Academics don’t always speak the same language as practitioners. But they oftentimes have useful ideas to convey. So how do we bridge the gap between research and practice? I’ve been asked to participate as a “practitioner” on a discussion panel at the upcoming conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) ItRead… Read more »
How do you organize a cross-agency collaborative effort to get results no single agency could accomplish on its own? The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has developed an inventory of “mechanisms that the federal government uses to lead and implement interagency collaboration,” along with a self-assessment checklist to consider when using them. GAO’s latest study onRead… Read more »
In a recent breakfast hosted by the Coalition for Government Procurement, Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Joe Jordan effectively punted on the notion of best value versus the realities of federal procurement; lowest priced offers win contracts. …Generally speaking, he said industry likes best-value procurements. They allow companies to propose higher prices, since officialsRead… Read more »
My last blog post was to get some advice for and from new 1102s, and the response have been great! I ran a parallel discussion on LinkedIn, and the responses there have also ben very productive (need to be a member of the group to access the link) Two that I especially like, as theyRead… Read more »
Applying agile software development methods to IT projects has been a hot topic as of late at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The agency recently unveiled a report highlighting its 32 tips for applying agile development to help improve how the federal government will develop and implement IT infrastructure projects. Specifically, these tips focus onRead… Read more »
Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: President Obama urged lawmakers to pass the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 that would create a public-private partnership to set cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure. More here. The U.S. Census Bureau plans to launch an economic statistics app for iPhone and Android devices and is streaming dataRead… Read more »
Gadi Ben-Yehuda Ludwig Wittgentsein is Weeding Wilting Tuts. Bill Gates thinks game-play will become more prevalent as a mode of teaching and learning. Meanwhile, “The Art of Video Games” debuts at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Tim O’Reilly argues that “only by having fun with technology can we truly unlock its potential.” And if youRead… Read more »
A perennial lament by advocates of the use of performance measures is that Congress seems to rarely use them in making decisions. Here’s a guide prepared by GAO, along with three examples of how congressional committees have used performance information to make decisions. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) works for Congress and is a bigRead… Read more »
Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: The Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team within the Department of Homeland Security reports a a 20-fold leap in the number of incidents since the team was created in 2009. More here. The Homeland Security Infrastructure Program gave Colorado authorities fighting deadly wildfires access toRead… Read more »
Protests are back in the news, although they never really left. I have been writing about this issue for some time (here and here), but the problem has only exploded in the last five years with the economic implosion, and now sequestration and budgeting Armageddon possible on the horizon. A recent report from IBM’s CenterRead… Read more »