Budget

Industry panel outlines goals for federal IT at first meeting

Co-chair Steve Kelmen, former OFPP administrator, explains what was discussed.

Federal News Network Staff

August 4, 2010 4:05 pm

2 min read

wfedstaff | June 3, 2015 12:20 pm

As we told you earlier, TechAmerica has formed the Commission on the Government Technology Opportunity in the 21st Century (GTO-21).

Well, they’ve had their first meeting, and Steve Kelmen, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School and former OFPP administrator, is one of the co-chairs of the board.

He tells DorobekInsider how things are going so far, now that they’ve had their first meeting.

“It’s a very constructive effort by industry. Our basic starting off point is, there have been a lot of recommendations that have been made, in many cases, for 20 years about things such as quick deliverables, don’t do things in grand designs, do things in chunks, more agile development. . . . Rather than just having another set of recommendations, what we’re going to center on is . . . okay, here are these proposals out there, what are the barriers to actually making them happen?”

He explains that the group will conduct detailed interviews with “do’ers” from both government and industry — program managers, mid-level managers, customers and users.

“We’re going to be very execution and implementation oriented. Just to give you an example . . . everybody’s saying we need agile, short deliverables, yet does the OMB 300 process and the capital planning process require you to say what you are going to accomplish for the next 10 years, and drive people into these 10 year deliverable cycles?”

So, questions like that are what the group will focus on answering. In addition to this, though, Kelman says they’re going to look inward and examine what industry needs to change.

Besides Kelman, Linda Gooden, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Services will co-chair the Commission.

Renato DiPentima, former CEO of SRA International Inc. and a senior adviser at Providence Equity Partners, and Christopher Yukins, co-director of The George Washington University’s Government Procurement Law Program, will serve as co-vice chairs.

Kelman blog: Taking the pulse of contracting professionals

Federal News Radio: IT contractors speak out and weigh in

Hear Steve Kelman talk more about this and the GSA contracting schedule by clicking on the audio link at the top of the page.

Email the author of this post at dramienski@federalnewsradio.com