Weekly Roundup: August 19-23, 2024

GAO: DoD IT Systems Slowly Progress, Better Planning Still Needed. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has given the Department of Defense (DoD) a mixed report card on its IT systems: while there’s been a bit of progress in performance reporting and development planning, the DoD still has a long way to go. The federal watchdog re-examined nearly $9 billion allocated to 25 IT programs within the DoD for fiscal years 2021 through 2023, in addition to $31 billion for over 720 standard IT infrastructure investments. The GAO’s revised report, released on Aug. 22, shows that while the Pentagon has made some progress since then, there is still substantial work needed.

Information Advantage Challenge ‘Hard but Solvable’. A top Army cybersecurity official emphasized that the U.S. needs the ability to make better decisions at a faster rate in order to gain information advantage over adversaries like China. Brig. Gen. Mark Miles – who most recently served two years as the J6 and chief information officer at USINDOPACOM before being reassigned as the deputy commanding general at the Army Cyber Center of Excellence this month – offered examples of where the military can leverage industry to improve in contested logistics and cybersecurity.“At the service level, the contested logistics is something we can execute today. If you’re looking at a theater capability from a joint level, it’s an area we need to work on.”

Virtualization, Containerization, and a Pathway to Modernization. As the U.S. government advances to a war-fighting posture that increasingly integrates emerging technologies, the Department of Defense (DoD) is modernizing computing infrastructure to support new capabilities. At the same time, virtualized, mission-critical applications must run uninterrupted. In a recent interview, Travis Steele, chief architect at Red Hat, discussed best practices for virtualization today, how virtualization and containers can coexist, and how a common platform for both creates a pathway to modernization.

Federal CISO, CDO Councils to Unveil Data Security Framework in Coming Weeks. The Federal Chief Information Security Officer Council (CISO) and Chief Data Officer (CDO) Council are poised to unveil a new data security framework in the coming weeks with the aim of improving data protection across government agencies. This collaborative effort will center on a zero trust approach to data security, and to redefine how sensitive information is safeguarded. Both councils are aligning their expertise to address evolving threats and establish security protocols.

MITRE Offers Advice to Incoming Administration on US Tech Leadership. MITRE Corp. – which operates Federally funded R&D centers focused on scientific and technology issues – published a new report on Wednesday that offers recommendations to the incoming administration on how to maintain U.S. science and technology (S&T) leadership and promote international collaboration over the next four years and beyond.

Federal CIO: FedRAMP Changes Feeding Top-Line Tech Goals. Federal CIO Clare Martorana emphasized today that recent and ongoing changes to the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) are central to making progress on some of the Biden administration’s top government technology goals

Innovation in Supply Chain: Managing Risk with Advanced Technology. The federal government is facing challenges to its logistics missions, from growing threats to global disruptions that show little sign of letting up. Recently, new disruptions have threatened global supply chains, driven by world events including slowed supply chains at the crucial Panama Canal and Suez Canal. For federal agencies, supply chain hurdles include everything from transportation delays and port congestion to shipping slowdowns stemming from geopolitical tensions.

CHCO Council’s new leader aims to move the needle on ‘evergreen’ federal workforce issues. Agencies just received new expectations for reforming their federal hiring processes to meet the varying needs of job applicants, hiring managers and HR staff in the federal workforce. From a practical standpoint, implementing the new guidance from the Biden administration will involve work from human capital leaders and HR employees to more deeply incorporate already promising practices in federal recruitment. But Colleen Heller-Stein, the new executive director of the CHCO Council, said they’re not on their own.  

Tom Brady on the Art of Leading Teammates. When our society talks about leaders, we focus on formal roles, such as the CEO. This view undervalues the role of informal leaders—team members who influence outcomes by the tone they set, how they conduct themselves, and how they interact with their peers. Their job title doesn’t include the word “manager,” but they play an outsize role in how teams perform.  In this article, NFL great Tom Brady and Nitin Nohria, of Harvard Business School, present a set of principles that people in any realm can apply to help teams successfully work together toward common goals.

4 reasons why leaders must cultivate self-awareness. Self-awareness of how your past experiences have shaped your values, being honest with yourself about old patterns and biases and working on your weaknesses can make you the kind of leader that others trust to make good decisions, writes LaRae Quy. "Since self-awareness makes it possible for leaders to understand the impact of their actions on others, it also helps them develop a natural compass for guiding their decisions," Quy writes.

THIS WEEK @ THE CENTER 

ICYMI–Exploring the Digital Strategy for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This week Michael Keegan welcomed Andrea Fletcher, Chief Digital Strategy Officer and Director of the Digital Service at CMS to discuss the digital strategy for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. How CMS uses Open Source software across the its enterprise, and what the future holds for digital transformation at CMS.