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Government Leader home > news stories
12/14/05
Smoothing out the bumps in program management
By Trudy Walsh
Government Leader Staff
Be engaged, inspire employees and keep the lines of communication open with contracting staff—those are a few of the suggestions made by a panel on program management, sponsored by the E-Gov Institute recently in Washington.
Three government officials shared ideas on how to bridge the divide between program officials and contracting staff during the acquisition process.
David Drabkin, deputy chief acquisition officer and senior procurement executive at the General Services Administration, advised the audience to keep in mind the principles dictated by the Clinger-Cohen Act, the landmark legislation that ushered in the era of the CIO and set the stage for performance-based management for government IT.
Government “should buy IT modularly, a piece at a time,” Drabkin said. If agencies did that, Drabkin said he would “guarantee you better success” with IT programs.
“It costs money to do an acquisition well,” Drabkin said. “People try to approach program management not as a science but an art. Program management needs to be trained and taught."
Charles Havekost, CIO of the Health and Human Services Department, said that a program manager has to be able to “breed zealots.” Employees have to know that “by the force of sheer will, you’re not going to let this thing sink under the waves.”
Susan Gerbing, program manager for the Health IT Program Management Office, Office of Information at the Veterans Health Administration, gave an example of the difficulties that can arise in a large acquisition. The Veterans Affairs Department’s Core Financial and Logistics System (CoreFLS) was a $472 million financial management system that died on the vine in part because of poor communication, she said.
“Right now we’re seeing a lack of maturity in each agency regarding best practices,” Gerbing said. Agencies need to put in a governance structure, she added. “I can’t emphasize that enough.” Gerbing also encouraged listeners to get project management professional certification. “It’s not a difficult test,” she said.
Moderator Gail Rissler, executive vice president of the Systems Solutions Group at McDonald Bradley Inc. of Herndon, Va., asked the panelists to “talk about the real world—when requirements change.”
Be wary when things seem too good, Gerbing said. “When things are going swimmingly, something is amiss,” she said. “You need to have project meetings and status meetings so you’re always up to speed.
“I screamed for years to get my own dedicated contracting officers,” Gerbing said. “When I get into a situation, I can give them a call. The more I try to hide from the contracting officer, the more things go wrong.”
Rissler asked the final question: “If you were king or queen for the day in government, how would you bridge the gap?”
“Become engaged,” Gerbing said. “You’ll be surprised at the adrenaline it will produce in you.”
Havekost suggested that program managers be detailed to a very high performing project. They can see how it works, and then bring those skills back to their own shop.
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