“The new chief information officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs laid out his vision for enhanced information technology management and expanded collaboration with the contracting community in his first congressional testimony since he was confirmed to the role by the Senate in December.”
“Kurt DelBene, a former longtime senior executive at Microsoft who previously served as senior adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, was tapped by the Biden administration to serve as CIO for the department late last year. This week, he told lawmakers he plans to act as a change-agent and lead a department-wide digital transformation, modernizing its IT systems and improving internal software development offerings, including low-code and no-code solutions.”
“‘In this work, we need to consider a number of questions including: how we can best do software and services development in an environment of heavy outsourcing to external contractors,’ DelBene told the Subcommittee on Technology Modernization (Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on technology modernization.”
“The VA received a C+ score on the latest FITARA scorecard, maintaining the grade after dropping from a B+ in 2020, in part due to its low marks on the categories of ‘cyber’ and ‘modernizing government technology.'”
“The CIO said all of the areas assessed in the scorecard are important benchmarks, but added that he was committed to “driving an agenda” which improves the department’s overall IT management rather than meeting certain marks during the next evaluation…” Read the full article here.
Source: New VA CIO talks digital transformation – By Chris Riotta, February 10, 2022. FCW.
