I were fortunate to serve in a variety of technology leadership positions with local, state and federal governments. My last job was CIO of the U.S. Department of Transportation, where I had oversight of its entire IT portfolio, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With an annual budget of greater than $3 billion, DOT’s was the sixth-largest IT budget within the federal government.
In this tenure of greater than 15 years within the public sector, i used to be also fortunate to work and learn from the very best (and worst) technology executives within the government, all of whom taught me some valuable lessons that can be as useful for up-and-coming government CIOs as they’re for IT executives considering a jump into the general public sector.
Listed here are my observations and suggestions at the five habits of powerful government technology executives.
1. Follow The Legislative/Regulatory Environment
Effective government technology executives are fully tuned in to the happenings of their local boards, state assemblies or Congress. Here is where new legislation is being drafted, as a way to lead to specific regulations with the intention to have a massive impact at the IT systems either by the use of modification or creation of latest systems. If technology executives stay involved from the start, they’ve the capability to shape these legislations and regulations to be “technology friendly” and deliver technology systems and results speedily.
2. Focus Relentlessly On Mission Systems
Government it’s made of mission IT systems (e.g., traffic control system), mission support IT systems (e.g., procurement system), and infrastructure or commodity IT (e.g., email system). Effective government technology executives have laser-like take care of building sophisticated mission systems or upgrading the present ones to maximise the worth to the citizens, businesses and other government agencies. Less effective government IT executives get slowed down and concentrate on infrastructure or commodity IT.
3. Position IT As A Valued Business Partner
The foremost goal of a central authority IT executive need to be to place the IT department as a valued business partner to the mission offices or bureaus to drive increased public value. Public value is the delivery of high-quality, results-based services that drive business and citizen satisfaction and build trust in public enterprises. Unfortunately, many technology executives wrongly position their departments as “technical service providers” losing out on core value proposition.
4. Enlist Technical Talent With Mission Knowledge
Plain vanilla IT expertise works well for infrastructure or commodity IT, however it is inadequate to deliver results on mission systems. Today’s mission IT projects in government are complex and require mission knowledge, advanced skill sets and engineering facilities that have a tendency to maintain them beyond the reach of traditional IT contractors. But alternatives are emerging. Unique services akin to one I’m now focused on, the Technology Acceleration Infrastructure Program, can give access to such high-end research, design, development, prototyping, testing, engineering, operations, troubleshooting and mission expertise without the necessity to maintain full-time staff or contractors.
5. Integrate Innovative, Cutting-Edge Products
Successful government IT executives know that solutions must be delivered in the term of the elected officials and on (or under) budget. Large projects therefore must be split up into manageable chunks and delivered using services and products in place of in-house development wherever possible to minimize cost, and improve speed of execution. However, finding such products seriously isn’t easy for presidency IT executives. That’s one reason I’ve chosen to guide another initiative, called GOVonomy. Its aim is to attach public sector organizations with relevant and innovative technology products from startups and growth companies and help arrange strategic discussions and demonstrations for increased understanding and education of the govt. IT professionals. (Like GOVonomy on Facebook to remain connected with this innovative program.)
The teachings I learned inside the public sector have also convinced me of the significance of assimilating advances from the personal sector quickly into public sector operations. That’s one reason i began a firm called Public Private Innovations, with a goal to drive increased public value through private growth. We research government problems that may be solved using technology after which help connect government with private sector technology companies who’ve product or service to resolve these problems. In case you have knowledge of such government problems that need solving or have unique technology solutions to unravel the govt problems, let’s talk
Find out what government IT teams want to know to deliver new, more agile enterprise networks and services. Also within the new, all-digital Next-Gen Networks issue of InformationWeek Government: How the Navy cut the ticket for its newly awarded Next Generation Enterprise Network contract to HP by greater than one billion dollars. (Free registration required.)