Fed Gov Today

“Government Can Deliver” is a rallying cry of technologists and program leaders all across government. It’s also the title of the new book from the former Chief Information Officer at the IRS and DHS, Richard Spires. My thanks to Richard for the invitation to MC a book signing event at the headquarters of the Partnership For Public Service yesterday. At that event, I ask Richard what prompted him to put the book together and what he wants people to learn from it.

The new Chief of Naval Operations lists three items on her agenda of priorities. Admiral Lisa Franchetti calls that agenda “America’s Warfighting Navy”. On Fed Gov Today TV from West 2024 in San Diego last week, she tells me her goal for the document.

The Chief Information Officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Doug Cossa, has five priorities for 2024. He told you about them on Fed Gov Today TV; you can watch that conversation on demand at FedGovToday.com. Tops on his list is modernizing the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. EP Mathew, Deputy CIO at DIA, tells me his role in modernizing JWICS, and the other four priorities of the DIA OCIO.

AFCEA TechNet Emergence details

The General Services Administration is rolling out several artificial intelligence projects to make the jobs of its contracting officers easier. Several of those projects revolve around automating tasks. Jeff Koses is Senior Procurement Executive at GSA. At ACT IAC’s AI Procurement Forum at Carahsoft headquarters in Reston, he says his agency has a lot going on in the acquisition AI space.

The kinds of AI acquisition projects Jeff talked about are  happening all over government. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy keeps tabs on all of those programs. Joanie Newhart is Associate Administrator of Acquisition Workforce Programs OFPP, at the Office of Management and Budget. At ACT IAC’s AI Procurement Forum at Carahsoft headquarters in Reston, she says OFPP is the connective tissue for agencies across government.

AFCEA TechNet Emergence details

Richard Spires book event registration

The artificial intelligence executive order the White House released in October calls for agencies to “improve A-I procurement.” Agencies may soon actually start to use AI to do that. Polly Hall is Senior Advisor to the Chief Procurement Officer at the Department of Homeland Security. At ACT IAC’s AI Procurement Forum recently at Carahsoft headquarters in Reston, she says the use cases for AI in acquisition are exploding.

The questions at hand for AI in acquisition include both sides of the procurement coin. One side is how agencies will buy AI technology; the other is how agencies will add AI to their acquisition processes to buy everything. Karla Smith Jackson is Senior Procurement Executive, Deputy Chief Acquisition Officer, and Assistant Administrator for Procurement at NASA. At ACT IAC’s AI Procurement Forum recently at Carahsoft headquarters in Reston, she tells me what’s ahead for AI in acquisition at her agency.

AFCEA TechNet Emergence details

Richard Spires book event registration

The Department of Veterans Affairs lists three items among its highlights for 2023. The Chief Technology Officer, Charles Worthington, and CIO Kurt DelBene named VA’s Health and Benefits mobile app; improvements to VA.gov; and expanding the online Veterans Legacy Memorial program as those three items on the latest episode of the Office of Information and Technology’s monthly LinkedIn Live series, #TalkingTech. After the episode finished, I asked them both about several of the projects they talked about on the show.

The newest “Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy” from the Chief Digital and AI office at the Pentagon focuses on the convergence of those three elements. Experts believe the impact on warfighting will be profound. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan (USAF ret.) is former director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. He’s writing about AI and geopolitics, and we discuss what he sees now, and in the future.

CIOs across government are tracking a lot of different initiatives and priorities: zero trust, AI governance, cloud migration, digital modernization, and more. Energy CIO Ann Dunkin recently called those items the “ever expanding agenda.” On the latest Fed Gov Today TV, I ask her what she means by that.

The fifth edition of the President’s Cup Cyber Competition is under way at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Michael Harpin is Competitions Section Chief at the Cyber Defense Education and Training Branch at CISA. He tells me who’s eligible, how they can practice, how they can participate, and what’s in it for CISA - and the contestants.

ACT-IAC event: Making AI Work For Us

The Air Force will apply data to determine readiness of pilots. That’s one of a number of areas the Air Force will apply data… to measure its success. Colt Whittall is Founder and CEO of BRAVO17, and former Chief Experience Officer of the Air Force. He linked to an article on LinkedIn titled “Readiness Redefined But Not Measured” where the author, Matthew Ross, writes about the pilot readiness data. I ask Colt what resonated with him in that article, and how organizations in government can measure for success in various situations.

The State Department is moving its top-secret network to the cloud. That move is happening in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at State. Jimmy Hall, Jr. is the Chief Information Officer for the Bureau. At DODIIS 2023, he tells me about the mission of the Bureau, and how the cloud move will work.

“Innovation In Government: DODIIS” TV show details

A new National Defense Industrial Strategy is coming from the Pentagon any day now. The model to operationalize that strategy already exists in the MRAP story, according to Jerry McGinn. He’s Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, and former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base. He’s writing about it in Breaking Defense, and tells you why the MRAP story is worth watching.

The Chief Information Officer of the Defense Department, John Sherman, is launching a new user experience initiative across the department. It’s part of the response to the “Fix Our Computers” complaints from DOD employees. At DODIIS 2023, I asked John Sherman how the initiative will work, and what he wants to accomplish.

A new Cyber Workforce Development Institute is coming from the Office of the National Cyber Director. The White House says ONCD is working with agencies to prepare them for what’s coming. Jordan Burris is Vice President for Public Sector Strategy at Socure, and former Chief of Staff in the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer. I ask him what he sees ahead for building the federal cyber workforce.

“Innovation In Government: DODIIS” TV show details

Some of the numbers for your TSP will change in 2024, and some will stay the same. And, the TSP is digging into a social science. Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, tells you what’s changing, and how the TSP is trying to get its message across better with social science.

Civilian agencies in the federal government have thousands of use cases for artificial intelligence. Those use cases are starting to yield results for those agencies. Kevin Walsh, Director of the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Team at the Government Accountability Office, details what his team found when they inventoried those use cases.

“Innovation In Government: DODIIS” TV show details

Federal agencies have a roadmap now for delivering digital-first experiences to the customers they serve. The guidance the Office of Management and Budget calls “Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience” can be a roadmap for the vendor community too, according to Clare Martorana, the Chief Information Officer of the United States. On Fed Gov Today TV recently, I asked her what she meant by that.

You heard Clare reference the roll-out of the digital-first guidance, and her presentation about it at ACT-IAC’s Executive Leadership Conference 2023 in our TV conversation. Today’s podcast includes some highlights of that presentation, starting with her view of the relationship between government and industry. Right after her presentation at ELC, I joined her on stage for a fireside chat about the digital first guidance.

This podcast is sponsored by SAP Concur.

The Chief Information Officer of the Navy, Jane Rathbun, says her service’s enterprise work platform, Flank Speed, will be the foundation of the Navy’s zero trust effort. The Navy stood up Flank Speed when the pandemic forced almost the entire service into remote work. Darren Turner, chief technologist for the Department of Navy Chief Technology Office, tells you how the Navy stood up Flank Speed, and where the program will go in the future.

Enterprise platforms like Flank Speed are just one type of transformation agencies are undertaking now. Almost every agency has a legacy system of some kind that’s ripe for modernization. Marques Tibbs-Brewer, Vice President of Federal Government Operations for SAP Concur, reveals three important aspects of transformation that aren’t technological.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is ready for the next phase of its transition to a new financial management system. That system features nine functions across the entire agency. Terry Riffel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Management Business Transformation, at the Financial Management Business Transformation Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains why customization is out of the question in the FMBT modernization process.