Federal IT Action Plan

A new report by the TechAmerica Foundation recommends a 33-step action plan to the Obama administration for improving federal information technology acquisitions and management, and it's no surprise that enhancing the IT workforce plays a role.

The report, created by the foundation's Commission on Government Technology Opportunity in the 21st Century, places particular emphasis on the need for government to develop a professional program management capability; promote incremental development of IT systems; strengthen risk management; and enhance internal and external engagement.

Key to achieving these goals, however, is having strong program managers who see IT projects through to completion. This will require the government to create a federal career path for IT program managers that emphasizes financial and career advancement incentives, the report notes.

The Office of Management and Budget should work with the Office of Personnel Management to establish training, certification and job classifications for program managers, the commission recommended. This could be established through a program management leadership academy that is accompanied by programs such as mentoring, joint training with industry, rotational assignments and business simulations.

In addition, federal IT workers have been trained and have grown up in a rigid acquisition structure, and many of them have little or no familiarity with agile processes, TechAmerica found. Government should change this by introducing new training standards that transform IT acquisition managers from large-scale, multi-year projects to the development and procurement of IT in small, simpler increments, the report notes.