Kent Reynolds

The key to developing a complex IT system like the Treasury Department's Budget Formulation and Execution Manager might not always lie in the developer's logical left brain. Sometimes it takes a right-brain perspective that has been tuned to make unexpected connections through hours spent spinning discs at a dance club.

That right-brain innovation is apparent in TCG architect and developer Kent Reynolds, who developed the BFEM system for Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Reynolds' boss, TCG Vice President David Cassidy, noted that before he joined the company, Reynolds had been a disc jockey mixing music at clubs and events. The seemingly unrelated activity demonstrated his creativity and willingness to try new things.

"We hired him because he was not only a good engineer but a well-rounded individual," Cassidy said. "We were struck by his personality. He didn't take himself too seriously."

Reynolds' job is plenty serious, though. He led a complete overhaul and upgrade of BFEM's architecture that, according to TCG, was completed on budget and with no system downtime.

Five other agencies decided to adopt the revamped BFEM, and Treasury now offers it as a shared service to all federal agencies, making it the only multiple-tenant budget system in government. As the leader of BFEM architecture, development, operations and maintenance, Reynolds supports every new agency that adopts the service.

Like a DJ gauging the crowd's response to a music mix, BFEM measures agencies' performance against their budgets to make sure they're in agreement. The company said BFEM has saved the government more than $14 million.