A report sponsored by the Association for Federal Information
Resources Management, summarizes key concepts and responses
from the AFFIRM panelists following a May roundtable
discussion with ten senior government officials on what
it takes to move beyond the PMA rating of green and
achieve true breakthrough performance.
The forum made it clear that breakthrough performance does
not focus on IT, but instead focuses on agency outputs in
which IT is merely a tool, said the report, “Breakthrough
Performance: Why is it important? What will it take to
get there?”
It said breakthrough performance means “super-sized,”
significant achievements, and breaking away from the
organizational comfort zone.
One concept put forward during the discussion was that a
new management framework is necessary to cut across
organizational lines while maintaining accountability
and encouraging cross-fertilization of ideas. Some forum
participants advocated the addition of a chief operating
officer position — and going beyond organizational
inertia requires leadership originating from the deputy
secretary or equivalent, said the report.
It said current budgeting processes and limited marketing
are barriers to progress, and that the budget process
should allow for multi-year funding to give initiatives
time to reach fruition.
Another concept put forth was that in order for chief
information officers to have the authority to implement
significant changes they should report directly to the
department or agency’s top executive.
The report can be accessed at sparklist.com