Letter: Guidance needed to fix IT acquisition process
Regarding "
IAC tells transition team about IT in government"
I
think these and other well meaning reports will validate what most of
us take for granted: The government information technology aquisition
process is completely broken, something we have have said in one form
or another since the Clinger Cohen Act.
The real challenge now
is not beating the drum, but providing actionable guidance on what
specific rice bowls that need to be eliminated, which processes need to
be revamped and optimizing the IT supply chain. The outsource of
inherently government decision making positions is one of the root
causes of failure. Vendors seek to optimize influence and profits. This
is orthogianl to public service objectives of government.
Secondly,
I hope the adminstration recognized that it can't solve today's
problems with the same kind of thinking that got us there in the first
place. Please be very selective when bringing back recently departed
Defense Department IT leadership. Those who fail to learn from history
are bound to repeat it. So, lets take a hard look at our patterns of
failure and recognize that the processes, advisers and government
leaders involved are part of the failure pattern.
Just a thought.
John WeilerInterop. Clearinghouse
What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.