TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

However, the Bush administration has resisted this approach for years. Notably, the draft of the memo that was circulated has a clause which explicitly stated that no one besides the agency head had authority over the CIO. Such a clause would have prevented the structure found in agencies such as the Interior and Health and Human Services departments, both of which require their CIOs to report to the chief financial officer. However, the final version of the memo contained no such clause.

The result was guidance that has been deemed weak by some, while others have suggested it actually reduces the CIO to merely an advisor or "Tech-Guy-in-Chief". As one former federal CIO who asked not to be named put it, "The way [the memo] reads to me now, the agency head is the boss and the agency CIO is a counselor, an adviser, not a clear decision-maker, leader. To me, this will not deliver the promise of IT to agency modernization and operational effectiveness."

To what can we attribute this vast difference in understanding of the role of the CIO? Well my colleague Jill Aitoro wrote an excellent feature story in the March issue of Government Executive which lays out the four types of CIOs typically found in large organizations. I highly suggest you read the entire article, but in short, Evans appears to be the third type of CIO, what is called the "counselor". From the article:

The third type [of CIO], "the counselor," is plugged in to the agency's program needs and priorities and is able to reach out to the executives in charge of mission-oriented work. But other forces, such as understaffing, low funding, disengaged management or political battles, prevent the counselor's IT department from delivering because he or she isn't frequently consulted in developing the requirements for a project and aligning those requirements with the agency's mission. As a result, projects experience long delays, go over budget or fail to get off the ground.

If this sounds a lot like your agency's CIO, it's probably because this is the direction that OMB has been pushing the federal government for years, according to the CIOs I've spoken to. While the role of counselor may be an improvement over the past, the next administration would be wise to try and find CIOs that are called value seekers to fill those positions that will open up soon:

The last category of CIO is what McClure calls the "value seeker." This CIO, which is rare in government, is transformational and strategic, a communicator and collaborator, and successful at delivering outcomes. The value seeker has a seat at the table along with the mission-oriented officials and maintains co-ownership of programs from conceptualization to execution.