Plano, Texas’ Playbook for Permitting Modernization

Large-scale permitting modernization is one of the most complex and resource-intensive projects a city can take on. And as the City of Plano, Texas, knows firsthand, it's also one of the most difficult to get right.

When the city's previous permitting system was implemented without meaningful business involvement, it didn't reflect how departments actually worked, fell years behind on patches, and eventually required a full replacement.

So when it came time to find a replacement system, they knew exactly what to look for.

Every vendor faced the same test during the demo: set up a fee schedule and show how a city administrator would change it, then walk through modifying a permit status and where that happens in the system. Vendors who needed to get into code to make those changes didn't pass the test for true configurability.

It sounds like a small ask, but it reflected a hard-won lesson from CIO Roger Wright: a system your team can't own and adapt after implementation isn't really a solution. The most important question wasn't whether the new system could do the job — it was whether city staff could maintain and update it themselves.

That mindset, paired with a disciplined approach to governance, change management, and vendor partnership, is what's kept the city's complex, multi-phase implementation of Clariti Enterprise on track. Here's what Plano got right, and how your city can apply the same playbook.

Ask what people want to accomplish, not what they do today

Many cities make the mistake of simply configuring their existing permitting processes into a new system. The result is a platform that may be marginally faster, but still has all the same bottlenecks.

Plano took a different approach. Before writing a single requirement, they asked each department what they wished they could do but couldn't with the current system. What outcomes were they trying to reach? Where did the current process make that harder than it needed to be?

"What are your pain points? What are the outcomes? What do you wish you could do that you can't do today? We started from there — we didn't even ask them what they do today."
- Roger Wright, CIO, City of Plano

That starting point shaped what Plano was ultimately trying to build. Their goal wasn't to modernize six separate department systems. It was something more unified and ambitious.

That meant consolidating six departments into a single development process — one where residents and contractors could manage planning workflows, submit permit applications, track inspections, and pay fees without ever needing to call or come in. It also meant giving staff a shared system that reduced errors, simplified recordkeeping, and enabled data-driven decisions about where to improve.

During vendor demos, Plano skipped past the scripted portions and went straight to the administration screens. What they saw there determined who made the shortlist.

Clariti stood out not just because the solution could do what Plano needed. Most vendors could demonstrate capability. The difference was what happened when Plano asked them to show where those things were configured.

"A lot of vendors came in and passed the test to show us they could do it. But when we said, 'Now, show us where that's configured,' they started getting into code."
- Roger Wright, CIO, City of Plano

Clariti's fee schedules, permit statuses, and workflow configurations were all manageable by city staff without digging into code or going back to vendor engineers every time something changed. Just as importantly, the platform came with a foundation of built-in best practices, which Roger saw as a critical distinction from more open-ended platforms that offer high configurability but require starting from scratch.

"We wanted something that had a base product — best practices already in place — that was highly configurable. When you overpersonalize, you often fall back into doing what you know, which is what you do today."
- Roger Wright, CIO, City of Plano

Build governance before you need it

At some point in every large permitting software implementation, there are moments where scope, budget, or timelines come under pressure. How quickly those moments are resolved depends almost entirely on whether the governance structure was in place before they came up.

Central to Plano's approach is a business-first philosophy. Technology's role, as Roger Wright sees it, is to enable the business, not to drive it. That means business leaders aren't brought in at the end to validate what technology has built. They're at the table from day one, shaping requirements, making decisions, and owning outcomes.

Plano had the governance structure to support this established before phase one began, with clear decision-making authority at every level:

• Core team leads handle day-to-day decisions.
• Business and technology owners handle anything that needs more authority.
• A steering committee has final approval over any change to scope, cost, or timeline.
• An independent project manager serves as the objective coordinator for all of it.

"The project manager coordinates across everything and has independent accountability to call balls and strikes. Above that is a steering committee — if there's going to be a scope change, a price change, or a timeline change, they have to approve it."
- Roger Wright, CIO, City of Plano

The other critical piece is the alignment between business and technology leadership. On a multi-year implementation of this complexity, this can't be set up during kickoff and then assumed to hold. Roger and Curtis Howard, who leads Plano's Neighborhood Services and has driven much of the project's business-side momentum, have treated it as something to actively maintain throughout.

"It is the oil of the grease of the city. Relationships are key to everything we do."
- Curtis Howard, Director of Neighborhood Services, City of Plano

That same directness extends to the vendor relationship. Plano treats Clariti as a partner rather than a contractor to manage at arm's length, which means honest conversations when things aren't working and a shared structure where both sides can raise and resolve problems.

"We can certainly be very direct and honest in our conversations about what's going well and what's not going well. I think that relationship is key to how far we've gotten."
- Curtis Howard, Director of Neighborhood Services, City of Plano

Actively manage the human side of change

For Plano, change management isn't a box to check during go-live preparation. It's an ongoing practice led by Curtis Howard, Director of Neighborhood Services, who treats it as foundational to the project's momentum. Keeping people engaged, informed, and motivated over a multi-year project takes real, consistent effort — and it starts well before go-live.

The approach centers on three things:

• Consistent communication — making sure staff understand what the project is, why it's happening, and what it means for their day-to-day work. A project newsletter keeps everyone informed between sprints.
• Celebrating wins — visibly and often, including the small ones.
• Recognizing the people carrying the load — teams in active sprints are doing their day jobs and supporting implementation at the same time. Keeping them motivated and visible matters.

"We do a lot with celebration of success, words of encouragement, kindness as we go through — and we really try to celebrate those team members. Keep people constantly informed and up to date, celebrating the small wins, keeping things on track."
- Curtis Howard, Director of Neighborhood Services, City of Plano

Keep every department in the room, even the ones not yet in scope

On a multi-phase project, it's tempting to focus change management and communication on the departments going live first and let the others wait their turn. This is one of the most common and costly mistakes in large permitting software implementations.

By the time a later-phase department's sprint arrives, re-engaging a team that's been out of the loop for a year or more is a significant lift, and it almost always costs the project time it doesn't have. The risk Roger Wright identifies is straightforward: people in phase one need to stay engaged all the way through phase four, and people in phase four need to know it's still coming so they don't drift.

Keeping all departments in regular communication from the start isn't just good project management — it's essential risk management, too.

Where to start with modernizing your permitting system

If your city is planning or undertaking a permitting system implementation, take a page from Plano's experience. Getting these six things right before starting can mean the difference between a successful implementation and starting over:

• Ask the right question first. Before writing a single requirement, ask every department what they wish they could do that they can't today. Use those answers to drive implementation.
• Build your governance structure before you need it. Decide early who handles day-to-day decisions, who escalates issues, and who signs off on changes to scope, cost, or timeline. An independent project manager who can call things objectively is worth the investment.
• Put business in the lead. Technology's role is to enable the business, not drive it. Business leaders should be shaping requirements and owning outcomes from day one, and the alignment between business and technology leadership needs to be actively maintained throughout.
• Manage the human side actively — not just at go-live. Communicate consistently, celebrate wins, and recognize the people carrying the heaviest implementation load.
• Don't let later-phase departments drift. Set communication habits early and keep them. It's far harder to re-engage a team that's checked out than to keep them in the loop from the start.
• Choose a platform your team can own. Look for configurable government permitting software that allows staff to manage the system in-house without having to go back to the vendor every time something needs to change.

When Plano goes live with Clariti Enterprise, six departments will share a single permit platform, and residents will have one predictable place to go, no matter where they are in the development process. That outcome didn't start with the software. It started with getting the groundwork right before the implementation began.

If you're earlier in the process and still evaluating your options, our Permitting Software Buyer's Guide is a good place to start.