Federal CIO Kundra Reveals IT Reform Plan

As part of a continued effort to enact sweeping IT reform across the federal government, U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra Thursday unveiled a 25-point plan of execution for how it will be done.

The plans include a service for federal agencies similar to the Open Table restaurant-reservation system so they can order IT capacity from each other's data centers; a best-practices portal for sharing project management successes government-wide; and a technology fellows program so IT experts from the private sector can take temporary positions with the federal government to share their knowledge.

The 25 points of the execution plan, which is available online, are specific action items for five previously stated goals for changing the grossly inefficient way feds have been deploying IT for more than a decade, Kundra and Office of Management and Budget director Jeffrey Zients said in a White House press conference Thursday.

Those goals, which Zients announced in November, are: applying light technology and shared services; aligning the budget and acquisitions process with the technology cycle; strengthening program management; streamlining government and increasing accountability; and increasing engagement with the IT community.