I’ve worked in a number of govt departments, and dealt with them on a business level as well. The real problem is their motivations and business relationships are all wrong. There is ‘risk’ involved in doing something different, and most government departments seem to be so risk adverse as to be almost unable to even consider something new. There are great people in those IT departments, but until the risk adverse culture begins to change, and the understanding that ‘the same thing we’ve always done’ is much riskier than ‘a small innovation’ permeates the culture, we’re stuck with $117million projects. Status quo all around. Very frustrating for any of the small, agile IT vendors who are perfectly capable of dealing with government projects. Its back to the IT service monoliths to soak up our cash and fire it overseas.