Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009 - (Page 34)

Keys to Success With the launch of the President Management Agenda (PMA) in 2001 by President George W. Bush — and again with his signing of the E-Government Act of 2002 — the Bush administration called for improving the management and performance of the federal government through a more citizen-centered, results-oriented approach. In February 2003, we responded when U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam; Mark Forman, then-Office of Management and Budget (OMB), associate director of IT and e-government; then-Deputy Secretary Cameron Findlay; and I joined Secretary Chao as she electronically launched the DOL’s E-Government Strategic Plan, remarking that “our plan provides the blueprint for transforming the Labor Department into a ‘digital department’ [and] leading the way into the 21st century by offering American citizens an easy way to interact with the federal government.” 1. Leadership Support. While our agency recognized that leadership starts at the top, we also realized that the characteristics of leadership exist at all levels of the organization. For instance, executive-level deliberations and information sharing are conducted through departmental boards, which have proven crucial to the success of our departmentwide integration of major management systems. Together these boards — such as the Technical Review Board, which is chaired by DOL’s deputy CIO with the task of overseeing and managing the department’s major IT assets — have provided the infrastructure and leadership necessary for DOL’s continued achievement of goals under the increasing expectations of the PMA. GovBenefits.gov GovBenefits.gov is a DOL-led partnership of federal agencies with a shared vision: to provide improved, personalized access to government assistance programs. Since 2002, GovBenefits.gov has had more than 30.5 million visitors and transferred more than 7.7 million people to partner agency programs. The result: DOL provides citizen-centered, timely and accurate information — that lets our customers act at their convenience. DisabilityInfo.gov DisabilityInfo.gov was created in response to President Bush’s 2002 New Freedom Initiative, which directed federal agencies to work together to build a onestop interagency Web portal for people with disabilities, their families, employers, service providers and community. DisabilityInfo.gov was launched in October 2002 as a citizen-centric Web resource for information on jobs, training, housing, transportation, income support, health care, technology and other disability-related information. Through this site, businesses are educated on policies and best practices regarding the employment of people with disabilities. Since October 2002, DisabilityInfo.gov has received more than 8 million unique visitors. IN 2001 WE IMPLEMENTED AN “IT CROSSCUT” — A MECHANISM FOR FUNDING IT DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENTS THAT LET THE CIO REVIEW AGENCY PROPOSALS FOR IT PROJECTS THAT WERE PROPOSED TO BENEFIT DOL AS A WHOLE. 2. Clear Objectives. There’s no substitute for clarity in our guidance and information. We ensured that IT information and our e-government strategic plan were in place and used at all levels within the organization. These efforts at clear objectives that were supported through our increased oversight of DOL’s IT budget, resulting in better control of the agency’s IT programs, which changed how DOL does business. In 2001 we implemented an “IT crosscut” — a mechanism for funding IT development investments that let the CIO review agency proposals for IT projects that were proposed to benefit DOL as a whole. In turn, it also let the CIO reject proposals that duplicated other agency efforts or weren’t in line with the overall IT strategy. Through the scrutiny of the OMB and Congress, the IT crosscut survives and remains key to the way we continue to conduct business. 3. Employee Involvement. Though clear direction remains central to our ongoing efforts, it’s DOL’s talented IT staff that has turned direction into results. Consistent input from — and dialog with — our IT team is a strong component of our successes. The same goes for DOL’s IT contractors. And it all ends with accountability: measuring the manner and degree of effectiveness with which we deliver IT leadership and support. This is captured in employee performance plans that articulate the expected results. For our contractor colleagues, it’s detailed in performance-based contracts that [34] http://www.GovBenefits.gov http://www.GovBenefits.gov http://www.GovBenefits.gov http://www.DisabilityInfo.gov http://www.DisabilityInfo.gov http://www.DisabilityInfo.gov http://www.DisabilityInfo.gov

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009

Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009 Contents Contributors Introduction Tense Times Insider Threat Twenty and Counting Labor of Love Putting Process Into Play Crossover Appeal FastGov CIO Central Security Adviser CIOs Pluck BlackBerry Phones From the Field Straight Talk

Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009

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