Volume: 18

No: 6

Publication date: 04/96

The AFFIRMation On Line

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR FEDERAL INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

AFFIRM, the Association For Federal Information Resources Management, is a Washington, DC-based council of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils. It is a nonprofit, volunteer organization whose goal is to improve the management of information within the Federal Government.

AFFIRM, the Association For Federal Information Resources Management, is a Washington, DC-based council of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils. It is a nonprofit, volunteer organization whose goal is to improve the management of information within the federal government.

Balancing Breadth of Experience and Personnel Continuity on IRM Projects
by Thomas Dobrydney
Grant Thornton



Many government agencies have faced the loss of FTE's in critical functional areas in recent months. This loss is due, in part, to downsizing resulting from budget cuts, improvement initiatives, and internal reorganizations. The IRM portion of these organizations, in particular, has faced a critical resource drain -- the migration of skilled technical staff to the private sector.

With many of its most skilled people leaving the government, federal IRM organizations are increasing their use of contacted technical staff to help provide organizational Information Technology (IT) services. This practice, all the more necessary because new technologies have multiplied exponentially since the early eighties, carries with it some unique problems. As FTE's are reduced and IRM relies increasingly on contractors to provide support for critical business processes, an orderly and expedient transfer of knowledge about the key areas of the business must pass to contract personnel. This transfer of organizational knowledge often involves a costly and often time-consuming learning curve.

For various reasons, contractors often move their technical personnel from one critical agency project to another or between agencies when more than one contract exists. A consequence is that key knowledge acquired by these technical persons, knowledge critical to the successful performance of the business-related analysis and design tasks, is sometimes not transferred effectively to their replacements. The net effect is the doubling of the adverse impact of shrinking agency personnel resources.

What to do? With a clear eye, both buyers and providers of technical services can understand the forces affecting the situation and work together to plan for it. A win-win agreement between an agency's IRM officials and the technical contractor is possible. IRM organizations and their contract service providers must ensure tangible continuity of acquired business expertise on and among projects. Some possible actions to accomplish this goal include having:

• Contractors and IRM officials develop a formal personnel transition plan governing the turnover of key personnel for the life of a project;
• Contractors identify ways to provide their staff with growth opportunities on the contract and within the contracting organization;
• Projects staffed with two kinds of agency and contractor personnel: 1) Agency-savvy analysts well-versed in the nuances of all related agency processes, and 2) subject-matter expert technical personnel; and
• Service providers coordinate plans for the transition of contract personnel among projects with federal contract management personnel. Such transition plans must ensure maintenance of a breadth of agency and project experience which grows and maintains a pool of skilled technical consultants available for contract work.

• With planning and up-front coordination between an agency and the potential service provider, an agency can turn the potentially negative effects of using increased contractor support in today's dynamic and downsized government into an asset.

The President's Corner
Making Partnerships Work

As an organization with sizable percentages of both Federal and industry members, maintaining appropriate relationships between members, and the organizations they are employed by, is especially important. That is one reason we have stressed, in the AFFIRMation and via other venues, AFFIRM's goals and objectives. It is critical that we continually reflect on the purposes that motivate us to associate and work together.

Some recent disharmony in the Federal IT community has demonstrated the down side of perhaps too much reflection on the parts, as opposed to the whole. As members joined together in partnership for the benefit of our common IT community, it is incumbent on each AFFIRM member to balance the partnership and individual objectives and benefits appropriately. It is also incumbent on each member to ensure that AFFIRM's leadership maintains that balance as well. AFFIRM works well only when we work together!

Implementing the Federal CIO

Since the February enactment of the Information Technology Management Reform Act (ITMA) of 1996, the Federal IT community has attempted to gain an understanding of the Act in preparation for implementation of its provisions. A CIO working group of senior federal IT executives, formed to help this effort, has had success addressing issues like identification of required CIO skills and qualifications, capital budgeting and investment control, and regulatory changes.

The group has also started development of a charter for a proposed CIO Council whose establishment is expected this spring, and to form important linkages to other groups, such as the CFO Council. Although the CIO workgroup has certainly exhibited many of the attributes of a "self-directed" team, Joe Thompson, CIO at GSA, deserves special mention for providing the catalyst to form the workgroup, and for investing substantial energy into ensuring the workgroup continues to produce at a prolific pace.

With help from the CIO and other workgroups, OMB issued an April 4 ITMRA implementation memorandum. OMB is also working on an Executive Order to further ITMRA's implementation process and revisions to circulars A-130 and A-11 to incorporate guidance for implementing the Act.

