Executive Summary
In 2025, Tennessee’s State CIO office, through Strategic Technology Solutions (STS), launched Focus
Forward to prepare the state’s technology organization for a more modern, resilient, and
strategically aligned operating model. The initiative recognizes that rising demand for secure
digital services, cloud capability, data-informed decisions, artificial intelligence readiness, and
consistent agency service delivery cannot be met through legacy workforce practices or isolated
process improvements alone.
The foundation of Focus Forward is complete. STS conducted the Focus Forward: Organizational &
Talent Evaluation, a comprehensive review of the organization’s structure, skills, governance, ways
of working, and talent resiliency. The evaluation included leadership interviews, operational
artifact review, workforce input, peer-state benchmarking, and technical skills assessment data. It
produced a clear enterprise message: STS has the foundation and willingness to modernize, but needs
clearer enterprise direction, stronger governance, modern delivery practices, role clarity, and a
deliberate workforce strategy focused on skills, succession, and talent pipelines.
STS has already moved from evaluation to action. Findings from the evaluation informed targeted
workforce training, including business analysis courses on functional and non-functional
requirements, brainstorming techniques, and modeling techniques for business analysis. These
courses are examples of how the state CIO office is turning assessment data into practical
upskilling aligned to modernization needs.
Focus Forward also establishes the starting point for Tennessee’s journey from project-based
delivery toward product-oriented service management. That journey begins now, with training, role
exploration, and planned pilot agencies that will help test product-oriented delivery, governance,
role definitions, and agency engagement before broader scale. The submission intentionally frames
this as an ongoing, structured transformation rather than the fully implemented product model
future-state.
Focus Forward demonstrates state CIO office leadership because it goes beyond technology
implementation. It addresses the workforce, governance, structure, roles, and delivery model
required to deliver reliable, secure, responsive, and
mission-aligned technology services across Tennessee state government.
