The goals of digital modernization at various federal agencies for 2022 depend on the leadership’s understanding of the individual agency’s missions to improve the customer experience, according to some federal chief information officers.
Speaking during an ATARC panel on Tuesday, leaders in the public technology space discussed some of the most important parts of their agencies ’digital transformation journeys for the new year. A key theme in some departments is ongoing engagement with all program offices and sub agencies with the department’s larger goal of implementing new emerging technologies in day-to-day operations. business application.
“Every month we meet with each other in different parts of the agency and look at their mission roadmap and how IT fits into it,” said Sanjay Koyani, chief technology officer at the Labor Department. He explained that interaction with staff at various sub-agencies improves the customer experience both for the agency as well as the civilian end user.
This approach also helps in better allocating departmental resources and addressing the most pressing issues. End user caution when modernizing the federal customer experience was highlighted in President Joe Biden’s modernization executive order from December 2021.
“For me, that’s a really key part of any kind of digital transformation journey, is solving the right problem and communicating with your customer ahead of time,” said Kevin Duvall, chief technology officer at the Administration for Children and Families within the Department of Health and Human Services. Duvall clarified that his office prioritizes serving children and families, and lets these end users act as guides when updating agency program websites and business applications.
Both Koyani and Duvall agreed that collecting feedback from so many internal and external stakeholders supports individual modernization needs and focuses on aligning digital transformation with agency needs.
“Our goal is to continue to mature as a centralized service environment and at the same time continue to learn how to define the best funding streams and the best priority strategies for different agencies to implement various systems to innovate in a way that is in line with the mission of the agency, ”Koyani said.
The same approach is used for more decentralized agencies such as NASA. Matt Dosberg, acting associate division chief and digital transformation lead at the space agency, said that while his challenges begin with NASA’s decentralized layout, building coalition -style teams to promote needs at the level of mission helps focus on specific solutions.
“The overall strategy is to build these partnerships and coalitions to partner with these business solutions and try to develop a more cultural and business strategy,” he said. “Aligning their priorities and their goals and understanding what their target outcomes are … is kind of key.”
Dosberg also noted another common thread that federal organizations lean heavily on for modernization insights: data. NASA aims to prioritize data policy implementation and digital engineering in offices, specifically at Goddard Flight Station, to assist in handling complex missions.
At Labor, Koyani said the data would be an important metric as well.
“A lot of what we’re trying to do with our business applications is make sure we have a strong layer of data underneath it,” he said. Part of Labor’s digital overhaul plan is updating data dashboards for an easier user experience.
For many agencies, integrating a more robust data architecture into federal applications will help fill the gap left by legacy systems while implementing emerging technologies, such as automation or machine learning.
Duvall also noted that having a stronger data-driven component in modernized enterprise architectures can also help measure the modernization and success of digital transformation.
Jonathan Alboum, who previously served as chief information officer at the Department of Agriculture and is now chief technology officer at ServiceNow, agrees that data trends in federal agencies depend on the inclusion of actionable data that driving effective business decisions.
Making this data actionable comes from a deep understanding of where the data comes from and how it moves in an environment.
“As you digitize your work, we’re trying to make it simpler for people to interact with our agencies from a CX perspective,” Alboum said. “The data is great, but how you use it and how it flows … I think that’s really critical … so that we can take meaningful actions on it.”