The Professional Services Council has released a report that details the roles and responsibilities of federal chief technology officers and offers recommendations on priorities for government CTOs.
PSC said Tuesday the report is based on a study led by Robin Lineberger, principal at Deloitte, and Casey Coleman, group vice president for federal civilian agencies at Unisys.
The report categorized federal CTOs’ responsibilities in six areas and these include their roles in innovation, involvement in management of enterprise architecture and data usage, strategic positioning and technology workforce development, and their responsibility to facilitate technology-related collaboration.
PSC recommended that federal agencies should appoint a CTO that will work to deliver innovation and collaborate with the agency chief information officer.
“With the right job description and organizational placement, the CTO position can be leveraged as the change agent to bring innovation and new technologies into government,†said Lineberger, who also co-chairs PSC’s innovation committee with Coleman.
“If we expect agencies to adapt to the rapid pace of technological change, CTOs will have to be in the vanguard of delivering new solutions and approaches,†Coleman said.
The document also suggested the establishment of a CTO council that will facilitate sharing of best practices among agencies, creation of legislation that aims to authorize agency CTOs as innovation agents and the need to move the U.S. CTO position from the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy to the Office of Management and Budget.
“By moving the position to OMB and aligning it with the federal CIO, the U.S. CTO’s agenda will remain aligned with the broader set of federal IT priorities and the U.S. CTO will also be able to leverage the staff, reach and authorities of the federal CIO,†the report noted.