As reported in the March AFFIRMation, AFFIRM is tracking ITMRA implementation and will publish a white paper on the CIO issues in early June. In developing this paper we interviewed industry and Federal CIO-level executives and the Administration's lead on implementing the Act, John Koskinen, Deputy Director for Management at OMB. I am pleased AFFIRM is known to these senior executives, and that they eagerly anticipate our report. Stay tuned!

Paul Wohlleben



April Seminar Recap
Mr. Alvin Pesachowitz, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Administration and Resources Management (OARM), and the EPA Acting Chief Information Officer (CIO), was the speaker for our April Luncheon. Mr. Pesachowitz discussed two EPA challenges under the Information Technology Management Reform Act (ITMRA).

The first challenge is the changing roles of the CIO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) positions. Historically, until the ITMRA, one person held both the CIO and CFO positions at EPA. In response to ITMRA requirements, different individuals fulfill the duties of each position., with the CIO concentrating on agencywide IT and architectures.

Mr. Pesachowitz explained that a CIO's technical background may hold less importance than strong general management skills like leadership, communications, and cultural understanding. The CIO must also have credibility with agency and IT community peers and a level of responsibility and authority able to add credibility among an agency's senior agency management, providing a"seat at the table." This high-level accessability and credibility is necessary to the functioning of the CIO and to successful accomplishment of IT and IRM goals.

A second challenge is in the area of capital planning and performance measurement. The challenge in this area is assessment of the Return on Investment (ROI) for IRM and redefining net income. Quantifying the investment side of ROI is relatively easy, but placing a value on public health and the environment is not! Solving this difficult problem will provide better EPA IT performance measurement.



Emerging Issues Forum (EIF)
AFFIRM's Study on Implementation of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) position in the federal government will reach a successful conclusion in early June. While we began this effort prior to the Information Technology Management Reform Act (ITMRA) of 1996, the ITMRA's requirement to appoint a CIO in each federal executive agency definitely makes this project timely and of great interest to the IT community.

This project involves seeking advice from private and public sector CIOs on the role of, and expectations for, the CIO position. A group of AFFIRM members are currently interviewing various CIO's and other authorities to gain insight into the following issues:

What is the best way to organize and place the CIO function within an agency's organization to best meet the ITMRA's goals?

What is the CIO's role in agency business operations?

What are senior management's expectations of the CIO?

How can the CIO best meet the requirement to promulgate policies, procedures, and standards?

We expect to complete all interviews in May and plan to present the study's highlights first on June 6 at our Sustaining Partners function at George Washington University. We will then formally release the completed white paper at our regularly scheduled June luncheon seminar.



Upcoming Events
MAY 15 - CTP Program

Join the Capitol Telecommunications Professionals (CTP) for a special "Interactive Multimedia Explosion" program.

Time: 6:30PM
Location: Booz Allen & Hamilton
8283 Greensboro Drive
The Allen Building - Room 1169
McLean, VA 22102
(703) 902-5000

To register, please call the CTP Hotline (301) 564-1032, since space is limited.



MAY 16 - AFFIRM Luncheon

Subject: Future FTS2000: Coming Down to the Wire
Speakers: Bob Woods
> Dave Bittenbender
Candace Hardesty
Bill McGuigan
Time: 11:30 am Reception begins
Location: George Washington University
> University Club
800 21st Street, NW, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC
(2 blocks from Foggy Bottom Metro)

Please confirm attendance by May 14. Use either Voicemail at 202-686-4602; E-mail at Internet address affirm.info@epamail.epa.gov; or by using our World Wide Web page at Internet address www.fedcenter.com/affirm.



MAY 20-23 - FGIPC Conference
Federation of Government Information Processing Councils (FGIPC) XVI Management of Change Conference, May 20-23, 1996 at Vail, Colorado. The conference begins with a reception from 6:30 pm until 7:30 pm the evening of May 20.

To receive a Registration Form, or for more information, contact the FGIPC Headquarters Office:
Voice: (703) 506-9554
Fax: (703) 506-9309
Email: maemely@fgipc.org



Editor's Notes
This is the next to last AFFIRMation issue for the 1995-1996 season. What a great time for those of you with ideas for articles or intentions to write your own articles for the newsletter to submit your them. The only criteria is that the topic/subject is IT/IRM related and of interest to our members.

To discuss your ideas with the editors, contact Ava Arnone at (703) 277- 1521 or Internet E-mail at aarnone@mrj.com or Joe Lentini at (202) 260-2394 or via E-mail at lentini.joseph@epamail.epa.gov.