CIO | The Contracting Education Academy

September 27, 2019 By cs

Rethinking acquisition with the end user in mind

The U.S. Digital Service tries to take the temperature of acquisition culture as part of an agency’s journey toward digital transformation.

Originally designed for contract specialists and officers in the CIO Council, the Digital Service Maturity Determination tool is used to score various workplaces on how well they meet certain metrics when undergoing acquisition activities. USDS Digital Services Procurement Expert Florence Kasule explained at a Sept. 11 FCW event that the tool is designed to evaluate transparency, culture of delivery and focus on the user.

“You want and you need to understand what is that team that you’re going to be working with,” said Kasule. “Does that team track and measure feedback openly and honestly, are there intensive and frequent communications with the customer and/or end users of the system? So, when you go through [an] attribute, you’re trying to assess whether that group has all of those practices adopted into the organizational culture or not.”

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/09/24/usds-maturity-determination-russell.aspx

June 20, 2019 By AMK

Government innovation? Weirdness comes in threes

How often have you heard that the government is stodgy and resistant to change? Large bureaucracies, both in business and government, do trend that way. But three curious initiatives from federal agencies occurred in the days leading to the long Memorial Day weekend.

Unrelated, they nevertheless connect thematically by showing an instinct towards government innovation, that is, a government willing to try something different.

First was the appointment of Jose Arrietta as the chief information officer of the Department of Health and Human Services. I’ve interviewed Arrietta a couple of times. He’s a smart cookie. He’s possesses good technology chops, having been one of the people trying to prove how blockchain can work in federal settings. In his relatively short time at HHS, Arrietta saw to it that the first blockchain application received authority to operate. That in itself is radical.

But as Jason Miller reported, Arrietta is an unconventional choice to lead an IT complex as vast and diverse as that of HHS. It’s government innovation in personnel. He’s mainly an acquisition guy, and acquisition is an important part of technology and information management. The blockchain application is in fact acquisition. Now Arrietta will have to show he can widen his viewpoint and make things happen in all areas overseen by a CIO.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2019/05/government-innovation-weirdness-comes-in-threes/

May 8, 2017 By AMK

Pentagon’s top techie needs purchasing power of closest allies

Terry Halvorsen, who served as the Pentagon’s top tech official for two and a half years before leaving in February, is calling on Congress to imbue his old role with more authorities to pursue emerging technologies.

Speaking before a House Armed Services subcommittee, Halvorsen lamented that he could not pursue even small investments in promising technologies because of outdated acquisition policies during his tenure at the Defense Department’s tech chief, despite overseeing a nearly $40 billion budget. Halvorsen is now an executive at Samsung.

“There is only one nation that doesn’t have this authority in the Five Eyes and that would be us,” Halvorsen said, referencing the intelligence alliance between the U.S. and New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2017/04/pentagons-top-techie-needs-purchasing-power-closest-allies-former-dod-cio-says/137384/

The U.S. Digital Service tries to take the temperature of acquisition culture as part of an agency’s journey toward digital transformation.

How often have you heard that the government is stodgy and resistant to change? Large bureaucracies, both in business and government, do trend that way. But three curious initiatives from federal agencies occurred in the days leading to the long Memorial Day weekend.

Terry Halvorsen, who served as the Pentagon’s top tech official for two and a half years before leaving in February, is calling on Congress to imbue his old role with more authorities to pursue emerging technologies.

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