Letter: Guidance needed to fix IT acquisition process

Regarding "IAC tells transition team about IT in government"

I think these and other well meaning reports will validate what most of us take for granted: The government information technology aquisition process is completely broken, something we have have said in one form or another since the Clinger Cohen Act.

The real challenge now is not beating the drum, but providing actionable guidance on what specific rice bowls that need to be eliminated, which processes need to be revamped and optimizing the IT supply chain. The outsource of inherently government decision making positions is one of the root causes of failure. Vendors seek to optimize influence and profits. This is orthogianl to public service objectives of government.

Secondly, I hope the adminstration recognized that it can't solve today's problems with the same kind of thinking that got us there in the first place. Please be very selective when bringing back recently departed Defense Department IT leadership. Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it. So, lets take a hard look at our patterns of failure and recognize that the processes, advisers and government leaders involved are part of the failure pattern.

Just a thought.

John Weiler
Interop. Clearinghouse

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