Small IT shops can assess and manage the skills and proficiencies of their staff "by feel" — large IT organizations must have a framework and process to do this. The New York State CIO Council provides an example of best practices for skills assessment in a complicated environment: decentralized and dispersed organizationally, unionized, and large. Because it undertook the effort to develop a baseline understanding of the skills availability and forecasted need, it is well positioned to drive more successful HR and training policies.