Comment from email: Report to the President on Federal IT Modernization- Request for Comment

This report you issued is a comprehensive approach and touches on many of the levers to make progress. I have a key observation to share to guide implementation and suggest be considered for inclusion in the plan.

First I need to give a summary context of my background which leads to the observation. I have spent 35+ years in commercial and federal contracting working on client’s major programs. My career spanned the two functional areas of IT contracting; products companies and services companies. Those are widely different business operating models and both have an impact on agency modernization and transition.

Observation:

The excerpt below from your plan highlights some of the challenges to moving forward. The area not addressed by the report is how to manage these efforts. A different strategy needs to be deployed in managing the intricacies involved in working with many parties (government and contractor) tied into critical systems modernization. These systems tend to be the higher cost and mission focused. The ROI is high but also the risk factor is high to ensure the modernizations are transitioned with controlled risk. The risk elements for one mission system have to take into account the many affected departments within an agency as well as the current contractor incumbents and the projected new contractor organizations such as cloud providers. One of those entities can initiate an action that they feel is in the best interests of the contract and the agency program. However that well-intentioned action can and will easily disrupt the complex web of details that must come together in a seamless manner to ensure mission needs are continued without interruption.

Having been involved in key programs for many decades, I recommend a management program is instituted for enhanced training to deploy “Critical Path Facilitators” within agencies. These facilitators could be stationed in a central office for deployment. This position addresses the long standing challenge within government for achieving sustained performance on critical programs. Unless some change is made to enhance program management process, the ATC initiative may struggle with implementation speed for similar reasons. Being certified as a PMP does not mean someone can perform as a Critical Path Facilitator. The Critical Path Facilitator role recognizes the nature of government contracting overly simplifies the performance equation into two variables; the government and the prime contractor. In fact there are multiple departments within an agency and within the contractor organizations that impact the unified mission.

I have written more on the implementation of this position and role if you are interested.

Excerpt

In order to achieve the desired future state, the Government must address the current

impediments in policy, resource allocation, and disparate agency interpretations of statutes and

guidance, in addition to other considerations that are obstacles to agencies’ adopting shared and

cloud services. The Government should work with cloud infrastructure providers to obtain

systems that offer world-class levels of functionality, cost-effectiveness, and security based on

the providers’ abilities to aggregate demand across a broad range of customers. Rather than

relying on often outdated and agency-specific systems, the Federal Government could leverage

these providers’ expertise to both save taxpayer dollars and increase effectiveness and security.

Terry

Pursuit Solutions, LLC