In the past few years the public sector has witnessed some of the most spectacular information systems (IS) outsourcing failures. Publicofficials have come under fire for sloppy management of IS outsourcing engagements. Citizens are demanding legislation to control outsourcingpractice and more accountability from public sector managers. In an effort to better understand the context of IS outsourcing management in thepublic sector, we analyze the IS outsourcing guidelines of three public jurisdictions: Alberta, Canada; Queensland, Australia, and Texas, USA. These guidelines offer insights into how some public organizations approach managing the risks inherent in the practice of IS outsourcing. In this paper we review the research literature on IS outsourcing to develop a risk framework and use it to analyze the guidelines. We use a contentanalysis methodology to identify the IS outsourcing risk factors and management mitigation strategies addressed by the guidelines. Our findings indicate that IS outsourcing risk factors are widely acknowledged in the literature but are not fully addressed in the IS outsourcing guidelines thatpublic sector managers use for decision making and the management of IS outsourcing engagements. Our findings point to the need for betterguidelines and more support for public sector managers who must make costly IS outsourcing decisions.