All in Information Technology
Are Government Project Managers Ready for Another Government Shutdown?
As the specter of a shutdown of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) begins to loom large, my thoughts turn again to how such a shutdown will impact projects and project managers at DHS (other than the obvious impacts of increasing taxpayer costs and disrupting scheduled public services, of course).
Managing Data-Intensive Programs and Projects: Selected Articles
I’ve created this special compendium of posts that are relevant to planning and managing data related programs and projects. There are four groups:
Who Will Pay for Open Data?
Alicia Green’s Open data is the next iteration of public records shows how the definition of “open data” continues to evolve.
In “IT governance is killing innovation” Andrew Horne and Brian Foster argue that IT project selection needs to move beyond traditional capital investment based ROI measures. The authors think it is more appropriate to take into account project support for critical business capabilities and that such a focus will be much more supportive of innovation.
This morning U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra released his ambitious 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management. Here’s number 10:
My friend Bob Davis at MILVETS was kind enough to forward a link to the article 2020 vision: 10 things you’ll see on the Web in the next 10 years by Shawn McCarthy in the January 26 Government Computer News.
While McCarthy’s list holds few surprises, I would have made number 10 number one:
The folks at Software Advice recently sent me a link to their ERP and manufacturing timeline that I thought was interesting and worth passing along.
I’m optimistic. I’m beginning to think that second-nature use of collaborative technologies by non-technologists, both for social engagement as well as for work, could reach a tipping point much sooner than I had thought. It’s not going to be completely smooth sailing, though.
Promoting Technology Enabled Collaboration in Complex R&D Environments
An important element in a successful R&D effort is effective collaboration. As the complexity of the research, development, and eventual adoption environments increases — as it does with large Federally funded R&D efforts — the importance of the sharing of information, ideas, and goals increases as well.
That’s one of the reasons I’m concerned about how President Obama’s proposed changes to Federal procurement rules might tip the scales even more in favor of the issuance of fixed price contracts in situations where insufficient detail on requirements and available budget aren’t readily available to potential bidders.
ARRA's Oversight and Information Technology Initiatives
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009 (ARRA), passed by Congress and signed by the President, is now available online. The text below is an attempt to summarize sections of the law that do the following: