Evans presents CIO Council vision

Karen Evans memo

Karen Evans, the new vice chairwoman of the CIO Council, this week laid out her goals for the group, including developing workforce training programs for information technology project managers.

Having a trained workforce is essential if the council is to carry out the projects on its agenda, Evans said in a Dec. 17 memo to chief information officers.

"Large-scale, enterprise projects require workers versed in project management," she said. "As the scale at which the government IT systems operate grows, so too grows the need for workers who can plan, execute and close projects with minimum risk."

Also on the agenda:

* Provide input to the Office of Management and Budget for formulation of policy.

* Guide and shape the implementation of OMB policy.

* Develop transaction standards for government.

* Develop a governance process for IT architecture.

* Develop a taxonomy and Extensible Markup Language data definitions that apply across government.

"With members of the council working together, identifying and sharing best practices, and the council working with OMB, these tasks can be accomplished," Evans said in her memo.

The CIO Council elected Evans, the Energy Department's CIO, as vice chairwoman Nov. 20. She replaces Jim Flyzik, who had served as the senior agency official on the council since 1998. Flyzik retired from government Dec. 17 to form a consulting firm to advise companies doing business with the federal government.