People

Commission: Government needs new approach to program management

The federal govenrment should make program management a formal career track and establish a training academy, a new report states.

Digital Government

Army to match processes to budget reality, says top official

The Army will revise its developmental model and make other adjustments to successfully counter adversaries around the globe and adjust to changing fiscal circumstances at home, Army Secretary John M. McHugh said today at the opening session of the AUSA conference and symposium in Washington, D.C.

People

Bite-size procurements can minimize big-time problems

The Obama administration wants agencies to stop multiyear, multibillion-dollar overhauls of major IT systems and infrastructure. Instead, agencies should start taking much smaller bites, officials say.

Acquisition

Focus on error-prone contractors to find improper payments, HHS IG says

Medicare could do better at identifying improper payments by looking to providers who are most likely to make errors, according to the Health and Human Services inspector general.

People

One way to keep big IT programs out of trouble

The latest Capability Maturity Model could help agencies improve the management of their service delivery programs, writes Jeffrey D. Sacks of Access Systems.

Digital Government

DOD cuts will slow overall fed IT spending growth

Federal spending on IT will increase slightly in the next five years. Who can expect to see their budgets grow and who faces cuts, according to new TechAmerica Foundation Vision survey forecasts.

People

How to improve procurement: Stop talking about requirements

Federal agencies would do themselves a favor if they stopped thinking in terms of requirements and started talking about user needs, writes consultant Ray Kane.

People

One more time: Contract management needs to be a core competency of government

Federal agencies waste a lot of time and money on large government IT projects because they lack the necessary management expertise, writes blogger Steve Kelman.

Acquisition

Small-biz contracting: The nightmares continue

Another case of alleged misdoings in small-business contracting could keep contracting officers awake at night.

People

OMB's hold on financial systems comes with a price

An OMB-mandated pause on financial system projects is likely to diminish momentum on modernization efforts, write Laurance Alvarado and John Cox, senior directors at Alvarez and Marsal.

Acquisition

SBA to launch small business program for women

SBA officials are setting up procedures to help woman-owned small businesses gain more access to the federal contracting marketplace.

Digital Government

GTSI suspended from federal government contracting

GTSI has been suspended from winning new government contracts but vows to defend itself against charges that it inappropriately received small-business contract dollars.

People

Contractors behaving badly: Report exposes labor law violations by IT vendors

Government Accountability Office auditors find that half of the 50 largest assessments handed out by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division between fiscal 2005 and 2009 were charged to 20 federal contractors.

People

DOD considers distributing task, delivery orders electronically

Defense Department officials want to make the electronic distribution of task and delivery orders standard.

Acquisition

Technical knowledge and government IT professionals: An oxymoron?

Do government IT pros have the expertise to know a good technical idea when the see it? And, even more importantly, can they distinguish between suggestions that are self-serving from those that are in an agency's interest?

Acquisition

More debate about pre-RFP talks between government, industry

Blogger Steve Kelman responds to comments he received on a recent blog post about the sensitive nature of government-industry communications.

Acquisition

More guidance coming on time-and-materials contracting

Contracting officers have been confused about how time-and-materials contracts work and how to justify them.

Acquisition

DOD dropped the ball on workforce reviews, GAO says

DOD officials might have lost an opportunity to build for the future, GAO officials wrote in a letter to congressional committees.

Acquisition

SSA's tracking of computer buys is a mess, IG says in report

It's not possible to know if the Social Security Administration overpaid or underpaid for some computers because the recordkeeping is so poor, according to a new report.

People

Say goodbye to the era of the grand design

The Obama administration wants to break agencies of the habit of overly ambitious, unmanageable programs.