Archives
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
Categories
- Congress
- Defense
- General News
- Health
- Health IT
- Homeland Security
- IBM suspension
- Industry
- Info Security
- Intelligence
- International
- IT management
- Law
- OMB
- Oversight
- Policy
- Politics
- Privacy
- Procurement
- Program Management
- Project management
- Risk management
- Security
- Spending
- State and Local
- Technology
- Telecommunications
- Tip Thursday
- Virtual World
- Web
- White House
- Wireless
- Workplace
What's happening in the federal IT community
By Friday, May 16, 2008 | 2:03 PM
Does government have the highly trained and talented top-level executives critical in promoting innovative ideas and growth through the use of information technology?
"The answer is 'No,'" writes Tom Hughes, chief information officer for the Social Security Administration, for a government management journal.
Hughes' blunt assessment appears in the upcoming spring issue of The Public Manager journal. Hughes' article, "The Courage to Change When Challenged," is one of four articles in the journal written under the purview of "PMA 44" (the President's Management Agenda for the 44th president, as in the next administration, a seminar series organized by Cisco's Business Solutions Group under the leadership of Alan Balutis, who also is a blogger for Tech Insider.) The other three articles cover human resources, acquisition and execution.
To improve government through the use of IT, Hughes recommends reinvigorating the bureaucracy by hiring younger leaders in the Senior Executive Service and hiring more private-sector managers in agencies' upper leadership ranks. He also suggests instilling in top leadership positions the understanding of how to use IT strategically to meet agency goals. One way, Hughes writes, would be to ask large companies to loan top executives to agencies to instill these changes.
Third, Hughes argues the government must invest in new technologies to remain competitive and to improve government services, such as spending more on high-speed broadband communications. (The United States has fallen from fourth in the world in broadband penetration to 24th, right behind Estonia.) Such an investment would provide new services to the public, including educational and recreational opportunities, and providing medical care to underserved populations.
You can read more about what the next administration should do to improve government management when the Public Manager is available in a few weeks.
Comments
Hireing managers is not the solution, the solution comes from hiring individuals that can think outside the box. Managers today are not hired because of what they know, but who they know. It comes down to the basic statement of "Dont rock the boat". Managers are trustworthy individuals who have a primary goal of meeting a deadline and all bets are off, as they know that as Federal Employee they will not be prosecuted for failure, rather they will be rewarded. These so called departmental grades are greatly inflated to the point of being absurd. Here you have managers writing their own report card and then having GSA grade this report. There are alot of bull..... being placed in these reports. What happened to an independent evaluation. Managers seem to have forgotten that it does not matter whether you pass or fail a NIST or DOD IA Control as it the responsibility of the Designated Approving Authority to authorize a system to operate. Now we see the IT field being bombarded with the requirement that they must have a CERT over experience. What happened to the MSCE cert years ago? The people that pass these exams are great bookworms and able to follow a pattern, but like the movie "Ants" if something gets in fron of them they are lost to the world.
Robert Edwards | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | 7:07 AMLack of IT management and leadership is not alien to state and local government either. Having a vision and being able to implement it requires an individual more interested in completing a task/mission than being "self serving" like so many "leaders" in todays world. Knowing the capabilities of technology and how and when to implement requires a risk taker with the maturity to understand failure is sometimes a sucess as a lesson learned. Being an agent of change is not one of the requirements for attaining a leadership position in SES or elsewhere in the federal, state and local governements. However, the ability to recognize a visionary and reward them in government is just a "vision" too
Tom S | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 9:27 AMAmen to Techie and Timothy. I've worked with people with solid IT capabilities who were placed in positions of authority. Often, upper management disregarded guidance from the experts, regardless of overarching regulation requirements. The only times the IT folks were paid any attention was when management was about to be or already in trouble for failing to follow guidelines.
We don't necessarily need younger folks up top. We do need to change attitudes that young guys and gals don't know what they're talking about.
Jack | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 8:19 AMThere are plenty senior (non-SES) staff in the government with great ideas and current on technology who are not given a chance to move around and up. Hiring from the private-sector is not necessarily the answer. As a manager I would pick O-J-T any day over multiple training courses and certifications. I agree we need new blood but at entry level. No one wants to start at the bottom anymore.
Agencies are short of money in IT. That is what is holding them back more than anything else.
Karen L | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 8:01 AMTechie:
Getting advanced degrees is great and I think we need to promote that within the government ranks. The next step is to take action on what was learned while getting the degrees. Put the knowledge into practice or those diplomas aren't worth much more than the paper they are printed on. It can be done from the "tech" ranks too, that's what will make you stand out from all the other techs when promotion opportunities surface.
Juanito | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 6:43 AMHiring "younger" folks for a "senior" serivce sounds like the tail wagging the dog. This is a bad idea whose time should never come. No one can deny that high tech capability changes quickly. Seniors understand that but, unlike younger folk, seniors have the seasoning to understand "what" to do, "when" to do it, even "if" to do it, and then could learn from the younger folk the "how" to do it. Oh and guess what, concurrently the younger folk learn the what, when, and if which eventually makes them "senior." That's how our government has worked for 200+ years now. I see no reason to change it now.
Bob Z | Monday, May 19, 2008 | 1:37 PMAs long as they (the hiring managers) consider ALL groups when hiring new leaders. There are quite a few very knowledgable employees in Government Service right now that may just need management experience.
Think outside the box; but don't forget about the box.
Rick | Monday, May 19, 2008 | 11:16 AMAfter 15 years in the medical research field with the Federal Gov't I went back to school to earn a dual MS Technology Management / MBA degree. Did leadership recognize my efforts or even ask if I had any ideas how our agency might better utilize technology to improve efficiency? NO! They sit in their castle and do whatever, which by the way does not involve technology or anything to do with increasing efficiency.
As an employee I'm looking to find a new home. As a tax payer I'm mad that my tax dollars are not being better utilized!
Techie | Monday, May 19, 2008 | 11:02 AMI have been preaching the above for years, but to no avail.
Timothy
Timothy Whitmore-Wolf | Monday, May 19, 2008 | 10:17 AM