Spend enough time around personnel from tech-in-government organizations like 18F and the U.S. Digital Service, and you’ll hear them say something like this: Their teams save the taxpayers money not just by building things, but also by being in the room during large-scale tech acquisitions and knowing the right questions to ask or how to call a salesman’s bluff.
It’s a simple value proposition, leaders say, but a powerful one.
According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the federal acquisitions workforce writ large needs more of that expertise.
Asked to survey how the acquisition landscape has changed in the past decade, GAO found various improvements in the form of workforce planning and training. But ultimately, it decided, “finding workers with the technical knowledge for complex IT purchases is still difficult.”
Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/federal-agencies-tech-expertise-acquisition-gao-report/
While Cyber Command possesses limited acquisition authority, this capability is nascent meaning the individual services still are charged with equipping their cyber forces based upon minimum operating capabilities operating capabilities Cyber Command’s Capabilities Development Group outlines.
Created in 2012, 
The General Services Administration’s director of the Office of IT 70 Schedule Contract Operations not only rejects the risk averse culture of the government, but he isn’t afraid to take on bigger challenges.
Its acquisition system is designed to develop and purchase large, expensive weapons systems while holding to the tenets of competition, transparency and integrity. That means it can’t keep up with cybersecurity defense.
