Weekly Roundup: October 21-25, 2024

Acquisition

FDA’s Digital Transformation Mantra: Buy vs. Build. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is utilizing cloud technology on its path to digital transformation to help it follow its internal mantra of “Buy vs. Build,” according to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mohammed Sohail Chaudhry. Chaudhry shared why cloud plays such a critical role in FDA’s digital transformation journey, explaining that it creates “an environment of innovation…Digital transformation is all about business transformation for us,” Chaudhry said.

DoD CISO Considering Three Potential cATOs. DoD Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) David McKeown announced that the department is evaluating three potential candidates for continuous authority to operate (cATO) authorizations. McKeown explained that the department has yet to award cATOs authorization, but it has “three really good candidates in the pipeline.” cATOs are authorizations granted to systems or applications that operate within a specific DoD component, which allows a system to operate in a live environment while ensuring that it meets necessary security requirements.

IT Modernization

State Dept. INR CIO Keys on Modernization, Cyber for FY25.  Jimmy Hall, the chief information officer (CIO) at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) laid out his team’s priorities for fiscal year (FY) 2025 with modernization, cybersecurity, and IT expansion topping the list. Hall said that his three priorities as CIO go “hand in hand” with the bureau’s larger goals. Hall wears three hats within the State Department, serving as the CIO of the INR, the director of the INR’s Office of Technology and Innovation, and the intelligence CIO for the entire department. “In terms of CIO, I have three pillars that I’m after over the next year,” Hall said. “That’s modernizing our IT ecosystem – which goes hand in hand with what … the bureau’s goals are, especially when you look at it in terms of digital transformation.”

TMF Awards $50.2 Million to Upgrade CX at HUD, SSA.  The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) announced today its latest round of investments, totaling $50.2 million, aimed at modernizing critical customer experience services across two federal agencies. In this new round of investments, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will receive $19.8 million in TMF funding, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) will receive $30.4 million. HUD will use its TMF funding to implement a comprehensive Enterprise Identity, Credential, and Access Management (EICAM) solution. As for the Social Security Administration (SSA), it will receive $19.5 million to transition to a “more efficient, user-friendly service featuring electronic signature capabilities and a robust online document upload platform.”

Innovation

DoE Seeks AI/ML Innovations to Optimize Nuclear Accelerators, Detectors. The Department of Energy’s (DoE) Office of Science, under the Nuclear Physics (NP) program, is looking to award about $22 million for research and development (R&D) efforts focused on AI and machine learning (ML) solutions for nuclear accelerators and detectors. The agency said in its funding opportunity announcement that the AI/ML would enable the autonomous optimization and control of current and next-generation nuclear physics accelerator facilities and instruments. Additional AI/ML would help advance nuclear physics computations.  

Scaling Up Transformational Innovations. According to the authors, the only reliable path to maintaining market leadership is transformational innovation: major changes to products and services that redefine what customers expect by delivering significantly improved performance, providing new kinds of value, resolving long-standing trade-offs, and/or radically reducing manufacturing costs. In this article the authors present a playbook for scaling up transformational innovation, organized around four major challenges: providing sufficient leadership, building the right team, mobilizing resources and capabilities, and making big-bet decisions

Workforce

OPM Launches New Programs to Recruit Early Career Talent.  Two new talent programs announced this week by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will help federal agencies to better identify Federal interns and recent graduates, continuing the government’s efforts to recruit early career talent. The programs are a new feature on the USAJOBS’ Agency Talent Portal (ATP), which is a recruitment platform that assists agencies in reaching out to “promising individuals eager to advance their federal careers. The Pathways Intern Talent Program will support Pathway Interns who are eligible for permanent or term employment but cannot convert at their current agency. The Recent Graduates Talent Program connects recent graduates with other federal agencies.  

Leadership

When You’re Told You’re Not Strategic Enough. By making your strategy visible and easy to understand through storytelling, leveraging existing frameworks, and ensuring ongoing communication with stakeholders, you can shift perceptions, align your team with long-term goals, and be recognized for your strategic approach. Crises and day-to-day pressures should not get in the way of your strategic thinking; instead, use these moments to demonstrate your foresight and ability to connect immediate actions to the bigger picture. When the strategy is seen, understood, and actionable, success follows.

THIS WEEK @ THE CENTER 

RECENT BLOGS 

Pursuing IT and Digital Transformation at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) by Michael J. Keegan

Thriving in the Unknown: Navigating Disruption and Uncertainty with Terence Mauri by Michael J. Keegan

ICYMI – Leveraging the Upside of Disruption.This week Michael Keegan welcomed Terence Mauri to discuss his new book, The Upside of Disruption and how leaders can better handle this disruption, the skills and mindset they need, and how we discern the upside to disruption and see it as a strategic advantage.