Page 29 - FCW, July 2017

VENKATAPATHI Commentary|BY VENKATAPATHI “PV” PUVVADA “PV” PUVVADA
is president of Unisys U.S. Federal.
The real key to technology transformation
CIO authorities are important, but communication and governance cannot be overlooked when it comes to achieving FITARA’s objectives
The news has been mixed with regard to the Government Account- ability Office’s latest scoring of federal agencies’ efforts to imple- ment improvements mandated by the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act. Although some agencies have demonstrated notable success, more of them saw a decline in their grades than saw an improvement.
The objectives of FITARA and technology modernization can be greatly aided by improving gover- nance, communication and collabo- ration within agencies. And in this regard, a new administration is a big asset because it provides an opportu- nity for program personnel and tech- nology teams to seize on the White House’s technology initiatives.
Too often, a lack of communica- tion among the program, contracting and IT teams results in IT projects that get off to a bad start and have risks that are not readily visible to leaders. In many cases, managers are unable to intervene in time to bring those programs back in line.
Effective communication can best be achieved by reevaluating existing IT governance structures and encour- aging a culture of communication. Such structures should enhance the functionality of integrated program/ project teams (IPTs) — cross- functional or multidisciplinary groups of individuals who are collectively responsible for delivering a product, service or outcome to an internal or external customer.
Highlighting IPTs within gover-
nance models will ensure that key stakeholders are brought together in a collaborative environment early in a program’s life cycle. Such collabo- ration is essential to ensure that the perspectives, motivating factors and concerns of each stakeholder are understood and addressed effectively.
GAO published a report in Novem-
Frequent post-award communication between senior agency and vendor executives is critical to ensuring successful outcomes.
ber 2016 that highlights the key attributes of IPTs, many of which mimic industry best practices. Most notably, GAO recognized the impor- tance of having a strong executive leader outside the IPT who serves
as an advocate for the team, thereby empowering the team to carry out its responsibilities and ensuring that it has the necessary resources to com- plete its work.
In addition, frequent post-award communication between senior agency and vendor executives is criti- cal to ensuring successful outcomes and facilitating opportunities to insert innovation throughout the perfor- mance of high-priority and high- visibility programs.
The best practices that private- sector CIOs use in leading enterprise- wide governance and proactive com- munication typically focus on:
• Establishing a common vision for future technology.
• Adopting shared services that elimi- nate duplicative efforts.
• Capitalizing on scale and rela- tionships with vendors and service providers.
• Enabling integrated product, solu- tions and services teams.
• Streamlining communications and collaboration across the enterprise.
• Identifying cost-efficiency and investment leverage for new capabilities.
Proactive change management strategies are also critical to the suc- cess of enterprise transformations. Examples include:
• An emphasis on and investments
in strategic and tactical communications.
• Communication of flexibilities within governance models and poli- cies to suit the missions of individual agencies or bureaus.
• Transparency and frequent commu- nication of roles, responsibilities and priorities.
• Simplified, clear and quantified responsibility and accountability.
• Establishment of liaisons to other units with domain or mission expertise.
Finally, I would direct readers to ACT-IAC’s FITARA IT Management Maturity Model, which lays out how agencies can develop mature IT governance in relation to FITARA’s objectives. n
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