Sponsored by

Defense

• Featured
  
  Ethics: Rules vs. common sense?
  Industry executives worry that heightened ethics sensitivity will stymie productive and necessary relations between government and industry.
  (Posted 9/24/2007)
  Love/hate relationship with NMCI
  The Navy and Marine Corps have learned many lessons from the massive — and controversial — outsourcing project.
  (Posted 9/10/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  Compensating for Incomplete Domain Knowledge
  Senior Air Force leaders compensate for such things as lack of technical knowledge or functional experience by using compensating competencies such as enterprise knowledge, integration skills, problem-solving skills, and people skills. (RAND Corporation, 2007)
  

Enterprise Architecture

• Featured
  
  10 perspectives on EA
  Leadings lights from around the federal IT community share take a stab at defining EA and its importance to good government.
  (Posted 8/27/2007)
  FlipSide: A case for EA
  No agency wants to be without an enterprise architecture, according to a recent book on the topic whose authors focus on its strategic benefits.
  (Posted 8/27/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  DON Enterprise Architecture Management View
  The DON EA management view highlights progress and identifies areas requiring attention. It will be used as a catalyst for making architectures more relevant to the Department leaders and for addressing long-standing shortfalls within the architecture arena. (Navy CIO, September 7, 2007)
  

Executive

• Featured
  
  The FCW library
  Managing through the disruption.
  (Posted 9/3/2007)
  I love my job
  FCW's survey of best agencies for information technology employees shows that many feds maintain a sense of idealism, even when faced with perennial workplace challenges.
  (Posted 8/6/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  The Efficacy of Leaders to Assess Information and Make Decisions in a Crisis
  The Crisis Leader Efficacy in Assessing and Deciding (C-LEAD) scale captures the self-efficacy of an individual to perform two critical crisis leader behaviors, assessing information and making decisions, in the face of the ambiguity, high stakes, and urgency present in crises. (Kennedy School of Government, August 22, 2007)
  

• Featured
  
  Personal data: Up close and impersonal
  Encrypted indexing techniques let security agencies exchange information more freely without sacrificing personal privacy.
  (Posted 8/27/2007)
  Security's new unified command
  Agencies see many benefits to managing physical and IT security together.
  (Posted 7/23/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  DOD Joint Doctrine for Homeland Defense
  This publication provides doctrine for the defense of the U.S. homeland across the range of military operations. It provides information on command and control, interagency and multinational coordination, and operations required to defeat external threats to, and aggression against, the homeland. (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 12, 2007)
  

Integrators

• Featured
  
  Love/hate relationship with NMCI
  The Navy and Marine Corps have learned many lessons from the massive — and controversial — outsourcing project.
  (Posted 9/10/2007)
  FlipSide: Election season heats up
  The big election for the Industry Advisory Council’s Executive Committee is under way.
  (Posted 5/21/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  Role of Lead Systems Integrator on Future Combat Systems Program Poses Oversight Challenges
  This report addresses why the Army decided to employ an lead systems integrator (LSI) for the FCS program; the nature of the LSI’s working relationship with the Army; and how FCS contract fees, provisions and incentives work. (GAO, June 2007)
  

Network Infrastructure

• Featured
  
  Will WiMax save the day?
  In theory, WiMax can blanket a city with affordable and fast wireless data service, but how often that will happen remains to be seen.
  (Posted 7/23/2007)
  Einstein keeps an eye on agency networks
  Voluntary network gateway monitoring program gives DHS a big-picture view of federal cybersecurity.
  (Posted 5/21/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  Nationwide Plan for Interoperable Communications
  The Emergency Response Council members agreed on the principles, initiatives, and actions necessary for a Nationwide Plan for Interoperable Communications to successfully guide and drive efforts at all levels of government. This plan will help local, state, regional, tribal, and federal practitioners make planning, investment, and procurement decisions for interoperability with confidence. (Emergency Response Council, Summer 2007)
  

Smart Shoppers

• Featured
  
  20 years of marvels and missteps
  Come along for Federal Computer Week's guided information technology tour.
  (Posted 9/10/2007)
  Virtual servers, real threats
  Agencies face new security management challenges when they adopt server virtualization.
  (Posted 9/10/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  Implementation of Commonly Accepted Security Configurations for Windows
  Agencies that have Windows XP deployed and plan to upgrade to the Vista operating system, are directed to adopt the security configurations developed by NIST, DOD and DHS. (OMB, March 22, 2007)
  

Program Management

• Featured
  
  FlipSide: FCW Time Machine: 2002
  A good problem to have
  (Posted 9/24/2007)
  10 perspectives on EA
  Leadings lights from around the federal IT community share take a stab at defining EA and its importance to good government.
  (Posted 8/27/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  How to Collect and Analyze Data: A Manual for Sheriffs and Jail Administrators
  This manual provides guidance on how information affects policy decision making. Topics include good management; data collection; how to locate and capture information; analyzing, interpreting, and sharing information; and getting the most from an information system. (National Institute of Corrections, July 2007)
  

Security

• Featured
  
  Marrying data and security
  Partial solutions exist for providing persistent protection, but getting all of them to work together will be the next challenge.
  (Posted 9/24/2007)
  Virtual servers, real threats
  Agencies face new security management challenges when they adopt server virtualization.
  (Posted 9/10/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  Information Security: Agencies Need to Address Persistent Weaknesses
  Significant weaknesses in information security policies and practices threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical information and information systems used to support the operations, assets, and personnel of most federal agencies. (GAO, July 2007)
  

Wireless

• Featured
  
  Will WiMax save the day?
  In theory, WiMax can blanket a city with affordable and fast wireless data service, but how often that will happen remains to be seen.
  (Posted 7/23/2007)
  FlipSide
  Beam me up, Scotty?
  (Posted 6/25/2007)
  
  
• Source Document
  
  Remote Control -- Federal CISOs Dish on Mobility, Telework, and Data Security
  Managing security in an increasingly mobile agency computing environment, 63 percent of federal CISOs flag securing mobile devices as their number-one priority. Calling for a standards-based approach, some 83 percent of Federal CISOs express strong interest in a FISMA-compliant mobile end-point certification. (Telework Exchange, August 27, 2007)