The IBM Center’s Research Priorities: Supporting Key Missions of Government from the Transition to a New Administration

The IBM Center for The Business of Government is committed to helping identify and distill the lessons learned from the past, identify current and new management initiatives and capacities that will be needed to address key challenges facing the country in the next administration, and offer ideas on implementation.

Weekly Roundup March 18, 2016

'The best leaders allow themselves to be persuaded'. Steve Kelman notes that a critical leadership trait is far harder than it sounds.

Healthcare entering next wave of cyberthreats. While there's evidence that organizations are better controlling data loss, today's attackers are becoming much more targeted and sophisticated

Interoperability - Next Steps

In one of my previous posts, I referenced the Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework, which enables healthcare stakeholders to create standards, specifications, and implementation guidelines that facilitate effective healthcare information exchange. This will facilitate the adoption of interoperable standards.

Creating the appropriate environment for successful adoption of IT Governance that supports improved security

To start, guiding principles can ensure that all staff have a common understanding of the core IT Governance criteria. These guiding principles let staff know that IT Governance is recognized by the C-Suite as critical to the organization’s success, and that IT resources result in maximum effectiveness and efficiency across the organization. It ensures that security is integrated in meeting requirements and delivers benefits set by an organization’s business leaders.

The "De-Siloization" of Knowledge in Government

The long hallways of the State Department’s headquarters building in Foggy Bottom are called “corridors.”  Over the decades, that is where people from different offices and bureaus ran into each other, informally got business done, and shared tips for being successful at different foreign posts.  And that’s where reputations were made, and unmade. 

Weekly Roundup March 25, 2016

Do health IT and privacy rules need a refresh? Training and definitions may prove the modest start of national health IT improvement, though lawmakers signaled skepticism even as they acknowledged problems in the current regime. "We haven't realized the full potential of health IT for every person in this country," acknowledged National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr.

Does Performance Matter?

However, several articles in a recent issue of Public Administration Review have caught my attention and challenge some of my assumptions. 

Performance measurement is about measuring the performance of government and its programs – but what about measuring the effectiveness of performance measures themselves?  Ironically, it turns out that it is harder than you might think.

New Organizational Structure Required for an Effective IT Governance Program With Strong Security

This consists of a definition of IT Governance communicated throughout the agency, and the establishment of a new organizational structure to ensure the IT Governance Program is effective and continuously improved. Continuing with the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) example discussed in the previous blog, below is the definition VA developed and a generic discussion of the organizational structure that VA adopted.

Weekly Roundup: March 28 - April 1, 2016

John Kamensky

Clock Ticks. Government Executive reports:  “As the Obama administration winds down and a presidential transition looms, agency leaders insist they're committed to fulfilling the president's goals rather than trimming their sails as time grows shorter.”

Funding What Works Requires Building Performance Systems

The Urban Institute has launched a new web resource to explain Pay for Success, which it says is various forms of performance-based contracting used to support the delivery of targeted, high-impact preventative social services where an intervention at an early stage can reduce the need for higher-cost services in the future. Pay for Success funding systems can take many different forms and already operate in different policy arenas.

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