President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) chief information officer (CIO) told senators that one of his first priorities would be creating a new program management office (PMO) to oversee the department’s sprawling technology portfolio.
Appearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on June 3, Gary Shatswell, whom Trump nominated in April to serve as assistant secretary for information and technology and VA CIO, said the office would help bring greater transparency to the department’s IT modernization efforts.
“One of the first tasks that I will be going after will be to implement a program management office, if confirmed,” Shatswell said.
Shatswell, who is currently serving as a senior advisor to the secretary at the VA, called the office a “necessary piece” that does not exist at the leadership level of the VA’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT).
Shatswell said previous efforts to establish stronger program management structures lacked the tools and processes necessary to provide meaningful oversight. He said a new PMO would be supported by proper tooling and dashboarding capabilities to ensure tech programs are monitored effectively.
“There is a significant need for a proper program management office. I call it a program or portfolio value office, because at the end of the day, we need to be driving the right value to the veterans, and that’s the focus of everything that we should be doing at OIT,” Shatswell said.
He said the office would support the adoption of agile management practices across the organization and improve transparency around technology projects.
“If confirmed, that will drive accountability at the individual worker level. It will drive visibility at the stakeholder level, so that everyone knows what’s going on and what’s the status and the priority of their piece within the work that OIT is doing,” Shatswell said. “So, eyes wide open, anybody can see it. It’s not a mystery. That’s what we would be driving towards.”
Other technology priorities
Beyond the PMO proposal, Shatswell outlined several broader technology priorities for the department.
He told lawmakers that VA needs stronger governance around artificial intelligence (AI), including “clear, bright-lined guardrails of security and privacy” that would allow the department to use AI to improve productivity and support human decision-making.
Shatswell also said that VA should treat enterprise data as a strategic asset and pursue greater consolidation of information systems across the department.
“One of the areas that I believe we need to focus on … is we need an enterprise data platform,” he proposed. “We need an enterprise data exchange where there’s one place for the warfighter golden record, where all of that data is contained, and it’s the one system of record that everything points to.”
Shatswell pointed to appointment scheduling as an example of the challenges created by the department’s fragmented technology environment.
“Right now, we have 14 scheduling solutions that I’m aware of,” he said. “That’s just unacceptable.”
“One of my favorite things is turning things off. So, my goal would be to turn off as many things as possible and reduce the complexity,” Shatswell added.
If confirmed, Shatswell would take over the role from Paul Lawrence, who is serving as the CIO in an acting capacity.
Shatswell has more than 30 years of experience as a CIO and technology executive. Most recently, Shatswell served as group CIO at Unilever Prestige, and before that, he served as CIO at Paula’s Choice Skincare.