Project Management

Federal Eye: Obama dodges question on government contracting

Very few people really understand the complexities of government contracting, so perhaps it’s no surprise that President Obama dodged a very specific question Thursday morning about the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program. As The Eye has reported before, the program is designed to ensure that minority-owned small businesses — especially Native American-owned shopsRead… Read more »

This is the second of a two-part post about Software as a Service (SaaS) for performance management. In the first part I provided an introduction to SaaS, defined what it is and touched on some of its applications to performance management. In this second part I’ll detail the various benefits of SaaS including but notRead… Read more »

Acquisition Reform Should Include Protest Actions

From The Acquisition Corner Recent reporting by Federal Computer Week (FCW) highlights an issue that is not being addressed by acquisition reform initiatives; reforming the contract protest process. Writing in the Editor’s Notebook blog at Washington Technology, Nick Wakeman discusses the protest by Unisys and General Dynamics of TSA’s contract award to Computer Sciences CorpRead… Read more »

What airline passengers need to know about TSA’s Secure Flight program

If you’re a regular reader of The New York Times, you may be a bit concerned about flying. More specifically, about being able to get on an airplane once the new federal initiative called Secure Flight kicks in. According to Joe Sharkey, blogging in The Times, Secure Flight “requires that the name on the IDRead… Read more »

Soft Skills – Solid Results

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” – Rollo May Effective communication is a cornerstone of any transformation project. It is basic Transformation fuel. Without effective, people-centered communication, our Transformation efforts will sputter, lurch, and eventually grind to a halt. I recently sent an email to a number of friendsRead… Read more »

Software as a Service (SaaS) for Performance Management – Part 1

This is the first of a two-part post about Software as a Service (SaaS) for performance management. In the first part I’ll provide an introduction to SaaS, define what it is and touch on some of its applications to performance management. In the second part I’ll detail the various benefits of SaaS including but notRead… Read more »

A better question than “what’s the business case for Gov2.0?”

Don’t ask how do I make the business case for Gov2.0?”; tell us about your agency’s relationships, and the case will become obvious. Imagine that you’re a savvy Federal staffer in US Defense Military Health System Program. You’re excited by what the US Patent Office accomplished with its Peer to Patent program, eager to copyRead… Read more »

Agreeable to Disagreement

Students of leadership may recall a clever quotation from George S. Patton: No one is thinking if everyone is thinking alike. Although disagreements in the workplace can sometimes create emotionally charged situations, thoughtful disagreement can be quite constructive when managed appropriately. Many leaders have found success by not trying to prevent disagreement but rather byRead… Read more »

NSPS discusses what’s next as controversial pay-for-performance system ends

Federal News Radio spoke with Tim Curry, the Acting Program Executive Officer of the National Security Personnel System. Curry recently took over after the departure of Brad Bunn. We asked him what comes next as the Department of Defense gets ready to transition out of NSPS. “What we’re looking at is trying to take theRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: New stimulus reports correct early errors

More than 131,000 progress reports on stimulus funding will be posted Friday on Recovery.gov, the government’s stimulus-tracking Web site. Much of the data will include corrections to the first version of reports filed by fund recipients earlier this month. Several early reports overstated the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, accordingRead… Read more »