to

describe the relationship between methods and

processes (Chun Tie et al., 2019). Grounded theory is

a systematic approach to conducting research,

collecting data, and undertaking analysis. In

grounded theory studies, the researcher’s or

researchers’ focus starts at the beginning of the

research process, and they construct and interact with

the data throughout the research process (Charmaz &

Thornberg, 2020). The grounded theory research

Exploring State Chief Information Ofﬁcers Involvement in Information Technology Strategic Planning for Remote Collaboration

787

method allows the researcher to collect rich data on a

topic of interest and develop theories inductively

(Bhandari, 2023). It involves multiple sources and

references to review, examine, and analyze from

experience and guidance. After the literature review,

categories and themes were developed using the

grounded theory method. Next, computer-assisted

qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS) software (an

NVivo product developed by QSR International) was

used to validate the categories and themes developed.

According to SAGE Publications (2020), this

software functions as a repository for the data

ingested and allows users to code to investigate text

parsing and text search queries. NVivo software is an

internationally renowned commercial program

available in multiple languages for Apple Mac and

Microsoft Windows. The software can be applied to

text data and provides visualization and analytical

representations.

6 RESULTS

All 50 states’ State CIO websites were identified and

researched for IT Strategic Planning. From searches

conducted, relevant reports were identified as part of

the sample data to review, along with initial peer-

reviewed results from the various databases. A text

search query was conducted to determine an

occurrence of word frequency results. After a

systematic review of database searches and exclusion

of non-related, non-applicable, and duplicative

sources, a total of 134 document sources, including

eight peer-reviewed literature sources, 110 State

CIOs government reports, and 16 reports from

NASCIO, StateScoop and GovTech media sources

dated from December 2019 to December 2023 were

identified as sample data for the document analysis.

The results were prepared to describe the analyses

completed for each research question. These appear

below.

State CIOs' involvement in IT strategic planning to

enable remote collaboration for their organization’s

remote workforce in the height of COVID-19

pandemic (1)

When the first series of news reports on COVID-19

broke the news in December 2019 and the first cases

were reported in January 2020, State CIO websites

published the 2019 annual report and 2020 IT

strategic plan and roadmap. With the advent of

COVID-19 and the quick response to shifting the

workforce to remote collaboration technology to

allow them to work from alternate locations, State

CIOs’ activities were captured in 2020 annual reports

and 2021 IT strategic plans. Furthermore, annual

reports from 2021, 2022, and 2023 included State

CIO office project activities conducted to support

remote collaboration technologies. Additionally, IT

strategic plans from 2022 and 2023 elaborated the

future plan to ensure remote work locations and

collaboration to conduct business and operations. All

literature sources from State CIO websites and other

sources of data collected showed the State CIOs’

involvement in enabling remote collaboration at the

height of the COVID-19 pandemic through the

changes made in IT strategic planning.

Identify and categorize State CIOs’ involvement in IT

strategic planning to enable remote collaboration

(1a)

Remote collaboration technology such as Microsoft

365 (M365), Google Workspace, Amazon Web

Services (AWS) Workspaces, Zoom, Cisco Webex,

and Microsoft Teams have been available to the

workforce before the COVID-19 pandemic, and these

technologies were expanded to a larger scale of users

due to an increased demand due to the COVID-19

pandemic and transitioning of workforce into

working remotely. Other IT hardware, such as

computers, laptops, tablets, mobile devices, and

printers, were identified to be purchased and

distributed to the workforce for use in remote

locations. The State CIOs had to respond quickly and

make a critical strategic decision on shifting the

workforce to work remotely and ensuring proper IT

support was provided. From the data collected,

document analysis was conducted, and the grounded

theory approach identified and categorized State

CIOs' involvement in IT strategic planning to remote

collaboration.

Analyze State CIOs' involvement in IT strategic

planning to enable remote collaboration (1b)

Various changes made to the state-level

organizational IT infrastructure during the height of

the COVID-19 Pandemic rapidly shifted the state

government workforce to work at alternate locations

with remote collaboration technology. State CIOs'

involvement in IT strategic planning to enable such

remote collaboration changed the paradigm of the

modern work environment. A new remote or

teleworking policy was put into effect, and this also

changed the regular business rhythms and processes

of conducting business. There were numerous records

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and reports available from State CIO IT Strategic

Planning websites to analyze State CIOs' involvement

in IT Strategic Planning to enable remote

collaboration. With the quick and sudden responses

required due to the state of emergency with the

COVID-19 pandemic and the reporting of new cases

on a daily basis, State CIOs had the executive

authority to make strategic IT decisions that changed

the IT landscape for its workforce.

Due to the scarcity of literature, there is a lack of

connection between these research findings and the

previous research. Due to COVID-19, Federal CIOs

made decisions and assisted in the transition of the

workforce to remote work and utilized remote

collaboration. According to the 2020 Federal CIO

Survey, COVID-19 accelerated federal IT

modernization and investment to accommodate and

shift to remote work (Professional Services Council,

2021). A report from International Data Corporation

(IDC) published in 2020 stated that over 2000

organizations and companies globally transitioned

their workforce and operations to remote operations

and allowed real-time collaboration (International

Data Corporation, 2020).

Based on the research findings and discussion of

the results of analyses, COAs are identified for

consideration for future State CIOs. The list below is

prioritized based on the discussion of the research

findings and analyses of the results.

