Do You Work in Federal Technology? We Want to Hear From You.

The link between mission success and solid IT performance has never been clearer. That’s long been the case, but the rocky rollout last October of the website designed to support the Affordable Care Act, the Obama Administration’s signature policy achievement, brought home how easily an ill-managed technology program could undermine and jeopardize a major government initiative.

While software glitches, schedule delays and cost overruns have become a staple of more large IT programs than not, the spectacular Obamacare debacle reinforced the efforts of lawmakers in both parties to reform the way agencies buy and manage large technology programs. As such, the roles of chief information officers, chief technology officers, chief information security officers and their staffs are shifting -- or at least there’s a growing contingent of observers who believe they need to evolve to better manage programs that have in many ways become unmanageable.

To better understand the changing dynamics of IT management, the Government Business Council -- the research arm of Government Executive Media Group -- is launching quarterly surveys of government IT professionals. We intend to explore a number of issues, including the influence of CIOs and CTOs on agency missions; the opportunities and challenges posed by cloud computing; the value of opening more government data to the public; the risks and benefits of commercial and open source products; and advances in digital government.

If you’re involved in any of these issues, we hope you’ll take the time to participate. We promise we won’t take up much of your time and we’ll share the results. You can sign up here: