\section{Introduction}

E-government projects differ from others due to their complexity and extension
\cite{anthopoulos2016egovernment}. They are complex because they combine
development, innovation, information \& communications technologies, politics,
and social impact. They are extensive, on the other hand, regarding their
scope, target audience, organizational size, time, and the corresponding
resistance to change. Developing an innovative e-government project that meets
the needs of society is a issue that may be addressed alternatively through
collaborative projects between government and academia. However, this
collaborative work has challenges, such as organizing the collaboration
project, aligning goals, synchronizing the pace of between government and
academia, and overcoming the failure trend of e-government projects
\cite{goldfinch2007pessimism}.

One of the leading causes of e-government project failure is poor project
management \cite{anthopoulos2016egovernment}. In this sense, the proper
management of the collaboration project should be a relevant concern when
government and academia combine efforts to develop an e-government solution.
Academia commonly works on cutting-edge development methodologies while the
government still relies on traditional techniques. Changing the development
process of one of this large-size institutions represents an organizational
disturbance with impacts on structure, culture, and management practices
\cite{nerur2015challenges}. As a result, government and academia have to
harmonize their view to increasing the chances of success in projects with
tight deadlines and short budgets.

We have investigated the adoption of recommended community standards from
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) and agile values as a strategy to
harmonize different management approaches, due to the plurality of FLOSS
ecosystems and the diversity favored by agile methodologies. Open
communication, project modularity, the community of users, and fast response to
problems are just a few of the FLOSS ecosystem practices \cite{capiluppi,
warsta}.  Individuals and interactions, working software, customer
collaboration, responding to change are the values agile
development~\cite{beck}. With this in mind, FLOSS and agile practices may
improve the cooperation of distinct teams.

In this work, we examine the empirical method developed during 30 months
of a government-academia project that helped to harmonize the differences
between both organization management cultures. We discuss both quantitative
and qualitative analyses of the benefits of FLOSS and agile practices in an
e-government project. We identify and trace the best practices based on
FLOSS ecosystems and agile methodology. We collect and analyze data from the
project repository. Finally, we conduct a survey target at projects
participants to find their perception around the set of best practices, and
which of them are useful to government-academia collaboration. In doing so, we
aim to help academia better understand critical issues they will be confronted
with when engaging in a government-academia software project.