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Chief Information Officer
Department/Agency: Cross-Cutting Management Positions
Position:
Chief Information Officer
-- 24 Established by law in Cabinet Departments and largest Agencies
-- 90 other Agency CIOs
Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation
Major Responsibilities:
Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:
- Management of large IT projects within the government or working closely with government
- Advanced technical skills
- Business experience at senior level in public or private sector
- Strong leadership and communication skills, including ability to work with non-technical staff
- Solid negotiating skills
- Understanding federal budget, appropriations, and legislative processes
Note: The Federal CIO Council updates the core competencies for CIOs every two years. They can be found on the Council website under IT Workforce/Clinger-Cohen Core Competencies. The 24 Cabinet departments and agencies with statutory CIOs are: Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Agency for International Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration.
Insight:
A series of large-scale federal computer systems failures in the 1980s and 1990s led Congress in 1996 to overhaul the way the government purchased computers and technology and managed these complex systems. This action was precipitated by IT debacles at the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Pentagon and other agencies. The problems were catalogued in a headline-making 1994 Senate Governmental Affairs Committee report, Computer Chaos: Billions Wasted Buying Federal Computer Systems. The investigation was led by William Cohen, then a Republican senator from Maine who was soon to become secretary of defense in President Bill Clinton’s second term.
The Information Technology Management Reform Act (known as the Clinger-Cohen Act) took central authority for IT procurement out of the hands of the General Services Administration and gave it to departments and agencies. It also created a new, high level position of Chief Information Officer inside each major agency and gave the CIO authority to impose discipline on IT projects. The law stipulated that new systems and acquisitions should be grounded in successful commercial IT practices. It required agencies to develop an overall information architecture, measure IT's contribution to program performance, and consider whether contracting out IT would work better than doing it in-house. The government was not alone in recognizing the need to upgrade the status of those running its computers. A 2004 Government Accountability Office report noted that the changes brought about by Clinger-Cohen “mirror the development of the CIO position in industry where it has moved from a technical support focus to a much more executive and strategic level position.”
Although the basic responsibilities are the same for all agencies, the CIO role differs by agency mission and size. The government budget for IT tops $70 billion annually. The scale and complexity of what the Pentagon’s chief information officer faces dwarfs the responsibilities facing a CIO at an independent agency such as the Small Business Administration. But budget disparities alone do not tell the full story about the demands of these jobs. A CIO who has worked in both large and small agencies said, “Although it’s counterintuitive, small agency CIOs need a greater degree of IT experience than large agency CIOs. They have much smaller management teams and staff to rely upon” versus the literally dozens of executives and thousands of staff working for the CIO in the biggest Cabinet departments. Running IT at one of the largest agencies requires leadership skills even more than technical expertise, this CIO said. In those situations, the CIO needs a deputy who can supply the requisite IT expertise.
Current and past CIOs spoke about their jobs to The Council for Excellence in Government for this new edition of The Prune Book. Here are their observations.
Challenges Facing CIOs. In addition to managing in a severely constrained budget environment (something facing everyone), three challenges stood out:
- Protecting information and systems from attack, espionage, and theft
- Aligning IT office priorities with the agency priorities
- Gaining the confidence of the top leadership
The task of securing agency computers and databases is increasingly daunting as hackers become bolder and more sophisticated in their attacks. Loss or theft of laptops containing sensitive information has created headaches for managers and worries for customers and the public at large. With so much business now conducted online and so much information shared among computer systems, the burden on CIOs has grown to build in the necessary safeguards while maximizing efficiency.
Many CIOs stressed to the Council the importance of aligning IT priorities with the agency’s mission. IT “is an enabler for achieving the agency objectives,” one CIO said. Unless that is the approach taken from the start, the CIO operation will be seen as only technical and not policy relevant. To deliver for the agency and for taxpayers, CIOs must gain the confidence of top leadership. Without this confidence, the CIO will find it difficult to make progress since most of the CIO’s real authority comes from the agency head. Without that support from the top, the CIO can be dismissed as just “the tech guy.” One former CIO said information technology “must be a key part of any strategy discussion.” Ensuring that the CEO and the CIO are in sync will help the CIO manage the inevitable internal and external pressures as they attempt to institute systems change.
