Feds meet to find ways to fix federal IT development

This article was updated at 5:08 pm, Aug. 13, to include a comment from the Office of Management and Budget.

A relatively unknown association held a forum on Thursday to test the will of federal officials to solve what has become a common occurrence in government: over-budget and behind-schedule information technology projects.

About 60 people attended the private event sponsored by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council, a coalition of current and former public servants working to change the federal IT ecosystem so that it focuses on results rather than reporting and compliance.

Among those present at the gathering hosted by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, were former Defense Department Chief Information Officer John Grimes; former Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne; David R. Williamson, associate chief procurement officer at the Housing and Urban Development Department; and State Department procurement executive Corey Rindner. The goal of the meeting was to help develop a blueprint for how the White House can improve contracting and systems development to prevent billions of dollars annually from being wasted on failed projects.

"We're trying to find out: Is there a political resolve for fixing this? And the answer is yes," said John Weiler, who is bankrolling the council. He is the founder of the Interoperability Clearinghouse, a nonprofit collaboration of standards associations, research organizations and IT firms.

OMB launched a similar effort when it issued a memo on June 28 outlining three steps to identify the causes of project problems. The controversial directive ordered federal agencies to immediately halt all financial system projects until they are scaled back or scrapped, and select high-risk IT projects for heightened monitoring and possible defunding in the fiscal 2012 budget. The plan also called on Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director for management, to issue recommendations this fall for revamping procurement rules, including stipulations that hold managers accountable for results and a tougher project review process.

"We're doing that work," Weiler said, referring to how the group's activities resemble the memo's requirements. For the past 18 months, ITAAC has been advocating for the kind of data-driven guidance that OMB has finally decided to craft, he said.

TechAmerica Foundation, the educational affiliate of industry trade group TechAmerica, has started its own IT overhaul commission, which includes industry representatives, academic experts and former government officials. The task force intends to propose an approach for repairing the way the government acquires and manages IT deployments.

TechAmerica has expressed concerns that putting projects in limbo with blanket suspensions will dissuade companies and talent from taking on the risk of federal business.

Trey Hodgkins, the association's vice president for national security and procurement policy, was invited to Thursday's event but could not attend due to previously scheduled obligations. "Industry is as interested in fixing the problem as anyone," he said on Friday. The commission "is very well equipped to develop actionable recommendations for OMB to consider."

Weiler said, "It would be in [Zients'] interest to finish" the guidelines using "the incredible brain power that's coming together versus industry interests that might not want to fix this," Weiler said. "We're buying yesterday's technology tomorrow."

The council invited officials from the Office of Management and Budget to the event, and Michael Howell, OMB deputy administrator for e-government IT, attended. But OMB has no formal relationship with the council, administration officials said on Friday. They added the council and other groups such as the TechAmerica Foundation are each compiling IT management recommendations that OMB officials will be happy to review.