Appointees: Sharpen Your IT Know-How

To give senators some fodder to use when confirming soon-to-be President Barack Obama's political appointees, the Government Accountability Office released a report on Monday outlining the major management problems federal agencies face and some suggested questions senators can ask o learn if the nominees have any idea how to solve them. The report is similar to one GAO released in 2000, right before President Bush's nominees were vetted. But there are some big differences, not the least of which is that the latest report is 155 pages -- almost 10 times longer than the 2000 version. (Either GAO has become more adept at identifying management problems, or there are just a lot more of them.)

Another significant change: the kinds of questions GAO suggests senators ask nominees. The questions are much more nuanced and detailed in the 2008 report. One question that stands out in the IT category digs into how involved an appointee would require his or her top managers to get involved in IT. Here's the question (from page 140):

Although executive-level involvement is critical to projects’ success, it is lacking at many agencies. What would you do to ensure that executives are involved in overseeing projects at your agency?

This question begins to scratch the surface of how an agency head may use IT strategically, that is, giving technology a role in governing and forming the goals to meet missions. Organizations that manage IT in that way typically outperform their competitors.

Whether a senator will choose to ask this question, however, is another issue.