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Experts in the industry have said that more open data and better use of that data will allow agencies to change the way they approach their work, helping to move beyond a compliance and process mindset to one focused on outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Small Business Administration, which essentially doles out loans and certifications for a myriad of small businesses, started a data community practice 18 months ago where employees who work with data meet and find commonalities in data they collect. It can be as simple as identifying overlap in names of businesses and addresses, said Maria Roat, CIO of the SBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere data has been very siloed across program offices, we\u2019re trying to open up that aperture … so that people can look across the agency and use data and access it from different parts of the organization,\u201d Roat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The data strategy includes several standards for changing data use in federal agencies, such as governance through data councils and facilitating interagency data sharing. Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government, pointed to opportunities for agencies that collect similar data to standardize how they interact with data users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor example, Education and Labor and HHS and the VA all have education programs, and they could have agencies work on a data strategy by mission area. Or you can do something around natural resources with the EPA, or the Department of Interior, or Agriculture,\u201d Chenok said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mona Siddiqui, the CDO at the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that harnessing the agency\u2019s data has \u201cproduced significant gains in operational efficiency and effectiveness already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDecisionmakers across HHS are using tools and analyses created by data scientists and analysts to uncover new insights and access information that is more up to date, accurate and complete,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How will the day-to-day change?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms of how the data strategy will change federal employees\u2019 day-to-day jobs, Wiseman said that it depends on the level of government in which employees work. At the leadership level, \u201cit should make big change.\u201d Similarly, mid-level managers\u2019 jobs will shift, as well. But for employees that directly work with agency customers, their jobs won\u2019t change drastically. In fact, their jobs should become easier with increased use of data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cData analytics might optimize the process by which I do my work, but I don\u2019t have to be the one that runs the algorithm. I can just be told, \u2018Oh, this is a better way for us to do the process based on this algorithm,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cSo, there are a lot of jobs where the worker doesn\u2019t have to be able to analyze data, but their work can be made easier through data.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Park rangers, she noted, are an excellent example of how jobs could change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWould I need to know how to do big data analytics to be a park ranger? No,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if I\u2019m the head of the National Park Service, I should be able to use data analytics to optimally deploy my resources.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data about how often people show up at ranger talks can determine staffing, for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut the ranger doesn\u2019t have to be the one making that decision,\u201d Wiseman said. \u201cThe manager in charge [does].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Action three and action nine of the Federal Data Strategy\u2019s draft one-year action plan call for development of government\u2019s use of artificial intelligence. At the DLA, use of emerging technologies has allowed employees to better their use of data \u2014 to derive new insights, said Smith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the SBA has had a similar experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re putting the tools in the hands of the users,\u201d Roat said. \u201cWe\u2019re teaching them how to fish.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, also have the potential to remove tedious, time-intensive analysis. AI, specifically, will allow employees to search databases less and do critical thinking more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAgencies can spend more time delivering services to constituents and less time figuring out who\u2019s on the first part of a question,\u201d Chenok said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Returning to Estonia, the country stands again as an example of success, having deployed both AI and automation to increase its government\u2019s efficiency. Koch said that technology can be a \u201cliberation from rather dull, repetitive tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At HHS, staff use AI to optimize pairing of grant applicants with potential funding opportunities and identify experts in the scientific and professional communities, according to Siddiqui. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The challenges<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Estonians provide briefings to groups of foreigners, both in the private and public sector, about their digital transformation. And Estonia is a small country, so Koch said that it recognizes that the Estonian model isn\u2019t a one-size-fits-all; however, it is scalable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There needs to be a mandate or the will in the administration itself through an understanding that efforts can actually make lives easier, Koch said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emerging technology has helped improve government functions, but it hasn\u2019t necessarily made jobs easier at DLA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s given us more insights and more capabilities, but a lot of these tools and advanced capabilities come with additional skillsets that we need to hone. So, I would be hesitant to say that it would make everybody\u2019s job easier,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The draft data strategy action plan calls for agencies to identify critical data skills required to support high-quality analysis and evaluation, data management and privacy protection, while also emphasizing a workforce with adequate knowledge of data security practices and data skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that can be easier said than done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGetting everyone across the organization comfortable using the data, is a critical piece of a successfully data strategy,\u201d said Heather Gittings, senior director of public sector and health care at Qlik, a data visualization company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a forum on the data strategy last month, several industry leaders stressed the importance of training employees and culture change, and changing the culture in agencies in particular could be a significant challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomeone who\u2019s in for 25 years, they\u2019ve seen these things come and go,\u201d Wiseman said. \u201cAnd they just wait you out. So my implementation fear is that people will think, \u2018Oh, this data thing, it\u2019s just some fad. I\u2019ll pay it lip service and if I wait long enough, it will go away.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what then is the best way to convince people that data can improve their jobs? Show them how it does, several people interviewed for this story said. You can walk around telling people data is good all day long, Wiseman said, \u201dbut when you can show them real results \u2026 that is, I think, how you convince people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And \u201cmotivated leadership\u201d will be a vital aspect of successfully overcoming the culture, Smith said, adding that the DLA is very fortunate that it has buy-in from its leadership on the importance of data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCDOs have a really central role to play in articulating the value proposition of what they\u2019re trying to do \u2014 not just to federal employees, but also more broadly to the American public,\u201d Hart said. \u201cTo the extent that we\u2019re able to demonstrate the actual value of data and the benefit of better using data, the more likely we are to sustain the culture over time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was one challenge that NYU professor Julia Lane said she ran into when she worked on the United Kingdom\u2019s Administrative Data Research Network, which was an effort by the UK government to make administrative data more accessible for researchers working to tackle societal issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s most important to have an engagement strategy,\u201d Lane said. \u201cGet agencies to figure out what the value is to being involved in an activity like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge that could hamper implementation of the data strategy will be agencies receiving proper resources for their work. The Evidence Act, which mandated numerous actions agencies must take regarding data, provided statutes built upon by the Federal Data Strategy. The bill was an authorization bill and did not provide any federal monies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the Trump administration hasn\u2019t shied away from proposing stringent budget cuts, either. In the 2020 budget proposal, the administration wanted to cut budgets of 10 Cabinet agencies by over 10 percent, according to analysis from the Washington Post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOver the next year, without a doubt, some agencies are going to need additional financial resources to support the staff to get the work done,\u201d Hart said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the next budget cycle, Hart said, there needs to be a \u201cmeaningful conversation\u201d with Congress and the administration about making those resources available. To mitigate what Hart called \u201cthe greatest risk\u201d to the whole plan, he said agency leaders need to be frank with OMB about the money they need, Congress needs to ask agencies what they need, and industry needs to recognize the gaps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf in year one, we don\u2019t adequately support agencies with the resources to implement the guidance from OMB, the data strategy or the Evidence Act, changing the culture and ensuring that we\u2019re meaningfully getting people to collaborate about the topic of data may not actually happen,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is going to take weeks, months, years to fully implement, but we have to start making improvements now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The way government operates is changing in a world that is driven by data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":60311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,106,31,15,110,14,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3242],"class_list":["post-19597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-it-cloud-report","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4EHG6RDNQZAM7LUQEZEGI6TKN4","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2019\/09\/13\/how-a-new-federal-strategy-will-help-government-fuel-its-mission\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n