• State CIO should consider IT Strategic Planning as

a continuous process, not a one-time shelfware that

captures a snapshot of the IT organization’s project

status and initiative needs.

o Instead of conducting this activity periodically

to deliver an IT Strategic Plan, such IT

Strategic Planning should be undertaken as a

continuous process to review, assess, and

update the Plan regularly.

• State CIOs should coordinate and collaborate

regularly to share information and knowledge

regarding the emerging technological outlook as

connected with IT Strategic Planning, and they

should embrace and adopt public-private

partnerships (PPPs) to align investment and works

accordingly.

o Institutionalizing IT Strategic Planning with all

levels of stakeholders’ involvement, assuring

knowledge management and information

sharing, and engaging with PPPs could better

prepare for emerging technology outlook and

the next highly risked event or crisis.

• State CIO should consider having an overarching

enterprise IT architecture to represent how IT

Strategic Planning fits with the organization’s

vision, mission statement, IT roadmap, IT strategy,

ITIM, ITAM, ITSM, and other applicable

references.

o The discipline of enterprise IT architecture is

critical to State CIOs to map all current

operational IS, as well as IT systems and

applications within the organization’s system

security boundary. Continuous review and

assessment of “as-is” or current architecture

and preparations and planning for “to-be” or

future architecture would further aid in

mapping different components of IT Strategic

Planning with State CIO’s future vision and

strategy.

• State CIO should consider defining measurable and

meaningful metrics to evaluate successes,

achievements, and return on investment (ROI)

from IT Strategic Planning.

o Quantitative measures and meaningful metrics

for State CIOs to consider may include the

following within the scope of IT Strategic

Planning on an annual basis:

 Number of IT acquisitions planned versus

actual.

• To determine the variance between

planned versus actual on IT

acquisitions made.

 Duration of each IT acquisition from

planning to post-award.

• To determine the variance between

planned versus actual duration on IT

acquisitions awarded.

 IT budget planned versus actual.

• To determine the variance between

planned versus actual on the annual IT

budget.

 Total cost of ownership (TCO) on IT

infrastructure (e.g., cloud, on-prem).

• To determine the TCO on IT

infrastructure and IT landscape that

State CIO is managing and planning

for future vision and strategy.

 % of IT budget for innovation, prototyping,

internal research and development (IR&D).

• To determine % of the IT budget being

spent for innovation and prepare for

future emerging technological

outlooks.

 Number of IT projects by categories:

initiated, completed, on hold, stopped.

• To determine the progress of IT

projects.

 Number of IT requirements received (new

or customer support) by customer-based.

Exploring State Chief Information Ofﬁcers Involvement in Information Technology Strategic Planning for Remote Collaboration

789

• To determine the types of IT

requirements based on different

customers to justify future IT budget

requests.

• State CIO should provide process training on IT

Strategic Planning to all relevant stakeholders to

ensure institutionalization and a thorough

understanding of the requirements.

o Institutionalization of IT Strategic Planning

will take time and effort to prepare and train all

levels of stakeholders. Such training needs to

reflect the latest contents and developments.

The frequency of training taken by the

workforce, end-of-training exam scores, and

training surveys could be captured for future

training content and delivery improvement

opportunities.

A limitation of this research was that both the

preliminary database search results and the final

search results revealed a scant number of literature

reviews and studies on the topic of interest. The

scarcity of literature may have impacted the quality

of this document analysis research. The number of

sources found on State CIOs may have been a

limitation of this research when publications were not

available to the public. The types of sources found

may have been a limitation to the research when non-

journal articles or dissertations were located from

literature review searches. The data collection

approach may have decreased generalizable findings,

as the data that need to be collected and reviewed

included other types of CIOs related documents from

various industries and government sectors. Thus,

qualitative research for future studies on this topic

should consider how to generalize involvement by

other types of CIOs and IT strategic planning. Finally,

this research may be limited to repeating to cover all

facets of State CIOs and IT strategic planning

implications.

The present work represents an extension of

previous work undertaken by the authors (Na & et al.,

2024). Future research is recommended for

researchers interested in the subject matter of the

State CIOs. Future researchers could use the findings

to conduct the Delphi Method with a selected number

of State CIOs. In further rounds of the Delphi Method,

all 50 State CIOs could receive an online survey

request. The Delphi Method is a rational approach to

research real-world practice by focusing on structured

communication analysis of individuals who could

provide subject matter expertise to meet the goal of a

consensus (Brady, 2015). This research method is

applicable when there is an existence of a group of

experts available for participation. The Delphi

Method has been applied in IT management related

research. It provides a means to improve the

efficiency and effectiveness of technology and

business management within private, public and

government sectors and to bring a group of experts

geographically dispersed together as a structured and

organized panel group to communicate for

suggestions and recommendations for improvement

opportunities (Skinner & et al., 2015).

7 CONCLUSIONS

The research findings contribute to reducing the gap

in the literature and body of knowledge that COAs are

for consideration for future State CIOs. Furthermore,

additional contributions to a gap in the literature in

this subject matter are essential for future researchers,

the State CIOs, and their stakeholders. State CIOs

could further explore how to integrate these COAs

into future IT strategic planning processes or how to

implement these action items to enable existing IT

strategic planning. As a leader, manager, and

practitioner of the position of State CIO, successful

planning, execution, management, and operation are

all vital to achieving vision, goals, and objectives.

Future research related to this topic could strengthen

the commitment to public service from current and

future state-level employees and a desire to achieve

capabilities and deliveries of IT services within the

organizational business and technological needs.

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