Limit Priorities And Stay Focused. CIOs cited the need to establish a limited number of priorities, set realistic expectations for what can be accomplished, and stay focused. “If you let what’s less important drive your time and attention, you’re toast,” said one CIO. “The opportunities for distraction for CIOs are immense – from internal and external sources. You won’t survive if you try to be everything to everyone.” Another CIO cited the constant demand to meet with contractors seeking the agency’s business. That can be a major distraction, especially at a large department or agency. Contractors “can consume your schedule,” this CIO warned. His advice was to refer them to the agency’s technical team who are better suited to understand what the contractor had to offer.
Working With OMB and Other CIOS. The primary way in which CIOs coordinate throughout the government is through the CIO Council established by executive order in the Clinton administration. The Council’s charge is to act as the principal interagency forum to improve agency practices on such matters as the design, modernization, use, sharing, and performance of information resources. The Council is chaired by the OMB Deputy Director for Management and is comprised primarily of 28 major agencies and several additional members (e.g., NIST and NARA). There also is a separate Small Agency CIO Council (SACC) comprised of 90 small, independent federal agencies. In addition to providing a way for CIOs to learn from each other, the Council has committees that work on such topics as privacy, best practices, architecture and infrastructure, and the IT workforce. In this way, the Council helps CIOs resolve common problems, work better and consistently across agencies, and communicate with OMB on the direction of federal information technology. To further improve federal management of information resources, the E-Government Act of 2002 established an Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology in OMB, whose administrator is the principal point of contact at OMB for CIOs (although the Deputy Director for Management at OMB chairs the CIO Council). This arrangement has increased OMB oversight of agency requests for funding IT projects, and that is not going to change. A CIO at a major agency said, “Too often we’ve said, ‘IT is good; give us more money,’” and that simply no longer works.
CIO Visibility. Aside from needing the confidence of the agency head and being seen as a part of the executive decision-making team, one former CIO offered this warning and advice on external visibility. “I was amazed by the enormous visibility and interest by the media in all things relating to federal government CIOs. In particular, there was a large and willing federal IT media that was hungry for news.” This media visibility could be used effectively “to help communicate the IT/CIO strategy of my Department to industry and Congress.”
Make the Most of Existing Systems. Even before the financial crisis hit, agencies were paying closer attention to IT expenses, especially outlays for new systems. All are trying to make better use of the systems on hand. “Getting greater value from your IT [is key] so that you are not forced into the position of needing significant new monies to deliver significantly more products and services to the agency’s business units,” one CIO said.
Other Working Relationships. Aside from the agency head, the CFO was most frequently cited by the CIOs as the key peer with whom a solid working relationship is essential. Outside the agency, CIOs need to build relationships with officials in OMB and the Government Accountability Office, as well as with congressional staff and contractors supplying their agency or serving as IT consultants. A former Commerce CIO concluded: “If you work hard and try hard, this will be the most rewarding job of your career. You will look back and say, ‘I really did something and I did it for my country.’”
Key Relationships – Within the Department or Agency:
Secretary and Deputy Secretary
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Acquisition Officer
Chief Human Capital Officer
Inspector General
Assistant secretary with line program responsibilities
Career staff in the CIO office
Key Relationships – Within the Government:
OMB Deputy Director for Management
OMB Administrator, Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology
Government Accountability Office
Other agency CIOs through the CIO Council (chaired by OMB)
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Archives and Records Administration
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency
The National Defense University’s Information Resources Management College (IRMC) and the USDA Graduate School continuing education programs
Key Relationships – Outside the Government:
American Council for Technology (ACT)
Association for Federal Information Resource Managers (AFFIRM)
Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA)
IT Association of America (ITAA)
National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO)
Council for Excellence in Government
Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA)
Nomination Referred to:
Senate confirmation not required.
Nominated by Department or Agency head.
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