The county's technology stack carried years of technical debt, and demand for services kept climbing while budgets stayed flat. Staff had worked inside these systems for years and had taken their own runs at fixing things, but no one had context on what modern alternatives or approaches looked like outside the county's own walls. The presenting problem was outdated technology. The deeper one was a team with no way to tell which of a hundred competing priorities actually mattered.
Case Study
A department's tangled backlog became a roadmap it could actually follow.
A county government's IT team was drowning in a backlog built up over years of legacy habits and flat budgets. We helped them separate the work that had to get done from the work that would actually move them forward, and built a roadmap they could keep adjusting as priorities shifted.
Engagement at-a-glance
Industry:
Financial Services and Insurance
Organization size:
~ 3,100 employees
Services:
Enterprise Data Architecture
Technology Strategy & Portfolio Management
Technology Strategy & Portfolio Management
The Challenge
Most counties know their systems are aging. Few know what to fix first.
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Technical debt outpacing a flat budget
The department was being asked to deliver more services with the same or fewer resources every year, while legacy systems and aging infrastructure made that work harder rather than easier.
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No outside context on modern alternatives
Long-tenured staff had deep knowledge of how their own systems worked, but little visibility into what other organizations were doing differently or which approaches might actually solve the problem. Leadership, including the CTO, recognized the team needed a perspective from outside its own walls
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Legal deadlines with no roadmap to meet them
Specific pressures, including new legislation governing voting machine technology and systems reaching the end of their service life, were approaching with hard deadlines, but the county had no strategic roadmap for deciding what to prioritize or when.
Our Approach
Setting a direction far enough out to matter, and a plan close enough to act on.
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1
Interviewed departments across the entire county
A two-person team conducted group interviews with roughly 40 people across ten service areas, from GIS and network infrastructure to voting operations, legal, permitting, and jail management, before drawing any conclusions about what to prioritize.
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2
Set a multi-year direction paired with a quarterly plan
Rather than building a single long-range roadmap, the team set a longer-term direction alongside specific, actionable steps for the next one to two quarters, giving leadership something concrete to execute against immediately.
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3
Sorted the backlog into operational and strategic work
Every item competing for the department's attention was categorized as either necessary operational work or high-impact strategic work, giving leadership a clear basis for deciding what deserved real time and energy.
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4
Continued as an advisory partner to adjust the plan
After the initial assessment and executive readout, the engagement shifted into an ongoing advisory relationship, revisiting the plan each quarter as priorities and circumstances changed.
Value Delivered
A department that finally knows what to do next.
Split the backlog into what to run and what to fix
Every competing priority was sorted into operational work required to keep services running and strategic initiatives worth real investment, replacing an undifferentiated list with a clear basis for decisions.
Built a roadmap the team could adjust every quarter
A multi-year direction paired with quarterly action steps let leadership commit to something concrete without locking into a plan that couldn't flex as circumstances changed.
Left behind a framework the team could keep applying alone
The method for separating necessary operational work from real strategic investment wasn't a one-time list. It was a repeatable way of triaging whatever priorities came up next.
Validated that the problems staff had already flagged were real
For a team accustomed to raising concerns internally without traction, having an outside assessment confirm the technical debt and prioritization gaps were real, credible problems built the case needed to act on them.
Results that reflect the work behind them.
3 month
Full assessment engagement, from initial interviews to executive readout
40
People interviewed across county departments and service areas
10
Distinct service areas covered, from GIS and networking to voting operations and jail management
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Work With Us
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