Weekly Round-up: August 1, 2014

John Kamensky

IT Reform Bill, Redux.  A bipartisan group of congressmen have unveiled a new IT acquisition reform bill, writes Sean Lyngaas, Federal Computer Week.  The bill would create a Digital Government Office in OMB, headed by a presidentially-appointed, Senate confirmed CIO.

Setting Priorities.  Robert McDonald, the new secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, has a 9-point, 90-day plan of action to begin righting the department’s problems, writes Josh Hicks, Washington Post.  Number One?  Data Integrity.

Millennial Management Tips.  When Millennials becomes managers, will they replace traditional memos with infographics?  Arleta Cobb, writing in Government Executive, encourages managers today to adopt a more graphic, dashboard-style approach to conveying important information. 

Healthcare.gov Experienced Management Problems.  The Government Accountability Office has testified about its report that serves as the definitive post-mortem. According to Jennifer Haberkorn and Brett Norman, Politico: “Much of the history of the disastrously flawed start to Obamacare enrollment has already been dissected during congressional hearings, but the GAO report adds specifics about the mismanagement and the spending.”

Climate Change as a Budget Issue.  The Government Accountability Office designated “adapting to climate change” as one of its high-risk areas for federal agencies.  In recent testimony, GAO describes the need for investment in resilience to protect major assets, such as naval seaports and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, from the effects of climate change and extreme weather.

State-Level Use of Lean Six Sigma.  According to a blog post by Hans Stroo, PLAN Washington, the State of Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, has reported the completion of 115 Lean Six Sigma projects across 33 state agencies to reduce waste.

Not Just Measuring Employee Engagement.  The annual employee viewpoint survey is due to be released in August.  This will be the first survey post-government shutdown, so many expect results to be poor.  In preparation, writes Jason Miller, Federal News Radio, the Office of Personnel Management is working with others to develop tools and strategies for agency managers to use to help them respond effectively.

Practical Advice for Managing Remote Workers.  Max Nisen, writing in Government Executive, offers a great summary on “How to Run a Team of People Who Never See Each Other.”

When Performance Measurement Goes Wrong.  Phil Joyce, in a Governing op-ed, provides some sage insights about performance measurement scandals, such as changes to school testing scores or the VA’s hospital scheduling problems.  He notes: “There is no incentive to misuse a performance measurement system unless the measures are used for something that people care about.”