The value of evidence based decision making

Federal Tech Talk

The value of evidence based decision making

This week on Federal Tech Talk, John Cofrancesco, vice president at Acuity Systems, joins host John Gilroy to discuss why data based decision making is importan...

August 18, 2020 7:17 am

1 min read

This week on Federal Tech Talk, host John Gilroy interviewed John Cofrancesco, vice president at Acuity Systems.

The topic — the value of making decisions based on data, not emotions or politics — will ring true to many federal information technology professionals.

Cofrancesco has a good perspective on this because he started in the government and has seen the importance of data-based decisions at each step of his career. It certainly seems like this concept was a strong undercurrent when a law was passed in 2019 called the Evidence-Based Policymakers Act.

Finally, federal leaders will have to use systematic planning, high quality of data governance, and keep a sharp eye on protecting data on federal projects.

During the interview, Cofrancesco elucidated upon the value of evidence-based decision making. He cited agencies who are doing it right and who can be models for other organizations. His company, Acuity Systems, specializes in helping large organizations establish models for data-based decision making.

One lesson from the COVID-19 crisis is that we are all forced to become more efficient with handling large data sets. Today, people meet in a virtual environment to make decisions. Some will argue that this can reduce some of the inefficiencies and force leaders to rely more on data to make decisions.

We all know the federal government is full of acronyms. This discussion introduces a brand new one: Chief Evaluation Officer, or CEO. Who knew that there would be a CEO at a federal agency?