John Kamensky

Chief Data Officers Want a Seat at the Table. Federal Times reports: “The Chief Data Officer is a new role for the few agencies that have one in place and many are still figuring out exactly what their purview should be. . . . Rather than report directly to the CIO, CDOs should be under the chief operating officer or agency head, CIOs Want to Focus on Mission. According to FedScoop, a panel of CIOs at a recent conference asked: "How can we get ourselves out of the IT business?". . . .

GovConnect is an initiative sponsored by the Office of Personnel Management that reflects broader trends in the workplace toward the use of project-based work.  It allows federal employees to share knowledge, collaborate, and apply their skills to address challenges that may be beyond their traditional job classification or organizational or geographic location.  Announced a year ago, it is currently being piloted within several agencies and is poised to be spread across the government in coming months.

DOD Nears Launch of Shared IT Services. According to Federal News Radio: “Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work signed a memo May 1 establishing the Joint IT Single Service Provider-Pentagon,” and that “the first phase of consolidation will affect about 63 organizations” in the next few weeks. Disaggregate Data to Make It Useful. Governing reporters, Richard Greene and Katherine Barrett, write: “An emphasis on disaggregating information has been growing in importance as states and cities tap into huge quantities of information for more sophisticated analyses.

Drawing on nearly five decades of research and experience in both government and the private sector, Dr. Maccoby has developed several key insights on the aspects of leadership needed to transform knowledge-service bureaucracies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, into collaborative learning organizations.

Using “lightening round” presentations, nearly a dozen presenters shared their stories. Andy Feldman from the Department of Education, who coordinated the event, noted that the goal wasn’t innovation for innovation’s sake, but rather to use innovation as a tool to tackle mission-related performance challenges: “We’re here to focus innovation on our agencies’ biggest challenges and opportunities.” Delegated Deputy Secretary of Education John King also welcomed attendees, urging them to put ideas into action.

Customer Service. Federal News Radio interviewed GSA’s Martha Dorris about progress on the Administration’s goal to improve customer experience with government services. She says GSA is developing a digital “Voice of the Customer” toolkit for agencies that include a range of electronic approaches, such as the pilot “Feedback USA” button for instant feedback, and digital analytics to assess 4,000 federal websites. The Shrinking Millennials. According to Federal News Radio, :Federal agencies are finding it increasingly more difficult to recruit and retain younger employees. . .

Developing Common Success Metrics for VA-DOD Health Records. According to FedScoop: “The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon need to better track their efforts to share health information, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.” GAO says the two departments have developed guidance to move toward standardization, but have yet to develop metrics to track whether progress is being made. Useful: FCC RoboCall App. According to FedScoop, the Federal Trade Commission sponsored a contest to find the best way of blocking robocalls.

Former federal budget officer Doug Criscitello participated on a panel on budget reform recently, in a room packed with concerned finance professionals. He noted: “It is clear the key practitioners in the field are desperate for improvements in a process that has not only failed taxpayers in recent years but has also hindered the ability of government finance professionals to plan and execute the financial management programs of their agencies in a responsible way.” It may take years before such reforms are possible, but what happens in the meanwhile?

John Kamensky IT Acquisition Gets “Killer Apps.” According to Federal News Radio, GSA has posted several “killer apps” that acquisition officers can use to speed IT-related purchases “An automated contract finder and cost calculator are just two of the tools GSA leadership touted as reasons why the government acquisition community should explore the online portal and provide feedback, said Laura Stanton, acting assistant commissioner for GSA’s Office of Strategy Management.” Predicting the Unpredictable.

A cross-agency initiative to Benchmark and Improve Mission-Support Operations has been underway since early 2013 when it was announced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Today, the preliminary results of the effort are being used to inform discussions between agencies and OMB in their first-ever “FedStat” meetings on how well are agencies managing their administrative functions and ultimately delivering on strategic objectives.