18F

Government agencies, some more aggressively than others, are looking for ways to modernize their digital practices and make them stick.

The General Services Administration told the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations that its 18F organization fixed many of its initial start-up problems and almost broke even in 2019.

In today’s Federal Newscast, the departments of Commerce, Defense, Transportation and Homeland Security are on the clock to figure out how best to secure the systems that support global positioning satellites and related critical infrastructure.

Anil Cheriyan, the former SunTrust Bank chief information officer, will take on his first stint in government.

The federal government is having a hard time attracting employees with up-to-date technology skills. One data point that illustrates the problem: Roughly half of the government’s technology workforce is over the age of 50.

Alla Goldman Seiffert, acting director of 18F’s office of acquisition, said their mission is to help vendors spend less resources on the bidding process and more on the delivery.

GSA’s 18F organization created an ATO sprint team that streamlined the process and reduced time to complete an ATO from six-to-18 months to 30 days.

In today’s Federal Newscast, a D.C.-area congresswoman introduces legislation to make sure federal employees get at least up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

The department announced a beta platform called Lighthouse Lab for developers to access tools for creating mobile and web applications.

The White House plans to give IT modernization efforts a boost through Technology Business Management (TBM) standards.