The General Services Administration and the Department of Education launched a new information technology acquisition guide, according to an article in CIO.gov published Wednesday.

The Technology Business Management Playbook will assist agencies in various IT implementation issues such as compliance reporting, cost transparency, business strategy development and initiatives for innovation. Jason Gray, chief information officer at the Department of Education and David Shive, CIO for the GSA explained the guide’s purpose.

“We want to be able to take the lessons learned and take the issue areas that we solved and share those playbooks and learnings with other agencies,” Shive said.

The guide covers steps for IT deployment including identifying key stakeholders, determining the agency’s current state, targeting measurable desired outcomes, collating the agency’s current IT data, assessing insights and implementing and developing the TBM framework.

“Working with GSA has allowed us to build off of our experience with TBM and helped each other move forward faster with implementation,” Gray said.

The two agencies created the playbook in line with IT spending transparency objectives outlined in the president’s Management Agenda Cross Agency Priority.

The Department of Labor announced the creation of a new position that will help monitor the agency’s governance architecture.

The chief data officer will report to the office of the assistant secretary for policy and will supervise a newly established data board, the department said Wednesday.

“The CDO will serve as chair of the data board as we transform our data infrastructure and capacity to achieve our goal of evidence-based policymaking,” said Alexander Acosta, secretary of labor.

The agency’s data board will provide data oversight recommendations and coordinate data-sharing initiatives and department-wide posts on data and standards management, strategy and execution consistent with governance guidelines provided by the Office of Management and Budget and Congress.

Creation of the new position and the board follows the enactment of the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act, a law which requires agency heads to assign a non-political employee as chief data officer. 

The Department of Defense plans to test ground-based cruise missiles in August as the U.S. moves to renounce its commitment to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, Reuters reported Thursday. The potential withdrawal would occur if Russia does not cease from committing what the U.S. considers violations to the treaty.

The ground-launched cruise missile could enter service in 18 months, depending on the test results. Production of the cruise missile’s components is set to begin. A senior U.S. official said an intermediate-range ballistic missile test would follow in November. The tests would not be nuclear.

The treaty mandates that the U.S. and Russia end their use of land-based, medium-range missiles.

Heather Wilson, secretary of The U.S. Air Force’s Secretary and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, and David Goldfein, the chief of staff, told senators that the service’s proposed $165B fiscal 2020 budget will cover expansion of its operational squadrons, the branch said Wednesday.

Wilson and Goldfein testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the Air Force’s proposed budget will cover additional F-35A, F-15EX and KC-46A aircraft as part of the service’s long-term goal of increasing its squadrons from 312 to 386.

Senators asked Wislon and Goldfein to address maintenance efforts at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, the additional KC-46 tankers to be acquired next year, USAF activities in the Arctic and the potential impact to the service following President Trump’s proposal to redirect funds for a border wall.

Wilson noted that the Air Force has not identified which projects would be affected by the border wall proposal. Other Air Force issues that the proposed budget will address include the need to deter Chinese and Russian threats and continued efforts to restore readiness with “special attention on training, maintenance, spare parts and flying hours.”

NASA Administrator and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Jim Bridenstine testified during a Senate hearing that the agency plans to use a commercial rocket to launch the Orion crew capsule for a three-week mission to the Moon, The Verge reported Wednesday.

Exploration Mission 1 was intended to be the debut launch of NASA’s Space Launch System, but has been continually delayed and was recently scheduled for a June 2020 launch. NASA officials are reconsidering the 2020 launch date due to preparation issues. NASA plans to have two launches for EM-1 using two heavy-lift vehicles developed by the private sector. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy are the two U.S. heavy-lift platforms with the capacity to send large cargo into orbit.

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.