Adaptive IT Architecture as a Catalyst for Network Capability in Government

Public institutions that are organized in hierarchies find it difficult to address crisis or other unique requirements that demand networked solutions. This chapter first provides a prescriptive transaction-based method for achieving such networking organizations with information technologies (IT) and then discusses how the organization becomes more effective in non-routine responses to citizen requests. We illustrate how the prescriptive transaction-based enterprise architecture1 framework2 was used for decision-making in a multi-year interdisciplinary industry-university collaboration resulting in a successful 311 system. IntroductIon Public institutions are organized in hierarchies making it challenging for them to address nonroutine problems that demand networked solutions. This chapter first provides a prescriptive method for achieving such networking organizations with information technologies (IT) and then discusses how the resulting capabilities may be used for crisis-management. We illustrate how the underlying transaction-based enterprise architecture3framework4 was used for decision-making in a multi-year interdisciplinary industry-university collaboration5 with the City of Columbus, Ohio which has implemented a successful 3116 system. The collaboration reported here is based on two DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-068-4.ch007