How Political Appointees Undermine Large IT Programs -- and How to Turn the Tide

I recently participated in a discussion about why so many large government IT projects fail. One point that came up was instability in executive sponsorship. A political appointee makes a project a priority and gets it started, but by the time project implementation is in full swing, that appointee is gone and the new one has no interest in projects the predecessor promoted. The result is a loss of executive leadership and momentum.