Today’s guest is Steve Harris, vice president and general manager for Dell Federal Systems.  Everyone knows that in late 2015 partial grades were given to twenty four agencies for their performance to guidelines called FITARA.   During the interview, Harris gives his perspective of working with several agencies over the years.

He mentions that one long term effect of FITARA is the empowering of federal CIOs.  Last year there were an estimated two hundred fifty CIOs distributed throughout the federal government.  Some like to classify the distribution of them as being department CIOs and component CIOs.  FITARA gives power to the department CIOs, if they choose to use it.

One dramatic example that was brought up during the interview was the surprise move when the Department of Transportation’s CIO Richard McKinney issues a freeze in information technology spending in December.  This halt was dependent on the CIOs who report to him complete reports.

The next twelve to eighteen months will flush out which CIOs are pro-active in implementing some of the initiatives of FITARA.

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