Cobert tees up IT management plans

Even as the federal government seeks to streamline IT acquisition to include more technology startups, a plan is afoot to capture existing knowledge about how to best use Federal Acquisition Regulation guidelines to support agile procurement, said Beth Cobert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, during a keynote speech May 13 at 1105 Media's FOSE conference.

"We want to make it easier to find solutions that already exist in the frame of regulations at the same time [that] we look to adapt and streamline those regulations," Cobert said. The goal is to unearth the highly dispersed pockets of acquisition knowledge "so it isn't just the few" who know how to apply creativity and flexibility to federal procurement.

Changes to IT procurement and deployment play a big part in the Obama administration's overall management agenda. Some specifics include the development of a "digital services playbook" of best practices in IT procurement, design and deployment. The goal is to identify best practices and share them across the government.

Those lessons will be reinforced by the deployment of two specialized teams: the digital services team at the U.S. CIO's office, which is seeking funding to help agencies with high-profile IT projects, and the 18F team at the General Services Administration, which helps agencies build websites and other public-facing federal IT projects.

Cobert is also soliciting advice from the contracting community. OMB recently worked with GSA, the CIO Council and the Chief Acquisition Officers Council to conduct an open dialogue with stakeholders that has yielded more than 100 ideas on streamlining reporting and compliance, bringing industry best practices into government, and increasing participation by nontraditional government contractors. Cobert said officials will share specific solutions in the coming months.

She also stressed the importance of attracting top IT talent to federal service. Right now, IT professionals face a 100-day government hiring cycle compared to one or two weeks in the private sector, Cobert said.