Weekend Reader

The Department of Transportation’s F+ on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard does not reflect all of the agency’s compliance work, according to a DOT spokesperson who asked to remain anonymous. […]

Censeo Consulting Group worked with Cyrrus Analytics and Hettinger Strategy Group to create the report “FITARA at a Crossroads.” MeriTalk summarizes the 10 recommendations. […]

Sheila Yahyazadeh, senior consultant of KPMG’s Federal sector, said that Federal agencies’ disappointing scores on the FITARA report card could be an opportunity for learning and growth. […]

Tony Summerlin, who helped write FedRAMP, said he envisioned the program as a much quicker and sleeker version of what it is today. He says speed is one of the biggest challenges to Federal initiatives across the board, not just in the application of FedRAMP. […]

When Richard McKinney started his job as chief information officer of the Department of Transportation, he didn’t know what its network looked like. “Our network was the child of many hands,” McKinney said. “There was no overarching architectural approach to our network.” […]

FITARA addresses the following four areas: Incremental development, risk assessment transparency, IT portfolio review savings, and data center consolidation. How do these areas support cybersecurity actions? […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture received a C grade on its Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard, which was released in May. Flip Anderson, acting executive director of FITARA for USDA, was so frustrated with the FITARA grading system that he created his own scorecard to gauge how closely the USDA complies with the act’s mandates. […]

Time may be running out on the Federal government’s plan to replace and modernize billions of dollars’ worth of legacy IT systems—some of which date back more than 40 years and control critical programs, including the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal. […]

Proponents of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) worry that a change in presidential administration could derail the progress made to release Federal financial data to the public. […]

NASA’s progress meeting the requirements of FITARA has been anything but out of this world. Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voiced disappointment at the mediocre progress made by most agency chief information officers, but NASA, arguably the most high-tech of all Federal agencies, was the only one to receive an F. […]

Congress next week plans to hold a hearing on how Federal agencies are doing in their adherence to the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, known as FITARA, and the public will get its first look at the second round of agency grades. […]

To dig deeper into the many factors that have contributed to the current state of affairs in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, MeriTalk spoke with some of the leading agency authorities about the many data center challenges facing chief information officers, and the plans and policies that hold the most promise of helping the government achieve its data center consolidation goals. […]

FITARA Fault Lines My Capitol Hill listening post has picked up several encrypted messages from the Government Accountability Office suggesting that the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act may be widening some major fault lines across government. While the law was designed to strengthen the role of the chief information officer, the Situation Report has […]

For FITARA to reach its full potential, Federal agencies must dissect the real problems and attract stronger CIOs, Dave Powner, Director of IT Issues at the Government Accountability Office, told MeriTalk’s FITARA Forum in Washington, D.C. […]

Just 11 percent of Federal IT managers say their data centers are fully equipped to meet their agency’s current mission demands, according to a report by MeriTalk. The report, titled “Flash Forward–The Future of the Federal Data Center” and underwritten by Pure Storage, asked 150 Federal IT/data center professionals to predict and examine the future […]

MeriTalk’s feature, a Q&A with prominent IT leaders, focuses this time on Greg Godbout, the Chief Technology Officer and U.S. Digital Service lead at the Environmental Protection Agency. […]

It has been 15 months since the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act was enacted and relatively few Federal agencies have taken meaningful steps to integrate the letter and spirit of the law into their day-to-day functions. Sure, there’s been a lot of talk. But when it comes to bridging the FITARA gap—the chasm between the Federal CIO and the rank and file—little has been achieved. […]

MeriTalk’s feature, a Q&A with prominent IT leaders, focuses this time on G. Nagesh Rao, the Chief Technologist with the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Investment and Innovation for the Small Business Technology Transfers (STTR)/ Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs. […]

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