CIO Council reorganizes around e-gov

CIO Council

By Diane Frank

The federal CIO Council has reorganized itself to reflect the new role of information technology in developing e-government, said Jim Flyzik, vice chairman of the council.

The new structure maintains three standing committees — best practices and capital planning, architecture and IT workforce — and replaces most of the council with "portfolio management" teams focused on initiatives under the four e-government areas of the president's management agenda, Flyzik said.

The e-government agenda focuses on improving federal performance in four areas: service to citizens, to businesses, to other government entities and within the federal government.

The Office of Management and Budget's e-government task force developed a set of 23 cross-agency, high-impact initiatives that fall under those four areas. OMB planned to release the initiatives this month, and all will be completed within the next two years, officials said.

The former E-Government Committee co-chairs will coordinate the work of the portfolio management teams.

Those teams will be led by "managing partners" who will be tapped from all areas of government, including the financial, human resources and procurement offices, Flyzik said.

The Best Practices and Capital Planning Committee will focus on portfolio-style management of IT investments. The Architecture Committee is a necessary part of the future of e-government because "if we're going to achieve interoperability, we have to keep a focus on the architecture," Flyzik said.

The former Security, Privacy and Critical Infrastructure Committee is still in flux, but the Federal IT Workforce Committee remains unchanged.