Federal IT leaders have it tough. In general, they face hard challenges, are constantly getting their budgets cut, they must comply with tough security guidelines, and must support a workforce who think everything should work like it does in rich corporate environments or in computer security lax homes. And they must support and serve some of the hardest missions on earth.
I appreciate most all the IT leaders I have met in the federal IT space. But a select few rise above all others. Folks like Bobby Laurine, Prescott Winter, Bob Flores, and Al Tarasiuk.
One of those, Al Tarasiuk, was the subject of an article in CIO magazine today. See it at http://www.cio.com/article/print/441116
Here is a little bit of what that article says:
Tarasiuk has, so far, opened up the 61-year-old insular spy agency to
the concept of more efficient and effective information sharing by
using Web 2.0 technologies, such as the CIA’s Wikipedia-like Intellipedia
that’s used across the U.S. intelligence community. Another sign of
change is a grassroots, Web-based collaboration among Russian
intelligence experts at several U.S. agencies, which enables analysts
to securely share their insights, analysis and information on breaking
news on Russia.
Tarasiuk has instituted a new IT governance team that has—for the first
time—the highest level of management support at the agency. His team
has also moved completely to agile project management methodologies,
virtualized 1,000 servers that are projected to save $18 million in
2008, and empowered frontline CIA employees to ask for, decide on and
employ new IT tools.
In 2007, Tarasiuk’s team was finally able to the replace the CIA’s main
information-handling system, which was severely outdated and lacked the
basic functionalities found in 1990s-era e-mail systems, with a more
modern and user-friendly system called Trident.
In the process, Tarasiuk has tried to revitalize IT’s image within CIA
to match what’s necessary today, “to be seen an as enabler of mission
and not just a technology shop that’s delivering a desktop,” he says.
One thing I know from first-hand experience is that Al is a model of a CIO all enterprise technologists could/should learn from.
Related Reading:
Former CIA Officer Richards J. Heuer
What the CIA is up to, with CTO, Gus Hunt
Admiral Stavridis: Think, Read, Write and Publish, and Blog Too
