Fed Gov Today

The Air Force will apply data to determine readiness of pilots. That’s one of a number of areas the Air Force will apply data… to measure its success. Colt Whittall is Founder and CEO of BRAVO17, and former Chief Experience Officer of the Air Force. He linked to an article on LinkedIn titled “Readiness Redefined But Not Measured” where the author, Matthew Ross, writes about the pilot readiness data. I ask Colt what resonated with him in that article, and how organizations in government can measure for success in various situations.The State Department is moving its top-secret network to the cloud. That move is happening in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at State. Jimmy Hall, Jr. is the Chief Information Officer for the Bureau. At DODIIS 2023, he tells me about the mission of the Bureau, and how the cloud move will work.“Innovation In Government: DODIIS” TV show details

A new National Defense Industrial Strategy is coming from the Pentagon any day now. The model to operationalize that strategy already exists in the MRAP story, according to Jerry McGinn. He’s Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, and former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base. He’s writing about it in Breaking Defense, and tells you why the MRAP story is worth watching.The Chief Information Officer of the Defense Department, John Sherman, is launching a new user experience initiative across the department. It’s part of the response to the “Fix Our Computers” complaints from DOD employees. At DODIIS 2023, I asked John Sherman how the initiative will work, and what he wants to accomplish.A new Cyber Workforce Development Institute is coming from the Office of the National Cyber Director. The White House says ONCD is working with agencies to prepare them for what’s coming. Jordan Burris is Vice President for Public Sector Strategy at Socure, and former Chief of Staff in the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer. I ask him what he sees ahead for building the federal cyber workforce.“Innovation In Government: DODIIS” TV show details

Some of the numbers for your TSP will change in 2024, and some will stay the same. And, the TSP is digging into a social science. Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, tells you what’s changing, and how the TSP is trying to get its message across better with social science.Civilian agencies in the federal government have thousands of use cases for artificial intelligence. Those use cases are starting to yield results for those agencies. Kevin Walsh, Director of the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Team at the Government Accountability Office, details what his team found when they inventoried those use cases.“Innovation In Government: DODIIS” TV show details

Federal agencies have a roadmap now for delivering digital-first experiences to the customers they serve. The guidance the Office of Management and Budget calls “Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience” can be a roadmap for the vendor community too, according to Clare Martorana, the Chief Information Officer of the United States. On Fed Gov Today TV recently, I asked her what she meant by that.You heard Clare reference the roll-out of the digital-first guidance, and her presentation about it at ACT-IAC’s Executive Leadership Conference 2023 in our TV conversation. Today’s podcast includes some highlights of that presentation, starting with her view of the relationship between government and industry. Right after her presentation at ELC, I joined her on stage for a fireside chat about the digital first guidance.

This podcast is sponsored by SAP Concur.The Chief Information Officer of the Navy, Jane Rathbun, says her service’s enterprise work platform, Flank Speed, will be the foundation of the Navy’s zero trust effort. The Navy stood up Flank Speed when the pandemic forced almost the entire service into remote work. Darren Turner, chief technologist for the Department of Navy Chief Technology Office, tells you how the Navy stood up Flank Speed, and where the program will go in the future.Enterprise platforms like Flank Speed are just one type of transformation agencies are undertaking now. Almost every agency has a legacy system of some kind that’s ripe for modernization. Marques Tibbs-Brewer, Vice President of Federal Government Operations for SAP Concur, reveals three important aspects of transformation that aren’t technological.The Department of Veterans Affairs is ready for the next phase of its transition to a new financial management system. That system features nine functions across the entire agency. Terry Riffel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Management Business Transformation, at the Financial Management Business Transformation Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains why customization is out of the question in the FMBT modernization process.

A change may be coming to your Thrift Savings Plan account. The TSP will use a new benchmark for the International Fund.  Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains what the change means for participants, and what differences, if any, you’ll see in your account.A theoretical shift is under way at the Patent and Trademark Office. That shift is turning into real-life examples now. On the newest edition of Fed Gov Today TV, Jamie Holcombe, the Chief Information Officer at the Patent and Trademark Office, explains the concept behind the shift from projects to products.Emergency managers across the federal government have a new opportunity to learn from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and from each other. FEMA’s taking entries for its Vanguard Executive Crisis Leaders Fellowship. Deanne Criswell, the Administrator of FEMA, details the program, and what she wants federal leaders from all agencies to get out of it.AFCEA DC Winter Gala info

The new Chief Information Officer at the Interior Department is the old CIO at the Farm Service Agency at the Agriculture Department. Darren Ash moved from USDA to Interior a little more than a year ago. He worked closely at USDA with that agency’s CIO, Gary Washington. At AFCEA Bethesda’s Energy, Infrastructure, and Environment Summit recently, I hosted a discussion with Darren and Gary. To begin the discussion, I asked Darren how his current agency and his former agency work together.

The General Services Administration is pioneering human centered design in a number of areas. One of those areas in acquisition. Mike Shepherd is Director of the Catalog Management Office at GSA. At ELC 2023, I ask him about the state of the art in human-centered design in contracting.More than half of agencies have moved off legacy telecom contracts, onto the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract. Agencies have a May 2024 deadline now to move to EIS or request an extension. Laura Stanton is Assistant Commissioner for the Office of the Information Technology Category at the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA. Her office is leading the EIS work for the agency. At ELC 2023, she says she has four priorities right now.The customer experience pillar of the President’s Management Agenda is driving a lot of activity in areas of CX that agencies haven’t thought about before. Beth Martin is a digital services expert at the Office of Personnel Management. After her panel discussion at ELC 2023, I asked her what misunderstandings she’s seen about CX efforts.

A reorg is complete inside the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration. The Commissioner of FAS, Sonny Hashmi, told you about it on the Nov. 1st Fed Gov Today podcast (if you missed it, you can listen on demand at FedGovToday.com). At ELC 2023, Laurie MacNamara, Chief Customer Officer at TTS within FAS, says the position TTS has, and she has within it, are unique.Agile development has taken over as the development method of choice for IT management projects in government. But the techniques of agile… aren’t limited to tech. At ELC 2023, Arianne Gallgher-Welcher, Executive Director for the Department of Agriculture Digital Service, says her team is applying agile concepts to change management too.The Federal CIO, Clare Martorana, says the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management are partnering to stock federal agencies with the people they need. At ELC 2023, I asked the Director of OPM, Kiran Ahuja, about OPM’s role in that partnership.

This Special Fed Gov Today podcast is sponsored by Verizon.The Labor Department’s customer experience efforts include its response to a major piece of legislation. The American Rescue Plan Act features several services the Labor Department provides. Lesley Sheffield, Senior IT Project Manager for ARPA Unemployment Insurance Modernization at Labor, details the path that Labor has taken to modernize the UI process, and the road ahead.The Internal Revenue Service has added more than 5,000 customer service representatives since the Inflation Reduction Act passed. Agencies like the IRS say they are looking at tools to make their CX efforts more efficient, in addition to more people power. Stephen Sopko, Managing Client Partner at Verizon, covers some of those tools, and how to apply them effectively.The Department of Homeland Security’s formal customer experience operation is still relatively new. The agency’s CIO, Eric Hysen, stood up the office officially in September. At ELC 2023, Dana Chisnell, Executive Director of Customer Experience at DHS, tells me leaders at her agency have made big commitments to CX.