Page 22 - FCW, August 30, 2016

Workforce
Richard Spires
who are the users of the technology,” Chenok said.
He added that it’s the CIO’s job to ensure that other agency leaders “under- stand why it is that investing in a certain approach to modernization and security is going to be important to get them to achieve their business objectives.”
The right seasoning
OMB did not respond to FCW’s requests
for more detail on the revamped job
descriptions. But the Obama admin-
istration has been working with some
of the Partnership for Public Service’s
Strategic Advisors to Government Executives — former fed- eral executives who provide a highly experienced sounding
board — to craft position descriptions and performance plans that reflect the government’s expectations.
Formally changing CIO job descrip- tions, however, is a long and complicat- ed process. Every agency is different, and certain positions — at the Depart- ment of Veterans Affairs, for example — were established by statute. And because a central tenet of FITARA is improved partnerships across the C-suite, revamped CIO jobs have impli- cations for chief financial officers and chief acquisition officers.
All that must be hashed out through departmental approval chains and run past OMB and the Office of Personnel Management. The next administration’s
How to construct tomorrow’s information management
BY TYLER MORRIS
Ninety percent of the world’s data has been created in the past two years. We generate 2.5 quintillion (that’s 2.5 followed by 18 zeros) bytes of data every day.To say we are in the midst of an information explosion is an understatement.
As one of the biggest users and collectors of information, how is the federal government faring in terms of its ability to manage all that data?
According to agencies’ latest Records Management Self-Assessments, only 50 percent of federal records officers are dedicated full-time to their agencies’ records and information management (RIM) programs. And of the 50 per- cent who are not, more than 70 percent commit less than half their time to RIM programs.
That is not nearly enough manpower to handle the expo- nential growth of information and information assets.The shortfall spotlights a clear need
to address core capabilities to meet future information man- agement requirements.
An emerging skills gaps
Iron Mountain recently part- nered with AIIM to conduct a survey of federal information management professionals
in an effort to identify their priorities and concerns for the next three to five years.The results suggest that a near-term resolution to these challenges is unlikely because they revealed a gap between the skills those professionals currently have and what they believe they will need in the future to manage the information boom.
The survey identified clear and recognized needs for improving electronic records retention and disposition, RIM and analytics capabilities, but it also showed that professionals might not be correctly prioritiz- ing the corresponding skill sets. That hints at a rising skills gap that will only exacerbate infor- mation management problems.
If agencies do not make it a point to address those discrep- ancies, they risk being caught unprepared for the 2016 and 2019 deadlines set by the presi- dential directive on managing government records. And they almost certainly will not be ready for future requirements.
So what does the next-gen- eration information profession- al look like? Consider these four fundamental capabilities: 1.They must manage all information, regardless
of format. Almost half of respondents cited this area as their most urgent driver.The theme resonated throughout the study:
• Information (36 percent) and records management (30 per- cent) were listed as the two pri- mary anticipated future roles.
• Electronic records retention and disposition (24 percent), RIM practices (24 percent) and email and social media man- agement (20 percent) rounded out the top five areas needing improvement.
Agencies are at a tipping point in terms of their ability to manage information holisti- cally. All information, regardless of format, must be governed appropriately by the individuals entrusted to do so, and the silos currently used to manage them are no longer appropriate.
With the unimaginable growth in both the amount and variety of information agencies need to manage, the focus on one governance structure for all information types and parallel skill sets will be critical compo- nents of any future information management program.
2. They must possess ana- lytical capabilities. Some- what surprisingly, the survey revealed that analytics will be
a key capability area over the next three to five years. Specifically:
• Analytics will be one of the top three future anticipated roles (30 percent).
• Analytics was listed as one of the top three in-demand capa- bilities (39 percent).
18 August 30, 2016 FCW.COM