Page 33 - FCW, April 2017
P. 33

continuing that effort will be another activity awaiting the next CIO.
More commercial solutions
To meet all those challenges, Halvorsen said DOD must continue to embrace commercial technology and the efficien- cies it can provide.
He added that the U.S. is entering the “platinum age” of technology, and sophisticated commercial solutions are being introduced that can transform the way DOD operates. Advances include biometric technology that could replace the Common Access Card and artificial intelligence tools that could speed the analysis of big data.
“I think there will be more dialogue with the commercial sector on how you continue to work the security pro- cessing,” Halvorsen said. “How do you continue to work FedRAMP and other things so that they get better? And I would define ‘better’ as they get faster [and] less costly.”
Bender and Takai agreed that DOD needs to strengthen its ties with industry — not only for cost and efficiency pur- poses, but also to decrease the depart- ment’s cybersecurity footprint.
But Takai said DOD must improve its internal capacity to understand the market and be a better buyer. “While DOD is going to want to do more with their vendors, they’re also going to have to develop some in-house expertise that they’ve to some extent let atrophy by letting the vendor community do so much,” she added.
Innovation and acquisition
With the impending split of AT&L, there is uncertainty about what DOD acquisi- tion will look like, and that is another area where the next CIO can make a mark.
Bender said DOD officials are trying to digitize a military that predominantly relies on legacy technology, “and the need to operationalize cyber [means] this is converging on the CIO’s office, and the norms of the past simply are not [working] and cannot work.”
“We tie ourselves in knots over the
way that we’ve kind of always done it,” he added. “You’ve got the lawyers and the acquirers and the contractors all tell- ing you this is how you’ve got to do it.... We need to be playing to speed, agility and security as well as cost, schedule and performance, for example, on the acquisition side, so how are you going to do that? You’ve got to break with the norms of the past.”
Halvorsen said that break is happen- ing, perhaps more than people realize. “The requirements are really much more capabilities-based,” he said, adding that the need for improvement lay not with the acquisition team but with the depart- ment’s executives. “We were trying to over-specify. What really is making the change is the continuing growth in dia- logue between the requirements [and] capabilities people and acquisition.”
When it comes to choosing technol- ogy, Takai stressed the need for DOD to continue focusing on the nexus of innovation and acquisition. “DOD needs to really find a way both from a technol- ogy perspective and also an acquisition perspective to be better at selecting new technology, piloting new technology and then determining whether the technol- ogy fits,” she said.
Takai added that the Defense Innova- tion Unit Experimental and the Defense Digital Service are integrating well with acquisition offices, but the next CIO will need to exercise oversight and guidance to ensure that the path from innova- tion to implementation is as smooth as possible.
Bender agreed that the innovation hubs at DOD must be priorities, which requires strong advocacy from the department’s leaders.
Insider or outsider?
Given the Trump administration’s pref- erence for business people and prac- tices, it’s possible that officials will look to industry for the next CIO.
Bender said he would like to see a full-blown executive search for a lead- er who has transformed a company. “I think the time is right to bring in a big- name, well-respected and recognized
CIO from industry,” he said. “It’s almost like the barrier to the transformational change required is actually knowing and understanding how the [Pentagon] oper- ates. There are plenty of people who know that, but it takes an enlightened leader and really somebody who knows what right looks like, and you probably won’t get that from inside.”
Halvorsen and Takai, on the other hand, said the next CIO must have a solid understanding of how both indus- try and DOD operate.
“The challenge that the industry person is going to have is being able to be well-connected inside the power structure of DOD,” Takai said, adding that Halvorsen’s background helped him excel at building solid working relation- ships with DOD leaders.
“It was very difficult for me coming in without having had any of those rela- tionships to try to build those relation- ships and to build an agenda,” she said.
And although DOD leaders valued her strong industry background, Takai said her experience in state government was equally helpful.
“Even though there wasn’t a lot of value placed on that experience...when they hired me, I think it was very, very valuable to me to understand the nu- ances of government and to be able to extrapolate that to the DOD,” she said.
Whoever takes the helm as DOD’s next CIO, he or she will step into an institution that is undergoing a deep cul- tural shift as it struggles to embrace new technologies and protocols.
Halvorsen has long argued that DOD’s culture is the biggest barrier to technological change. “That’s going to be the piece you’ve got to keep working on,” he said. “You can do certain things to accelerate culture a little bit, [and] I think they’re doing all the right things.”
And now that he has been out of the job for awhile, he said things are prob- ably changing faster than he thought. “There will be a lot of work to do, and there will be hiccups along the way,” Halvorsen added. “I’d love it to go faster, but given the rules of culture, it’s going pretty well.” n
April 2017 FCW.COM 17






































































   31   32   33   34   35