Weekly Round Up - March 29, 2019

Michael J. Keegan

TSA pushes on 3D baggage scanning. The Transportation Security Administration is moving quickly on acquisition plans to put "game-changing" 3D baggage scanning systems in place.

How two supply chain security efforts can co-exist. A new task force and an interagency council are tackling supply chain issues, but the government shutdown delayed efforts to sync them up.

What's in store for CDM in 2019 and beyond? The program will spend the next two years operationalizing data and building out a new risk scoring algorithm, but agencies continue to "leave the door wide open" through bad hygiene.

How to Hire Right Now. Most of us know that success in business depends on people. Scott Wintrip takes on the topic of hiring talent in his new book, High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant. Through his global consultancy, Wintrip Consulting Group, Scott has worked with companies around the world to hire top talent in less than an hour. 

John Kamensky

OMB & OPM on People Priorities.A Federal Timesinterview starts:  “Serving as both the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget and the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, Margaret Weichert stands at a unique intersection for improving agency operations, with a particular focus on impacts to the federal workforce. Weichert sat down with Federal Times to discuss the Trump administration’s government reform plan, cooperation with Congress and the future of the civil service.”

Yes, There Is a Correlation.Federal Timesreports:“Improving employee engagement at federal agencies could also positively impact the satisfaction citizens have with those agencies’services, according to a case studyreleased by the Partnership for Public Service and the Boston Consulting Group March 25.”

Management DOES Matter.NextGovreports: “he Veterans Affairs Department is still on track to debut its new and improved electronic health record system early next year, but the timelines for other modernization efforts are more uncertain, officials told Congress. . . . As the agency moves forward with multiple IT overhauls, lawmakers warned officials not to repeat the mismanagement that’s historically derailed their tech initiatives.”

Institutionalizing Data Standards. Government Executivereports: “Five years after the passage of the DATA Act, . . . the Office of Management and Budget [not] done enough to communicate its definitions of program data standards and how they differ from the Treasury Department’s more technical standards, the Government Accountability Office said in a Friday reportto House and Senate committee leaders.

Just What Is: “Best in Class?”Federal News Networkreporter Jason Miller asks:“What does the term “best-in-class contracts”really mean? . . . I bring this up now because the new category management memofrom the Office of Management and Budget strongly encourages agencies to use “best-in-class”contracts to help meet the initiative’s goals.”

Starting vs. Scaling AI.  Federal News Networkreports:“Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, the director of DoD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center(JAIC), said one of the major stumbling blocks around AI is this paradox: That it is “deceptively easy”to launch AI pilots with initially powerful results, but at the same time, it is “fiendishly hard”to scale up AI to enterprise-wide applications.”

Next Week on The Business of Government Hour: Conversation with Bill Valdez, President, Senior Executives Association. What is the Senior Executives Association? How does it seek to build a leadership pipeline for U.S. federal agencies? Join host Michael Keegan from the 2019 ASPA Annual Conference as he explores these questions and more with Bill Valdez, President, Senior Executives Association.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED. 

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