Gene Dodaro, U.S. comptroller general and head of the Government Accountability Office, said federal chief financial officers seeking to improve the state of information technology programs within their agencies should prioritize legacy IT systems, examine the results of audits into such systems and work with agency chief information officers.
Dodaro told Deloitte in an interview published Friday on The Wall Street Journal that federal CFOs should collaborate with CIOs to come up with an enterprise architecture that employs a systems integration framework.
“A close working relationship between CFOs and CIOs is critical; it will help the CFO set funding and investment priorities and put in place a monitoring program to oversee ongoing IT investments,” he noted.
Dodaro said CFOs should begin establishing priorities once they fully understand the IT needs of their agencies and examine the skills needed for Agile development.
“GAO issued an Agile project guide schedule that can help CFOs and CIOs institute leading practices, including guides on estimating costs and setting necessary requirements for new systems,” he noted.
Dodaro shared his views on the Department of the Treasury’s shared services approach and his insights on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act and how FITARA helps agencies manage their software licenses and advance use of incremental software development.
